Knowledge management and organizational culture in a software development enterprise
Date
2017Discipline
EconomíaKeyword(s)
Knowledge managementOrganizational Knowledge Practices
Organizational Culture
Software development enterprise
Abstract
The aim of this study was to analysis knowledge management and organizational
culture at a Spanish software development enterprise. For this purpose, two different
tasks were performed: first, analysis of knowledge management levels and
organizational culture; and second, analysis of the relationship between organizational
culture and knowledge management. The sample consisted of 196 employees between
21 and 45 years old, with 119 (61.3%) men. To achieve the objectives, adaptations of
the Organizational Knowledge Practices (OKP) questionnaire (Cortijo, & Quintanilla,
2004) and the “Organizational Culture Inventory” (OCI) were used (Cooke & Lafferty,
1987). Based on the results, it appears that the company is oriented towards a
constructive organizational culture. It also seems that the company emphasizes efficient
knowledge management practices, especially in regard to teamwork. Finally, the link
between organizational culture and knowledge management seems to be proven. As
hypothesized, constructive culture is positively related to knowledge management
performance, while Passive–Defensive and Aggressive–Defensive cultures are
negatively related. All these results are particularly interesting considering that in the
scientific literature such relationships have been proposed from a theoretical
perspective, but only a few studies have explored these questions at the empirical level.