The Role of HRM in Intra-Firm Operationalization of Tacit Knowledge in Kenyan State Corporations

Abstract

In the 21st. century, the dynamic conditions of the market and the competitive advantage is mainly dependent on knowledge; while capital, land and labour are becoming subsidiary resources gradually. In the US, the percentage of people who work with things or deliver non-professional services has fallen by 42% of the workforce in the last 100 years, whilst the percentage of those who primarily work with information has risen by same percent. However, there were no such studies done that reflect the state and the rate of embracement of the knowledge management and economy in the developing world Kenya being one of them. While the bottom-line imperative of workforce development and knowledge management in organizations dominate many discussions about how Human Resource Management (HRM) contributes to the firm, one particular area of neglect in joining the link between the two is the role of HRM in sharing of tacit knowledge. This study sought to investigate the role of HRM in intra-firm operationalization (sharing) of tacit knowledge in Kenyan State Corporations.

The study adopted an exploratory design. The target population of the study is the state-owned corporations in Kenya that totals to 128. The study targeted human resource managers of the corporations as the respondents since the objective of the study is technical and thus demands the perception and opinion of practicing human resource managers. Thus, the population was also regarded as homogeneous and simple random sampling technique was used to select a sample size of 38 corporations which forms 30% of the total population which has been justified as adequate. Interviewer-administered questionnaire was used to collect primary data while secondary data gathered through reviews of both theoretical and empirical literatures. Pilot testing was conducted to obtain some assessment of the questions’ validity and the likely reliability of the data. Reliability of the pre-test observation schedule was tested using internal consistency technique. The data obtained was analyzed using both qualitative and quantitative analysis. A confirmatory factor analysis was used to examine the measurement model using structural equation modeling (SEM).

The study found out that performance and reward strategies contributes to the sharing of tacit knowledge; mentoring and role modeling influence the operationalization of tacit knowledge and that employee training also significantly contribute to the sharing of the firm’s tacit knowledge. The result strongly supported the presumption that social environment mediates the effect of independent variables of dependent variable. Finally, the development dimension of the independent variable was found to be insignificant and likewise the role of knowledge management infrastructure as a moderating variable in the priori model was not supported.

Based on the findings, it can be concluded that the role of HRM through social environment is to transmit corporations’ core cultural values, create the conditions where social interactions are more likely to emerge and facilitate the creation of organizational capabilities such as the ability to locate and share knowledge rapidly and respond to market changes. Thus, the study recommended that HR managers need to emphasize on building social networks and promote a culture of informal learning organization to facilitate the sharing of tacit knowledge within their organizations.