The Relationship Between Knowledge Management and Organizational Resilience in terms of Organizational Structure

Abstract

This study has started with the foresight that in today's world where economies are intertwined like a spiral on the international level, organic organization structures can lead organizations to become more resilient by providing more effective knowledge management. Although the effect of knowledge management on organizational resilience has been discussed in the international literature, what makes this study different from previous studies is the inclusion of organizational structure in the research. In this context, the main question of the research is whether different organizational structures have an effect on knowledge management and organizational resilience. Turkey's top 500 and second 500 industrial companies, prepared by the Istanbul Chamber of Industry, constitute the population of the research. The survey method was conducted with 246 middle or top level managers of the relevant companies. Results suggest that (i) organic organizational structures positively affect knowledge management processes (ii) knowledge management and organic organizational structures positively affect organizational resilience (iii) knowledge management partially mediates the association between organic organizational structures and organizational resilience. This paper offers new empirical evidence which bolsters the notion that organic organizational structures and knowledge management are important for optimizing organizational resilience. Moreover, the interference between organizational structure, knowledge management, and resilience has been founded which may be a base for a new theory about the survival of businesses.