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

Seyed Esmaeil Asgharpour and Gholamreza Taleghani
4.1 Knowledge management and human resources management:
It has been fully accepted that successful implementation <strong>of</strong> knowledge management requires
interaction <strong>of</strong> knowledge and human resources management.
4.1.1 Critical success factors:
Any activity factor which is necessary for success <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> organization in future is called success factor.
Critical success factors can be defined as those issues which are seemed important to <strong>the</strong>
organization with regard to its present and future performance. These factors may be changed over
time. Success factors can include some subjects such as quality <strong>of</strong> product, attitude <strong>of</strong> staff or flexible
production.
Word ''critical '' has different meanings such as ''important'', ''key'', ''determining '', ''fundamental'' ,
''strategic '', ''alarming '' and ''anxious '' but we mean generally any factor which has undeniable role in
access <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> organization to success. The organization will fail in case <strong>of</strong> lack <strong>of</strong> access to its related
goals. Term'' critical factors <strong>of</strong> success'' was proposed by R.H. Daniel for <strong>the</strong> first time in educational
organizations and <strong>the</strong>n accepted by F.Rockert and gradually applied in non-educational organizations
(Morrison 2010).
Application <strong>of</strong> effective knowledge management is one <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> most important factors under
competitive conditions and in wisdom era. This subject is so important that many organizations
measure <strong>the</strong> available knowledge and reflect it as intellectual capital <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> organization as well as
index for ranking organizations in <strong>the</strong>ir reports. These institutes regard settlement <strong>of</strong> knowledge
management in <strong>the</strong> organization as part <strong>of</strong> organizational strategy (Jafari Moghadam 2004).
Regarding to <strong>the</strong> critical factors <strong>of</strong> success in knowledge management, many beliefs have been
expressed and different classifications have been provided .They can be classified into five groups
(Mousavinejad 2009):
Leadership
Culture
Structure , role and responsibilities
Substructures <strong>of</strong> information technology
Testing result
A: leadership: undoubtedly, leadership plays a major role in success <strong>of</strong> each activity in an
organization. This role is very important for knowledge management due to newness <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> subject. In
organizations, no factor can be more effective than senior management attitude in supporting <strong>the</strong>
success <strong>of</strong> that special activity. Although supporting senior management plays key role in success <strong>of</strong>
actions <strong>of</strong> an organization.
B: culture: culture is a set <strong>of</strong> common history, expectations, unwritten regulations and social habits
which have effect on behavior <strong>of</strong> persons. Culture is composed <strong>of</strong> fundamental beliefs which are
important in understanding activities and communication <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> personnel, though unwritten.
If <strong>the</strong>re is tendency to knowledge sharing in your organization, knowledge sharing will be simpler.
Most people tend to share knowledge. They like to let o<strong>the</strong>rs know <strong>the</strong>ir knowledge.
C: structure, role, responsibility: although <strong>the</strong>re are different methods for founding knowledge
management, American Productivity and Quality Center has applied common method in all
organizations with <strong>the</strong> best practice: a directing committee, a knowledge management supporting
group, consultants and owners <strong>of</strong> company.
Directing committee is composed <strong>of</strong> high rank managers <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> organization whose duties are
promotion <strong>of</strong> concept, support and provision <strong>of</strong> necessary guidance. Supporting group is composed <strong>of</strong>
three or four persons aiming at supporting <strong>the</strong> implemented knowledge management plans.
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