Introduction and Background
This study will focus primarily on knowledge management applications in the telecommunication industry and ways in which the industry can benefit from social ontology in its knowledge management system. The study will assist in evaluating the importance of knowledge management in the telecommunication sector in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Generally, human knowledge capital refers to people’s pool of skills, ability and know-how in any organization; it also encompasses the experience, training, insight, relationship, and intelligence of the organization’s managers and staff. The skills, knowledge and experience of the project manager are important factors in determining the outcomes of the project, where all these factors will be evaluated using a human knowledge capital framework.
The major significance of this study is the fact that its outcome will confirm whether or not an organization’s investments in its staff’s learning, education, experience, expertise, innovation and creativity in relation to knowledge management have any influence on its overall performance. Equally important, this study will produce a report and initiate a discussion on its findings, from an in-depth review of the literature of the research study. This study will look, specifically, at the effects of the human knowledge capital dimensions, notably staffs’ learning, education, experience, expertise, innovation, and creativity, in relation to the overall performance of the organization.
Past research studies have concentrated mainly on the relationship between intellectual capital and the overall performance of an organization. Little attention has been given to the probable relationship between any of the three components of intellectual capital, for instance structural capital, relational capital, and human knowledge capital, and its overall performance, which are more or less sub-sets of intellectual capital. Interestingly, however, from the limited attention that has been given to the link between human knowledge capital and an organization’s performance, a number of researchers have established a positive influence of human knowledge capital on an organization’s overall performance. The research will be important as it will examine the relationships.
Aims, Objectives
The aim of this research will be to develop a social ontological framework explaining the social relationships informing organisational knowledge management in the telecommunication industry in Saudi Arabia.
The research objectives will be:
To identify the current state of knowledge management applications in the telecommunication industry, and ways in which the industry can benefit from social ontology in its knowledge management system. The specific social, economic and technological barriers preventing the effective application of KM system in these areas will thus be determined.
To undertake an empirical study including both qualitative and quantitative approaches to discover the extent to which knowledge management is implemented in the telecommunication sector in Saudi Arabia.
To develop a social ontological framework supporting the application of knowledge management in the telecommunication sector in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Thus, the link between collective identities and KM in organisations will be determined.
Research methodology
Data collection is an integral part of any research and plays a critical role in ensuring that research objectives are accurately driven at. The research has been developed in a manner reliant on a primary source in data collection. This is one of the factors that greatly affect the level of accuracy and breadth of the research. Use of data derived from previous researcher and theories adopted from other researchers is the main methodology used in the research. An important consideration is seeking a data collection approach is to ensure that it is in conformance with the research methodology and relevant with the research aims. The main aim will be to determine how organisational structure impact on KM in Saudi Arabia’s telecommunication organisations.
The approach to data collection ensures information is collected from a variety of sources which is one of the key requirements for holistic approaches that are characteristic of qualitative designs. This will assist in determining whether KM is reflected in the organisational culture of Saudi Arabia’s telecommunication organisations.
Moreover, the appropriateness of the approach to data collection is brought out if it is considered that the research develops findings from wide areas which include gender bias, scene arrests and even same sex couples. Such diversity required in deductive approaches call for use of multiple sources of data not only out of need to acquire relevant data but also validate data and develop a picture of the areas that are lacking.
Literature Review
Knowledge of the customer satisfaction in relation to knowledge management is a strong backbone upon which an organization can base its overall performance. Furthermore, though there is a great significance of using customer opinions and attitudes in various fields, not many studies have specifically focused on assessing the suitability of the organisation’s workforce. This chapter attempts to give an assessment of the studies that have been undertaken in an attempt to investigate the relationship of the two broad dimensions of knowledge management in Saudi Arabia.
The literature will examine the original investigations, other literature reviews, peer reviewed academic literature, research databases, reviews, journals in various academic fields and original manuscripts that relate to customer satisfaction and knowledge management. This is intended to bring a better understanding. One of the most recent studies, which directly involved investigation of customer satisfaction in relation to knowledge management, will be reviewed. Since a search in the research databases produces a big number of results, the reviewed literature sources are picked on a random- sample strategy.
Integrating information technology to knowledge management requires acceptance from all aspects of an organization and this is its disadvantage. Knowledge Management System implementations must become an integral part of the people using it for it to be effective. The literature review will assist in the determination of the level of customer satisfaction and its relationships with the knowledge management.
Knowledge management (KM) is a set of systematic actions taken by an organization to get the greatest value from the knowledge base available. Information technology (IT) supports knowledge management in organizations today will be examined. Systems of IT that support KM can be referred as Knowledge Management Systems (KMS). Though the literature review will not be able to examine the direct relations but connections will be determined.
