Research Proposal On Knowledge Management And Leadership

Contribution of the Proposed Research

With the advent of revolution in the field of digital development, the production process has undergone phenomenal changes. That has found expression in the emphasis on the management of knowledge and leadership being driven by knowledge for (Inkinen 2016). The newly evolved model of leadership and mode of production is a departure from the erstwhile methods and practices, and is proving itself to be extremely beneficial in generating higher amounts of revenue (North and Kumta 2018). Researches have shown that organizations which have not shifted over to the new system are lagging behind in terms of both growth of development (Davenport 2015). However there are certain shortcomings in the body of research and also in the process of implementation which is inhibiting the prospects of reaping the benefits of the system to the fullest. This research proposal is thus an overview of the kind of research work that has been undertaken to address the necessary shortcomings in a constructive way.

In this section, an illustration of the reasons hinting at the importance of the research shall be provided. The reasons highlighted shall be comprising of the potential contributions of the research, the lacunas in the existing researches, a brief illustration of the objectives of the research.

The most important contribution of this particular research is to inspire further researches for academic pursuits in future. Alongside the research also intends to convey that the policy decisions at the managerial level be undertaken in future by keeping in mind the shortcomings in the implementation process, so that the innovative spirit does not get stagnated as a result of over-emphasis on just the aspect of the productivity and outcome. In the field of academics, this research shall be beneficial in generating the spirit of critical analysis of the existing set of theories. For the organizations it shall provide them an opportunity to innovate further their managerial practices so that they can enhance the process of production on an overall basis, and harp upon all other aspects that they have ignored previously.

This research question of this research has been to diagnose the lacunas in the existing body of literature on knowledge management and knowledge oriented leadership.

The objectives of this research are as follows:-

• To address the lacuna in the existing literature
• To consider other functional aspects of information management
• To make room for more innovation within the given framework.
• To effect a change in the approach undertaken by most researchers.
• To inspire more academic researches in the field
• To reach out to the managers of organizations with the message that the newly evolved model can be utilised for other prospects as well apart from just production.

Donate and de Pablo (2015) have mentioned of knowledge based leadership, which is a departure from the Weberian typology. That demonstrates the fact that the modes of functioning of the organizations are changing. The new mode of leadership has proven to be beneficial for augmenting productivity. The thrust has been more on the output generated, which nevertheless was positive. The analysis had been exclusively on the quantitative results generated as a result of adopting the new approach.

Research Question and Objectives

Donate and Guadamillas (2015) had in their scholarly work tried to relate knowledge oriented leadership with human resource management practices. They have reached at their conclusions on the basis of a survey conducted across the continent of South America to analyze the impact of the system of leadership and the role it had played in innovating the production process. The uniqueness of this paper lies in the fact that it shows how the conventionally differentiated roles of leadership and human resource management have been connected to each other for the purpose of smooth functioning of the organization.

Considering knowledge as an inevitable asset in the generation of high level of productivity, Ramezani et al., (2017) illustrates the profoundness of the impact it has on innovations, in managerial procedures and production. The scholars have studied about the application of the new style of leadership at an engineering unit in Khorasan. It was conducted for the purpose of gaining insight into the role it had played in augmenting the productivity of the organization, as opposed to the previously applied styles of leadership. This once again reinstates that the traditional styles of leadership are being increasingly replaced by alternatives.

Yang, Huang and Hsu (2014) in their analysis of the role of knowledge based leadership goes a step further. They do not limit themselves to the analysis of the internal dynamisms of an organization in reaping the outputs. They also make an attempt to understand the role of knowledge based leadership vis-à-vis the importance of the management of relationship with customers. Their account leads one to the conclusion that the innovation can be channelized for multiple purposes and can have an overarching influence in the overall functioning of the organization.

Birasnav (2014) seemed to have detached the adjectives of knowledge and leadership in providing the explanation. In the article, Birasnav had made a point that the innovation in leadership style had been an offshoot of efficient usage of the available knowledge, to arrive at the innovation. That is the approach taken by him to explain the role of transformational leadership in enhancing the productivity of an organization.

Bahramvand, Adhami and Pour (2016) provides a case study of the several factories located in the Sanandaj city of Iran to show how management of knowledge can help the management in exploiting and utilizing the little available resources. The stress has been more on managing the knowledge, and less on leadership. By new style of leadership, it does not mean ushering in of new set of leaders or replacing the old ones. Rather it implies the existing leaders assuming newer roles.

Literature Review

Cohen and Olsen (2015) that the nature of organization varies on the basis of several factors, mainly owing to the internal dynamics of each, it is not possible to stick to one model. They suggest that the various theories of knowledge oriented leadership should be taken inspiration and that they should not be applied in an unpounded form. Based upon the requirements of the specific organization, steps should be taken in shaping the new form of leadership.

