Influence of Task Characteristics on Knowledge Transfer in Financial Technology Projects among Commercial Banks in Kenya

Abstract

Although knowledge management is acknowledged by both academics and management practitioners as a source of competitive advantage, commercial banks in Kenya experience challenges in implementing knowledge management strategies and processes e.g. knowledge transfer process. To effectively management knowledge, commercial banks need to identify, predict, and understand the key factors that influence the success of knowledge transfer within their organisations. The main objective of the study was to investigate the influence of task characteristics on knowledge transfer in financial technology projects among commercial banks in Kenya. The specific objectives were to investigate the influence of task structure, task interdependence, task complexity and task significance on knowledge transfer. Also, the study sought to determine the moderating effect of commercial bank size on the influence of task characteristics on knowledge transfer. A quantitative research methodology involving explanatory survey was used to achieve the study objectives. Using census, all the 43 registered commercial banks that are licensed by Central Bank of Kenya were surveyed. The study findings suggest that there is a moderate, positive, and significant relationship between task characteristics and knowledge transfer. Further, the study established that the commercial bank size moderates, by amplifying, the influence of task characteristics on knowledge transfer. Therefore, this study concludes that task characteristics have a positive and significant relationship with knowledge transfer in financial technology projects among commercial banks in Kenya, and that the size of a commercial bank enhances this relationship. The study recommends that in financial technology projects, there should be proper identification of task interdependence that is based on sequence, resource, internal or external dependence to enhance employee interactions and knowledge exchange. Reduction of task complexity by splitting complex tasks into smaller and simple tasks should also be considered and ensure the availability of experts to handle complex tasks and share their expert knowledge. Identification of significant tasks in a financial technology project is also important as it guides the allocation and sharing of knowledge resources and sequencing of the tasks. These task design perspectives, enrich tasks, and enhance employees’ collaboration, hence increasing their engagements in information and knowledge search, knowledge capture and knowledge exchange. The study extends the propositions of SECI model of knowledge transfer by proposed an empirically supported abstract model which associates task characteristics variables with the SECI processes of knowledge transfer. .