Investigating the effect of organizational ethical climate on knowledge management in the Organization of Economic and Financial Affairs and the General Administration of Fiscal Affairs of Gilan Province

)Introduction

Nowadays, knowledge is increasingly considered as the most important strategic asset of organizations, and an important resource for achieving sustainable competitive advantage. Davenport and Prasak [1] (1998) consider knowledge as a combination of experiences, values, evidence-based information and expert opinions that provide a framework for evaluating new experiences and information (Siakas, et al., 2010)). For the first time in 1986, Wiig[2] mentioned knowledge management in his book, but before him, Peter Drucker[3] and others implicitly heralded the emergence of this phenomenon. On the other hand, in the last two decades, extensive researches have investigated the ethical climate of the organization (Rosenblatt & Shapira, 2010). The ethical climate is actually a part of the organizational culture.  The ethical climate of the organization can predict the ethical and unethical behavior of the employees (Nadi and Hazaghi, 2013). One of the variables that can be predicted by the ethical climate of the organization is knowledge management (Tseng & Fan, 2011). On the other hand, the Organization of Economic and Financial Affairs and the General Administration of Tax Affairs, as one of the government organizations that has many clients and the organization itself has a very wide role in the country's economy, can identify variables that affect knowledge management and use This process seeks to increase organizational efficiency and effectiveness, so this research seeks to investigate the relationship between the prevailing moral climate in the organization and knowledge management. In the first chapter of the research, the general aspects of the research will be discussed. Statement of the problem, importance and necessity of research, research objectives, theoretical framework and hypotheses are the main parts of this chapter. Conceptual and operational definitions and the subject area, time and place of research are among the other cases that have been discussed in this chapter.

1-2) Statement of the problem

Since 1990, the development of scientific economy has emerged as an important strategy of organizations to increase their performance and benefits. In the past, organizations have paid special attention to physical assets such as natural resources, mechanical equipment, laboratories along with financial capital and have evaluated the quantifiable incomes that are potentially accessible. Contrary to the inevitable erosion of physical resources, knowledge is considered as an intangible capital that can be created, shared and acquired among people and reused and applied. (Tseng & Fan, 2011) Knowledge is a structured combination of experiences, values, meaningful information and skillful insight that provides a framework for evaluating and recording new experiences and information. Knowledge necessarily originates from an individual's ideas, insights, techniques, and skills, and is expressed in an explicit and codified manner. Therefore, knowledge is usually considered a public asset that belongs to and is held by the organization. (Zahidul Islam, md, 2011) In recent years, knowledge management has been used as a necessary strategy to develop the creation of organizational intellectual capital (Chen & Huang, 2010). The intellectual capital of the organization can be used both individually and collectively in the process of creating, storing, dividing, acquiring and applying individual and organizational knowledge. But some organizations only focus on developing Public interests are focused, despite the concerns of the individual's selfishness or the possibility of risk. Organizational knowledge management initiative is basically focused on facilitating the exchange of knowledge with others and the development of common knowledge in the organization. Debra, W. Sherril, 2008) (Knowledge management strategies in an organization accelerate collective learning, increase competitiveness in rapidly changing markets, and provide greater customer satisfaction. Successful knowledge management is expected to increase organizational competitiveness, productivity, innovation and accountability in the organization.In order to increase profits from innovation and competitive advantages, more and more organizations turn to exploiting and maintaining their collective intellectual capital along with fostering joint work and training among organizational employees (Bavorsad et al., 2019). Different individual and group views towards knowledge management inevitably lead to ethical conflicts and ethical culture in the organization. Therefore, one of the most important challenges faced by today's organizations is the effective management of this resource (Tseng & Fan, 2011). (Zahidul Islam, MD, 2011). Tseng and Fan defined participation in the knowledge management process as a person's attitude towards the extent to which they participate in the organization's knowledge management activities, and knowledge management satisfaction system (Kms) is defined as a person's conceptual evaluation of the consequences of knowledge with regard to the adequacy and possibility of accessing knowledge to perform tasks. A knowledge management satisfaction system (KMS) can increase the competitiveness of organizations by facilitating, storing, retrieving and applying knowledge, which is expected to be performed automatically by adopting KMS). In addition to the view that collective knowledge is a simple combination of private knowledge of individuals, knowledge also has a place in social practice. Alavi et al. suggest that a Kms can be considered as an organizational cultural product that may be affected by existing organizational values ??or reshape a new set of values ??related to knowledge management, and finally, this satisfaction with the knowledge management system will bring results and consequences for the organization, which usually include: advanced ability of the organization to create new products and services, coherent and advanced coordination of employees and different units, advanced skills of employees and better decision making. On the other hand, different factors can affect knowledge management, one of which is the organization's moral climate. In addition, Buchner[4] and Donken[5] emphasize that ethical issues in an organization are necessary for knowledge management initiatives to minimize the ownership of conflicts or conflicts, as well as to strengthen the criteria for acquiring, storing, using, and sharing knowledge (Teseng & Fan, 2011. The concept of organizational ethical climate is related to more general structures such as organizational climate and organizational culture (Khorshid and Mohseni, 2019). Organizational culture is in the form of hypotheses, values, and primary products. It has been identified that it is the foundation of organizational structures, actions, policies and processes (Teseng & Fan, 2011). While the ethical climate of the organization refers to the attitudes of the employees of the organization that through the process of interpersonal interaction and vicarious observation, the ethical climate affects the employees of the organization to learn appropriate and acceptable behaviors (Khorshid and Mohseni, 2019). Due to the abstract nature of the culture, the ethical climate of the organization is a more practical way to present personal feelings about a value. An organization is an authentic system and motivational policies. The moral climate of an organization includes patterns that guide the behavior of employees and show the moral characteristics of each organization (Nadi and Hazeghi, 2010). The moral climate of an organization is defined by the attitude of a person towards the instructions, policies and ethical behaviors in the organization. The moral climate of the organization affects the way that the employees of the organization should behave and act, and it also reflects the common beliefs and values ??and can shape the behavior of the organization's employees. They guide in determining the right or wrong choice of work and improve the organization's work performance and employee satisfaction. Organizational ethics is positively related to the judgment, intention and ethical behavior of employees in their organizations and when they devote their attention to ethical actions and follow ethical activities. Although knowledge management can penetrate organizational effects and support them, it is not expected to replace the employees of the organization, who propose ideas and innovations from themselves in their daily activities (Teseng & Fan, 2011. The reason for choosing the research topic is because knowledge is usually considered as a private property, employees are likely to lose their valuable intellectual capital and benefits in the organization, if it are afraid to share with other members of the organization. Therefore, there may be incompatibility between private intellectual capital and collective knowledge in an organization (Aedichvili et al, 2003).