Khorakian et al., (2015) had in their article tried to develop a connection between knowledge oriented leadership and the greater body of organizational culture. They hint at the fact that the newly evolved system of management is inevitable because in this age all aspects of life is digitized. Their inferences were purely derived on the basis of quantitative data which they have collected from the firms located at Science Park, in the city of Mashhad, of Iran. On the basis of it they have reached the conclusion that knowledge occupies a central position in governing the dynamisms of the organization, hence it can justifiably be called the moderator.

Shamim, Cang and Yu (2017) evidentially claim that several organizations who have not taken recourse to the new style of leadership have failed to bring about any innovation in their production process. Consequently they have failed to reap benefits as high as the ones who have taken resort to knowledge based leadership. They have also demonstrated the fact that it can be a very beneficial method to manage the behaviour of the employees of an organization.

Naqshbandi and Jasimuddin (2018) have hinted at the role of knowledge management and knowledge oriented leadership as having the potential to inspire not just room for further innovation in the production process, but also academic enquiry in the field. Their article hints at the role it has played in shaping the productivity and workings of the multi-national enterprises based in France. They focus on the role of knowledge oriented leadership in shaping the process of knowledge management. Thus it is very evident that they place the role of leadership as having more importance than knowledge management.

Lai et al., (2014) mentioning of the implementation of knowledge management and knowledge oriented leadership, they say that much of it done to ensure that a company incurs a benefit which is comparatively larger than that of the others. They make the claim that their article shall be beneficial for inspiring further researches in the field of operations in the corporate world, so that the existing methods be improvised upon, and that it may be beneficial in generating more economic gains in future.

Martín-de Castro (2015) mentions of the inherent intellectual expertise that is involved in making use of the knowledge. Giving importance to just the visible and the tangible outcomes of knowledge management would be an injustice, in his opinion. He says that the technological innovations are definitely praiseworthy but that is dependent upon the skilful use of knowledge. In his article, more than the aspect of leadership, knowledge and its management gets importance.

Fidel, Schlesinger and Cervera (2015) opine that for an organization to retain clients, they must have a good knowledge of their preferences, their likes and dislikes. It is also necessary that the organization manages the information gathered and utilizes it for ameliorating their productivity. It is not always necessary that technological innovation shall be the sole reason behind providing customers satisfaction. The non-materialistic aspects are equally important.

Wu and Chen (2014) intend to fill up the gap in the existing literature, an outcome of less research in the field of knowledge management. They also intend to pin point at the serious lacuna in the implementation process of the principles of knowledge management. According to them, there is no dearth of investment in knowledge management, but the way it is put to use was not desirable. They thus address those shortcomings and at the same time suggest some measures to overcome that.

Shamim, Cang and Yu (2017) gives a unique insight into the body of literature dealing with knowledge management. They however differ from the others to say that even the employees placed at the lower level of the organizational hierarchy must be taught the art of knowledge management. They justify their cause by citing the example of employees at facilities offering services related to hospitality at the front line. They opine that they are the ones with whom the clients deal with directly hence they can provide enough constructive elements in enabling the higher authorities with knowledge management.

Having provided an overview of the literature related to the subject matter of the research proposal, now the discussion shall be devoted to analyzing them. Most of the researches that have been conducted have focused on the aspect of profits and the outcomes knowledge management and knowledge oriented leadership have had. Unfortunately, there are very little input about the drawbacks of the new system and the various ways in which the problems arising out of it could be effectively tackled. The existing body of literature have failed to provide an insight into the ways knowledge oriented approach could be maneuvered in different ways for the purpose of reaping the results. The only flaws that have been mentioned of is that of the consequences which have been faced as a result of not catching up to the culture of the new and innovative style of management and leadership. The serious lacking in the existing body of literature has to do with the absence of critical understanding and analysis of the theories of knowledge management and knowledge oriented literature. The flaws in the existing theories have however not been addressed.

In this section an account of the methodological aspect followed shall be provided.

The methodology followed for conducting this particular research has been qualitative. The existing literature on the issue of knowledge and its role in management and leadership in an organization have been referred to extensively for gathering the necessary insights. The available literature is extensive, consisting of both qualitative and quantitative researches. For this particular research however, only the qualitative method has been applied.

The approach chosen herein has been to analyse the faults and shortcomings in the application of the new model of leadership and management, and at the same time suggest some ways in which the productivity could be enhanced by rectifying the systemic flaws. Output is not supposed to be the sole factor of concern for an organization. It is equally the responsibility of an organization to ensure that the leadership and management ensure that all the members of the organization, placed at different levels of hierarchy are taken care of properly. For the purpose of scrutinizing this issue, the need for quantitative research has been deemed unnecessary. In simple words, the aim is to find the gap in the existing literature and address it, so that further researches could be conducted on those lines. It is also being envisaged that the research shall be providing newer insights for looking into the matter, by making a departure from the approach which has been taken by the previous scholars.

Conducting qualitative research is however not a feasible option in this regard due to several reasons. Primarily it is the issue of time constraint which is inhibiting the prospects for going about with extensive quantitative research. Also, on top of that the issue of funding is also there. Due to the inability of being able to gather enough funds for conducting a full-fledged quantitative research, the only safe and dependable option that is left is that of qualitative research. Nevertheless, there is enough to deduce out of the existing body of literature. Precisely these are the reasons why qualitative research method has been chosen.

