Information Technologies and Human Behaviors as Interacting Knowledge Management Enablers of the Organizational Learning Capacity

Today’s global competition demands an unprecedented learning capacity from organizations. With this aim, knowledge management has become essential in organizations. Information technologies are one of the major knowledge management initiatives fostered by organizations, but they are not sufficient as enablers of a learning capacity. Knowledge resides in human minds and, therefore, employee behaviors, interpretative abilities and values are key factors to knowledge management. Keeping in mind these ideas, this paper takes a comprehensive view of knowledge management by analyzing how information technologies must interact with specific human behaviors at work in order to reinforce them as enablers for the development of a learning capacity. Data from 111 companies are the point of departure of the empirical analysis, which is based on a structural equation model-estimation. Results imply that there is consistent evidence of the superiority of the proposed interaction. Consequently, firms need to create a fit between its technological and human systems. Along with implications, limitations and future research is concluded.