Investigating the effect of knowledge management on organizational learning and creativity from the point of view of executives of Ardabil province

Dissertation for receiving a master's degree in the field of management "M.A"

Treatment: Executive (Strategic) Management

Investigation of the effect of knowledge management on learning and organizational creativity from the point of view of managers of the executive bodies of Ardabil province

Abstract

Knowledge management is one of the achievements of the information and knowledge era, and due to its characteristics, today organizations are seriously seeking to benefit from its results. The present research was conducted with the aim of investigating the effect of knowledge management on learning and organizational creativity of the executive bodies of Ardabil province. The statistical population of this research is the managers of the executive bodies of Ardabil province, and a sample of 129 people was selected by a simple random method. The data collection tool was a questionnaire and correlation analysis and multiple regression coefficient were used to analyze the data. The results of correlation analysis and multiple regression coefficient between research variables showed that knowledge management has a significant effect on organizational learning and organizational creativity. Also, the findings of the research clearly showed that organizational learning is the link between knowledge management and organizational creativity, and in this way it provides the means to improve the level of creativity.

Key words: knowledge management, organizational learning, organizational creativity

Introduction

Organizations are basically created in order to achieve goals, and the degree of success in achieving organizational goals is directly related to the way human resources work in organizations. Therefore, the evaluation of employees and their performance has an important place in human resource management. Today, knowledge is known as a key and valuable competitive asset, which is the basis of sustainable growth and the key to maintaining a lasting competitive advantage of an organization. The process of innovation is highly dependent on knowledge and knowledge management and human capital should be considered as a fundamental factor in any type of business. Both knowledge management and innovation can create value for the organization and improve organizational performance. Understanding the relationship between knowledge management and innovation and its impact on organizational performance can guarantee higher growth, efficiency and effectiveness and ultimately lead to the country's economic growth. An organization with knowledge management will use its resources more efficiently and as a result will be more innovative and perform better (Hakmat, 2013).

In addition to the above, considering the process of knowledge production and formation, it is clear that knowledge is first produced in the minds of individuals and by sharing it can become organizational knowledge, and organizational knowledge itself will be a source for the production of individual knowledge. Therefore, organizational capital lies mainly in the minds of individuals. This vital and important knowledge is provided to the organization when the employees are willing to cooperate and share knowledge, and in addition, effective measures and mechanisms are provided by the organization in this regard. With the change of job and organizational post, as well as the retirement of some employees, the valuable knowledge that is the result of years of work experience will simply be lost, and the organization will not be able to take advantage of it if it does not use effective methods of knowledge sharing. From the point of view of "Nonaka and Takeuchi", if individual knowledge is not shared with others, it will not affect the growth and expansion of existing knowledge in the organization, and new knowledge will not be produced (Ahlander et al., 2007). In the new economy, individuals and organizations place great emphasis on maintaining and improving their knowledge capital for innovation and creativity. Although knowledge management is a relatively old concept, approaching the mid-1980s and revealing the importance of knowledge and its effect on maintaining competitive power in economic markets, knowledge management became particularly important. It was in this decade that artificial intelligence-based systems and intelligent systems were used for knowledge management, and concepts such as "providing[1]", "re-engineering[2]", "knowledge-based systems[3]" and the like became popular (Latafian and Amiri, 2013). On the other hand, one of the prominent features of leading organizations, whether public or private, is creative performance in order to gain insight and correct judgment regarding the efficiency and effectiveness of their programs, processes and people. However, superior organizations do not stop at collecting and analyzing performance-related information, but instead use creative management.Nevertheless, superior organizations do not stop at collecting and analyzing information related to performance, but by using organizational creativity management, they direct improvement and successfully transform and translate strategies into concrete actions (Pervizrad, 2018). Today, organizations have realized that nothing can place them in the competitive world as much as knowledge. Therefore, more than anything, the employees of the organization have been considered as the owners of knowledge and the most important capital of the organization, and knowledge management has become important as a tool that can gather the existing knowledge, give it order and dynamics, and spread it throughout the organization. However, the experience of many companies regarding organizational learning has ended in failure, and this is because organizational learning has been viewed as a temporary and fleeting matter, and this type of thinking has permeated all organizational levels and has led to the failure of organizational learning and knowledge management programs in organizations (Habibi, 2013). While today, the need to pay attention to organizational learning as a strategic tool to advance the organization's resources and position in the field of competition is discussed. This indicates that without paying attention to the principle of organizational learning and the organization's understanding of it, it cannot be used in the organization. Therefore, it should be noted that organizational learning is a never-ending thing that always helps the organization in changes and requires constant support and attention (Saif and Kerami, 2016).

In general, it can be acknowledged that by examining and analyzing knowledge and the importance of its characteristics in the field of organizations' performance, it can be seen that having knowledge and up-to-date information has become an undeniable necessity for the survival of organizations, which passively affects all Organizational dimensions and levels affect. Especially if the process of change and evolution of knowledge in the society is carefully evaluated (Vera and Mari, 2012). The result is that today's post-industrial society is an information society in which power-increasing technologies gradually give way to knowledge-increasing technologies, and in today's dynamic and complex environment, it is necessary for organizations to continuously apply new knowledge in the form of creation, validation and application in their products and services. Therefore, management of organizations should rely on creativity and superior knowledge to make more reasonable decisions on important issues and improve performance based on creativity and knowledge, so that organizational knowledge can be managed in a coherent and integrated manner at all levels of the organization (Mamishi, 2012). Therefore, knowledge management is considered an important category that seeks to explain and clarify how to transform individual and organizational information and knowledge into individual and group knowledge and skills. Hence, creating an environment for knowledge sharing, transfer and comparison among the members of the organization is one of the primary goals that seems necessary for this purpose, because knowledge management can improve a range of characteristics of organizational performance by enabling the company to perform more intelligently (Debayt, 2017). Therefore, according to the requirements mentioned above, the present research seeks to find a suitable answer to the question of whether knowledge management has a significant effect on organizational learning and creativity from the point of view of managers of executive bodies in Ardabil province? 1 3) Importance and necessity of research Most authors have defined knowledge management as a process that finds valuable information and turns it into necessary knowledge for decision-making and action. Latti and Bierlein (2000) argue that the only sustainable competitive advantage for any company is the value it creates for its customers. The source of this value is the creation and transmission of important information from employees who are in direct contact with customers to employees who have the ability to create new and important information, and again from these employees to the first group employees for action. New information often requires creativity, and therefore creativity management is very important for most companies. Creativity is an evolving process in which organizations create and define problems and then create new knowledge to solve them. The continuous production and combination of organizational collective knowledge gives a company a special ability to perform better than others in the market (Van Bueren, 2004). Knowledge has become a critical determining factor for competitiveness in the public sector, and the executive bodies studied in this research improve their competitiveness in the current turbulent environment by managing the knowledge of their employees at organizational levels.