An Expanded Model of the Effects of Organizational Culture upon the Acceptance of Knowledge Management

Knowledge management (KM) entails several benefits for those organizations that practice it successfully. However, the success of KM is predicated on the organization possessing a suitable corporate culture. We present a model of a generic worker’s daily pattern of behaviors and examine whether or not this behavioral pattern is or is not conducive to the ready implementation of a KM system. Next, we expand upon that model to exhibit the role of corporate culture, especially as manifested in 13 different variables. The expanded model is corroborated by using it to explain why two organizations successfully adopted KM (The World Bank, and RWD Technologies, Inc.) and why two organizations were unsuccessful in their attempts to adopt KM (The Peace Corps, and a Private University). We conclude by offering suggestions for fruitful lines of future research.