Innovative Behavior Study

Individuals’ knowledge and effective management of their knowledge should lead to performance outcomes for organizations to realize value from these activities (Hult 2003). Along with how effectively and efficiently people perform their tasks, organizations are increasingly valuing innovativeness and creativity in their employees (Hult 2003). Their innovativeness and creativity are aspects that allow them to solve new problems and generate value and in turn help their team and organization to become innovative and effective in generating value for customers (Hult 2003; Janz & Prasarnphanich 2003; Sabherwal & Becerra-Fernandez 2003).

Development of both tacit and explicit knowledge is also found to have clear positive impact on performance (Argyris & Schon 1978; Becerra-Fernandez & Sabherwal 2001). Similarly, Cohen and Levinthal (1990) argue that the skills of the individual are the foundations of organizational capability. The implicit assumption in this kind of conclusion is that individual’s skill and knowledge provide them with the performance outcomes that the organizations value and help teams to achieve their goal (Sabherwal & Becerra-Fernandez 2003).

Table 2 1: KM activities identified in the literature.

Author Knowledge management (KM) activities

Alavi and Leider, 2001

1. Acquisition (knowledge creation and content development)

2. Indexing

3. Filtering

4. Linking involves screening, classification, cataloguing, integrating, and interconnecting internal and external sources

5. Distributing

6. Application (using knowledge)

Arthur Anderson and APQC, 1996 1. Share 2. Create 3. Identify 4. Collect 5. Adapt 6. Organise 7. Apply

Leonard-Barton, 1995

1. Shared and creative problem solving

2....

... middle of paper ...

... finally, implementing these ideas. All KM activities as conceptualised in this research such as creation of new knowledge, accessing what others know about the problem domain, and sharing one’s knowledge should contribute to the richness of one’s ideas, relevant support from others and in the implementation of those ideas.

To be innovative means bringing to all activities involved in the stage model indicated earlier, through not necessarily in a discrete and sequential manner (Scott, S. & Bruce 1994). The various knowledge management behaviours are centred on enhancing an individual’s knowledge which by itself or the enhanced knowledge may contribute to how he or she engages in the whole repertoire of behaviour involved in being innovative. This study will deploy the measure of innovation based on Scott and Bruce’s (1994) stage model of innovative behaviour.