Knowledge Management and Organizational Performance : a Literature Review

Although knowledge management is considered as a very recent phenomenon, research in to knowledge and the management of the knowledge within the business context has grown dramatically over the last few years, in a number of different directions. As a result, a great deal about, what knowledge is and the ways in which knowledge is managed, have been addressed by many authors. However, despite the growing body of theory, there are relatively few knowledge management texts that make an explicit connection between knowledge and performance. Knowledge is not always utilised and that utilised knowledge does not always result in improved performance. Thereby measurement of performance is of utmost importance for an organisation to ensure the successful implementation of knowledge management exercise. This paper is aimed at reviewing literature on both knowledge management and organisational performance. Based on the review it was underlined knowledge management as a strategy which leads to performances. The paper highlighted the extreme importance of looking into the performance measures which can be deployed in knowledge organisations and recommends further research to be carried out on this regard.