Primary Data Collection
Various methods of collecting, analysing and compiling data were put into consideration in this project. Sources of data for the study included primary data and secondary data.
In order to collect quantitative data, primary information was collected through the medium of a questionnaire. A qualitative research method was used to study the unstructured information collected through secondary data collection from journals, government Web sites, and bank reports. This helped in understanding the competitiveness of various knowledge management strategies in different organisation and banks in Saudi Arabia and relevance.
Secondary data collection in this research will also be useful since it enables the researcher to have a wide source of getting information as well as it being very affordable. Content analysis will also be done using qualitative methods to ensure its reliability in terms of who collected the data, what time and from which sources. It will also be important to identify and scrutinize secondary sources to check their viability of the collected data to the topic and the adequacy and accuracy in the information being collected.
Using qualitative means the researcher is able to understand the important factors that must be present for the evolution and fruition of the organisations in Saudi Arabia. The analysis will also try to establish past information on knowledge management in Saudi Arabia and hoe customer satisfaction has been enhanced by this.
Since the researcher can get a wide range of information sources such as library books, internet sources, online documents and journals, this will allow the researcher to get enough information to compile a sound report of opportunities available for Saudi Arabia’s organisations. The research will also highlight the benefits to the stakeholders and customers of the organisations with effective knowledge management techniques.
Primary dataIn general, there are various techniques through which primary data can be collected such as face-to-face interviews, telephone interviews, questionnaires, observations and many more. This study made use of an online questionnaire in order to collect primary data. The method was selected because of its ease of use and comprehension in terms of results derivation. Primary data is extremely important when it comes to satisfying the various research objectives.
Secondary data
Secondary data is easier to collect since it is already available in a format that is easy to understand and organize. Information will be collected based on the credibility of the authors. Journals, books, and magazines were used to collect facts and literature to support and analyse the findings of the study.
Questionnaire design
Questionnaires are generally used to collect quantitative data. Questionnaires were selected as the tool to collect data since they fit within the financial budget of the research and due to the easy interpretation of the answers, unlike the content of interviews which can have different interpretation and also it would not be possible to interview 150-160 people. At the same time with interviews it can be difficult to analyse the responses from the various participants. Hence the questionnaire method was selected because of standard response option. The types of questions that can be used in questionnaires include open-ended, closed-ended, indicated response, and any response. In this case, questionnaires were given to customers of the bank to get more information about consumer behaviour, challenges, and opportunities and effects of better knowledge management in Saudi Arabia.
The questionnaires will be in electronic form, and around 160 questionnaires will be e-mailed to potential participants in various organisations. After sending the questionnaire, reminders will sent after two days to make sure that the participants fill the questionnaires. The turnaround time for the questionnaire will be around one week. The participants were advised in writing that the information was being collected for the purpose of research only and would not be used for any other purpose.
Primary Data Analysis
At this stage, suitable statistical techniques will be applied in order to analyse the quantitative questionnaire research data using the SPSS program. Qualitative and quantitative methods of data analysis will be used. Responses will be coded and processed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) computer software. Descriptive statistics such as frequency distribution, percentages, graphs and mean will also be used.
The qualitative interview data will be analysed using a process of identification of key themes and categories within the interview data. A detailed discussion of the data analysis will be documented drawing conclusions, interpretations, based on collected data and other relevant e-learning research. Finally, the researcher will submit a set of recommendations and suggest further research to be taken in the future.
Conclusions and Recommendations
Finally recommendations for the future will be made with a project plan put together for the implementation of these plans. Conclusions will be finalised and there will also be any limitations to the research identified. The conclusions and recommendations will be made from the analysed data and interpretations.
Limitations and Future Research Suggestions
Most of the respondents will be Arabic individuals; hence, the findings are limited to Arabic speaking demographics. Also, due to constraints of time and resources, limited number of survey responses will be obtained. The research will be limited to the primary and secondary information collected from the data sources. The data findings were limited to the primary data collected from 150-160 questionnaires online. It is believed that the findings would be different if the sample demographics were different. The population did not represent all classes of the population due to sampling or participants who are more likely to be familiar with technology. The data could be different if more working women or employees were included in the population.
Computer technologies are used in organizations to gather, analyse, and distribute information about people; such a system is called Human Resource Information Management System (HRIMS) or HRIS, which stands for Human Resource Information System. A sophisticated human resource information system in an organization keeps track of events related to human resource management. The future research should determine the effectiveness of HRIMS in relations to the organization’s performance.
