Master's Thesis in Business Management, Insurance Orientation
Abstract
In an age where the economy revolves around knowledge, knowledge is considered as a vital factor in maintaining a sustainable competitive advantage in organizations. Today, the art of management in organizations is becoming the art of "knowledge management", and leadership means providing the right conditions for the production of valuable knowledge through the thinking of human resources and doing this in a way that encourages people to take personal responsibility. The leadership factor plays a key role in the successful implementation of knowledge management in organizations, therefore, in this research, the relationship between knowledge management and leadership style was investigated, as well as the explanation of the leadership style that enables knowledge management. The statistical population of this research is the employees of Iran Export Guarantee Fund. The current research is based on the practical purpose and in terms of nature and method, it is a descriptive and correlational research. To investigate the relationship between variables, regression analysis based on spss software and factor analysis and structural equation modeling based on variance based on pls software were used. In line with research assumptions, correlation coefficients show that there is a positive and significant relationship between transformational and exchange leadership styles with knowledge management, and in the case of non-interventionist leadership style, the significance of the relationship between this variable and the knowledge management variable was not confirmed. Finally, the exchange leadership style was identified as the empowering leadership style of knowledge management in this organization. Key words: knowledge management, knowledge leadership, transformative leadership, exchange leadership, non-interventionist leadership. Research
Examination of models and theories related to research variables
Statement of research propositions
The Holy Prophet (peace be upon him and his family and peace be upon him) said:
Four things are necessary for those who have wisdom among my Ummah:
Hear knowledge, retain it, spread it and apply it.
Kanz al-Ammal: 29232
Presentation of the general research methodology
Introduction of research steps and roadmap
Introduction of data collection and analysis method
1-1 Introduction
In today's dynamic world, organizations are constantly looking for a way to adapt to new conditions that prepare them for survival in a competitive environment. The growth of knowledge-based economy emphasizes the value of information that creates a competitive advantage, this information helps companies to use their knowledge capitals in the past and act more effectively in the future. In such a situation of today's world, it is not strange that concepts such as knowledge management emerged as one of the most popular perspectives of strategic change management in the early 21st century. For modern organizations, knowledge is a strategic resource that must be created in order to survive and maintain a competitive advantage (Hung et al, 2010). Drucker (1993) proposed knowledge, along with capital and labor, as the only significant economic resource in knowledge societies. Therefore, focusing on knowledge and knowledge management is the basic need of organizations. Organizations that are successful in the field of knowledge management tend to consider knowledge as an asset and develop organizational values ??and norms that support the creation and sharing of knowledge (Keran et al, 2013). Knowledge is a key resource for achieving sustainable competitive advantage. In response to the fiercely competitive environments, many organizations have turned to better use and management of knowledge in the organization for the success of their business (Wu, 2012). Knowledge management facilitates the maintenance and distribution of knowledge in an organization in order to achieve a competitive advantage. In other words, knowledge management is a broad concept that expresses all the processes through which the organization expands knowledge, which includes: acquisition, maintenance and storage, distribution, sharing and application of knowledge in an organization (Keran et al, 2013). Knowledge management does not take place in the organization by itself. Implementation of knowledge management programs requires leadership and effective management of knowledge at all organizational levels. In an organization where the concept of knowledge leadership has been realized, knowledge is considered as a strategic resource of the organization, and for the management of this valuable resource, a codified strategic plan has been developed based on the vision and knowledge management of the organization (Abtahi and Salvati, 2015).
2-1 Statement of the problem
In the knowledge-based economy, knowledge as a key factor plays the role of an internal driver for economic growth and development. Today, the art of management in organizations is becoming the art of "knowledge management", which means that a manager does not just manage people, but also manages their knowledge, and leadership means providing suitable conditions for the production of valuable knowledge through the thinking of human resources and doing this in a way that encourages people to take personal responsibility (Hasnavi, Akhvan, Sanjaghi, 2019). Leadership is one of the basic necessities to carry out the activities of many organizations today, and at the same time it plays a key role in the success of the knowledge management system, because leaders are role models whose behaviors are imitated for knowledge management (Wong, 2005). In addition, other leadership capabilities that are important include ordering work changes, conveying the importance of knowledge management to employees, helping to maintain their morale, and creating a culture that facilitates the creation and sharing of knowledge (Lingbo & Kaichao, 2012). The basic issue in many organizations is to ignore this important dimension in taking actions related to knowledge management, which leads to the reduction of the efficiency of these actions, even though the choice of the appropriate leadership style can act as an enabling factor of knowledge management, neglecting this issue and the lack of compatibility of the leadership style in the organization with the vital principles of knowledge management can be an obstacle to the successful implementation of knowledge management. Therefore, one of the basic issues in today's organizations, including Iran's Export Guarantee Fund, is to explain and determine the style of leadership in harmony with the basic frameworks of knowledge management. Therefore, the main question in this research is which leadership style is more effective in improving the knowledge management process in Iran's export guarantee fund? 3-1 Importance and necessity of the topic The success factor of organizations in the information age and also in the competitive scenes before them is moving towards knowledge-oriented and consequently using the knowledge management system in the organization. Of course, considering that knowledge and information are scattered throughout the organization and are not recognizable to everyone, and considering the urgent need of employees for this knowledge and information and their use for progress and competition, and also because managing knowledge in the organization is more important and vital than knowledge itself, the design and implementation of a knowledge management system whose purpose is to produce, share, and expand knowledge in the organization and maintain the organization's competitive advantage seems necessary (Loyer, 2008). One of the important aspects of the successful implementation of knowledge management is the leadership style governing the organization. Since the leadership style in each organization is different from other organizations according to the type of organization and the issues governing it. Determining the leadership style that enables knowledge management is necessary in each organization separately.
On the other hand, considering the important role that the Iran Export Guarantee Fund plays through covering the commercial and political risks of exports and providing the financial resources needed by exporters in the political and economic growth of our country, as well as the knowledge-centered nature of its activities, it reveals the importance of knowledge management measures in this organization, which requires that the leadership style is appropriate to the ability of employees, which at the same time facilitates and accelerates knowledge management measures. be, determined and adopted.
Many researches have been conducted in the field of success factors of knowledge management implementation in various organizations, and in most of these researches, the leadership factor has been generally mentioned as one of the important and influencing factors on the success of knowledge management. However, in this research, the leadership styles have not been examined in detail and the leadership style that enables knowledge management has not been determined, which reveals the necessity of addressing this issue and conducting the necessary research in this field. 4-1 Research Theoretical Framework The two factors discussed in this research are leadership styles [1] and knowledge management [2], and the models used in each case are as follows: In the case of leadership style, there are various models, in this research, the multiple leadership model [3] is chosen based on the researcher's studies and because it is more recent.