One of the most significant keys to value creation comes from placing emphasis on producing knowledge. The production of knowledge must a major part of the production strategy. This study aims to harness the concept of knowledge management (KM) as an essential element in the creation of sustainable competitive advantage for organisations. Accordingly, this research seeks to highlight the concept of knowledge management systems (KMS) as an essential element, in which the decision support system (DSS) and organisational performance (OP) are elements that control the survival of organisations in the marketplace. The industry requires creative thinking to generate innovation, learning and excellence in knowledge cognition and knowledge inertia, as well as knowledge acquisition (KA), and spending in three types of DSS: the group decision support system (GDSS), executive support system (ESS) and the expert system (ES). It also requires investment in experience inertia and in work teams for the purpose of access to cross-pollination of the information between the employees and to find new ideas about the industry. This study aims to investigate the issues and factors which affect the utilisation of KM as a tool for effective decision-making (DM).Therefore, decision models and DSSs which enhance effective utilisation of this approach will be investigated. Accordingly, a conceptual model based on the literature review and consultations with knowledge workers was developed. Studies of collaborating organisations which are active in manufacturing in Iraq and the UK were performed to validate the conceptual model and facilitate exploratory investigation regarding the relationships. Data was collected using personal interviews with managers and knowledge workers at the enterprises, in addition to use of the questionnaire which was distributed to samples within these firms. A case study method was used in the data collection stage. These case studies could also be implemented for the mechanical, systems engineering, and manufacturing industries. This is because the findings have been tested where the primary objectives of this study investigate KM gaps in the manufacturing industries generally. This study has also addressed the examined objectives by providing an explanation of several issues, identifying the key sources of KM and the corresponding factors. According to the study, KM is found to occur most strongly over the stages of manufacturing and on which high level KM mainly occurs. Furthermore, this study ties together the concepts of KM, DSS and performance as a way of creating sustinable competitive advantage for the firms. Similarly, the study examines the current use of KM tools and assesses the most prominent methods. This study explores the role of KM in industrial firms and the limitation of obstacles to avoid the gaps. Thus, this study proposes a businesslike framework and creative method, explaining comprehensively how KM must adjust in order to align employees' ideas with the firm's larger goals effectively and strategically, which will reduce the lack of harmonisation between the polarisation and implementation of KMS to those firms. The study identifies high correlation between KM and OP, in addition to identifying high correlation between computer-based DSS and OP.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:553545 |
| Date | January 2012 |
| Creators | Al-Dujaili, Mohammed Assi Ahmed |
| Contributors | Parvar, Jamshid |
| Publisher | University of Manchester |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Source | https://www.research.manchester.ac.uk/portal/en/theses/an-empirical-investigation-into-the-role-of-knowledge-management-in-effective-corporate-decisionmaking(b051f999-a745-4f18-8c37-b67cabb02b00).html |
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