The Relationship between Organizational Culture and Knowledge Management

Abstract

Numerous studies have examined the relationship between organizational cultures; knowledge management, organizational performance and competitiveness, merely a handful of studies have examined the relationship between a specific organizational culture and knowledge management. Further, very limited research on knowledge management between and among organizations in the private universities exists. There is little research done on the relationship between organization culture and knowledge management in the private universities in Malaysia. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to gain an understanding of the relationship between organizational culture and knowledge management among employees in an academic environment. A total of 322 employees in MMU in Malaysia participated and completed the survey, comprised of 28 questionnaire items related to these two constructs. This research is quantitative survey design. Data for this study was collected using a survey combining two instruments: the Organizational Action Survey (OAS) by Johnson & Schwandt, (1998) and Harrison & Stokes organizational culture instrument (1992). The first hypotheses relationship between existing organizational culture and knowledge management among employees in the MMU at the 0.01 level has negative correlation. For hypothesis 2, the outcome showed that there was strong positive relationship between preferred organizational culture and knowledge management. For hypothesis 3, data analysis shows there is a significant relationship between age group in terms of their existing organizational culture, preferred organizational culture and knowledge management within MMU. The results of Pearson correlation showed that, there is not relationship between gender (male and female) in terms of their existing organizational culture and preferred organizational culture within MMU. But outcome illustrates that there is relationship between gender (male and female) in terms of knowledge management within MMU. However, there is a relationship between level of education in terms of their existing organizational culture and preferred organizational culture and knowledge management within MMU. The results of One-way ANOVA demonstrated that there is a significance relationship between years in university in terms of their existing organizational culture and preferred organizational culture. But the result showed that, there is no significant relationship between employees year in university in terms of their knowledge management at MMU.