All the minute details in terms of ideas, concepts and quotations have been attributed to the respective scholar of any chosen piece of literary work (Glesne 2015). The propensity to plagiarise any content has been avoided at all cost. It also needs to be clarified in this context that the attempt has not been to malign, defame or deprive the researchers of the credit they deserve for presenting their work (Silverman 2016).

Having talked of the specificities of the methodological aspect of the research, now an account of how the process has been conducted by the chart attached.

	0-2	2-4	7-8	9-10
Research Activities	Weeks	Weeks	Weeks	Weeks
selection  of Research topic	yes
Literature Review			yes
Data collection			yes
Data analysis			yes
Final business Research thesis				Yes

Conclusion

At the concluding section it can be said that the outcomes of the research shall be desired and it can be expected that the inferences shall prove to be helpful for the future prospects of organizations and also for academicians. The research has of now reached up to the level of data analysis. It can be expected that the final draft of the research shall be submitted as when the seal of approval shall be received. This particular research shall indeed be an innovative one as the approach has been very different. It can be expected that the outcome shall be beneficial if properly followed.

References

Bahramvand, M., Adhami, J. and Pour, M.N., 2016. Discussing the Role of Knowledge-Based Leadership in Knowledge Management and Innovation Processes (Case Study: Companies Industrial City of Sanandaj City). International Journal of Humanities and Cultural Studies (IJHCS)? ISSN 2356-5926, 1(1), pp.928-941.

Birasnav, M., 2014. Knowledge management and organizational performance in the service industry: The role of transformational leadership beyond the effects of transactional leadership. Journal of Business Research, 67(8), pp.1622-1629.

Cohen, J.F. and Olsen, K., 2015. Knowledge management capabilities and firm performance: A test of universalistic, contingency and complementarity perspectives. Expert Systems with Applications, 42(3), pp.1178-1188.

Davenport, T.H., 2015. Process management for knowledge work. In Handbook on Business Process Management 1 (pp. 17-35). Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg.

Donate, M.J. and de Pablo, J.D.S., 2015. The role of knowledge-oriented leadership in knowledge management practices and innovation. Journal of Business Research, 68(2), pp.360-370.

Donate, M.J. and Guadamillas, F., 2015. An empirical study on the relationships between knowledge management, knowledge-oriented human resource practices and innovation. Knowledge management research & practice, 13(2), pp.134-148.

Fidel, P., Schlesinger, W. and Cervera, A., 2015. Collaborating to innovate: Effects on customer knowledge management and performance. Journal of business research, 68(7), pp.1426-1428.

Glesne, C., 2015. Becoming qualitative researchers: An introduction. Pearson.

Inkinen, H., 2016. Review of empirical research on knowledge management practices and firm performance. Journal of knowledge management, 20(2), pp.230-257.

Khorakian, A., Feyzabadi, M.J., Amintojjar, H. and Foroutan, M., 2015, February. Investigating the role of knowledge-oriented organizational culture and leadership as moderators on the effect of knowledge management on innovation. In 7th International Management Conference.

Lai, Y.L., Hsu, M.S., Lin, F.J., Chen, Y.M. and Lin, Y.H., 2014. The effects of industry cluster knowledge management on innovation performance. Journal of Business Research, 67(5), pp.734-739.

Martín-de Castro, G., 2015. Knowledge management and innovation in knowledge-based and high-tech industrial markets: The role of openness and absorptive capacity. Industrial Marketing Management, 47, pp.143-146.

Naqshbandi, M.M. and Jasimuddin, S.M., 2018. Knowledge-oriented leadership and open innovation: Role of knowledge management capability in France-based multinationals. International Business Review, 27(3), pp.701-713.

North, K. and Kumta, G., 2018. Knowledge management: Value creation through organizational learning. Springer.

Ramezani, Y., Safari, Z., Hashemiamin, A. and Karimi, Z., 2017. The Impact of Knowledge-Oriented Leadership on Innovative Performance through Considering the Mediating Role of Knowledge Management Practices. Industrial Engineering & Management Systems, 16(4), pp.495-506.

Shamim, S., Cang, S. and Yu, H., 2017. Impact of knowledge oriented leadership on knowledge management behaviour through employee work attitudes. The International Journal of Human Resource Management, pp.1-31.

Shamim, S., Cang, S. and Yu, H., 2017. Supervisory orientation, employee goal orientation, and knowledge management among front line hotel employees. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 62, pp.21-32.

Silverman, D. ed., 2016. Qualitative research. Sage.

Wu, IL. and Chen, JL., 2014. Knowledge management driven firm performance: The roles of business process capabilities and organizational learning. Journal of Knowledge Management. 2014 Oct 7;18(6):1141-64.

Yang, L.R., Huang, C.F. and Hsu, T.J., 2014. Knowledge leadership to improve project and organizational performance. International Journal of Project Management, 32(1), pp.40-53.