Proceedings of the 12th European Conference on Knowledge ...

Knowledge Management Assessment <strong>of</strong> Khorasan Razavi
Gas Company; Viewpoint <strong>of</strong> Employees
Farnaz Rahimi 1 and Mohamad Ebrahim Maroosi 2
1
School <strong>of</strong> Social Science and Economy, Alzahra University, Tehran, Iran,
Department <strong>of</strong> Contract, Gas company, Mashhad, Iran
2
Tarbiyat Moalem University, Mashhad, Iran
farnaz12200@yahoo.com
maroosi_m@yahoo.com
Abstract: The purpose <strong>of</strong> this study is to better understand knowledge levels from <strong>the</strong> view point <strong>of</strong> employees in
Khorasan Razavi Gas Company. This understanding can help managers to plan more accurate about <strong>the</strong>
knowledge management. Awareness <strong>of</strong> Current knowledge in an organization can support <strong>the</strong> decision making
process. It is only in recent years that knowledge has taken more seriously. This no doubt resulted from a poor
awareness <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> level <strong>of</strong> existing knowledge in organization. In this paper using a survey questionnaire, we
tested 5 factors from <strong>the</strong> view point <strong>of</strong> employees to assess KM level in Khorasan Razavi Gas Company
(knowledge management process, leadership support, organizational culture, and technological infrastructure
and KM measurement). We found that from <strong>the</strong> viewpoint <strong>of</strong> employees KM is not in a in a suitable level. This
can be a warning for KM planers in <strong>the</strong> organization.
Keywords: Knowledge management .knowledge management process, leadership support, organizational
culture, technological infrastructure .KM measurement
1. Literature review
1.1 What is knowledge?
In <strong>the</strong> traditional economy, knowledge was seen as unrelated to <strong>the</strong> economic process (uitBeijerse,
1999).Tangible assets such as land, labour, capital natural resources were seen as <strong>the</strong> main
production factors.
From <strong>the</strong> beginning <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> 1990s, Knowledge has been considered as an important source <strong>of</strong>
competitive advantage and value creation (King and Zei thalm, 2003)
Knowledge is untouchable, it will not loss any because <strong>of</strong> share by many people. On <strong>the</strong> contrary, <strong>the</strong>
value <strong>of</strong> knowledge will be more important with <strong>the</strong> greater <strong>the</strong> scope <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> role.
The distinctions between data, information and knowledge have <strong>of</strong>ten been made in <strong>the</strong> literature
(Alavi &Leidner 2001; Beckman, 1999; Bhatt 2001;Clarke& Rollo,2001) Data are merely raw objective
facts ,while information is considered as structured and organized data. Knowledge can be
conceptualized as meaningful and value added information which has been filtered by human minds.
When <strong>the</strong>y (i.e. data, information and knowledge) are arranged in a single continuum, knowledge has
<strong>the</strong> highest value, <strong>the</strong> greatest relevance to decisions and actions, <strong>the</strong> greatest dependence on
context, and requires <strong>the</strong> maximum amount <strong>of</strong> human involvement (Grover & Davenport 2001).
There are many definitions <strong>of</strong> knowledge (Hildreth &Kimble 2002) knowledge is viewed as <strong>the</strong> set <strong>of</strong>
justified beliefs that enhance an entity's ability for effective action (Alavi and Leidner 2001,Nonaka
1994).The emphasis <strong>of</strong> this definition lies in <strong>the</strong> role <strong>of</strong> knowledge in guiding future action <strong>of</strong> an
individual , a group or an organization .Davenport and Prusak (1998) defined knowledge as a fluid mix
<strong>of</strong> framed experience , values , contextual information and exert insight that provides a framework for
evaluating and new experiences and information.( .Davenport and Prusak1998.p.5)
Organizational knowledge is stored in <strong>the</strong> organizations procedures, norms, rules and forms (March
1991).
Tow interdependent dimensions <strong>of</strong> knowledge are tacit knowledge and explicit knowledge (Alavi and
Leidner 2001; Nonaka 1994).Tacit knowledge is rooted in individual's experiences, beliefs and
involvement in a specific context. It is a product <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> interplay between two elements: <strong>the</strong> cognitive
element and <strong>the</strong> technical element (Nonaka 1994).The cognitive element refers to a persons mental
models that consist <strong>of</strong> mental maps , beliefs , paradigm and viewpoints (Alavi and Leidner 2001).The
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