Knowledge management strategic alignment in the banking sector at the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) Countries

An alignment or 'fit' between an organization's objectives and knowledge management (KM) practices should be established in order for the organization to fully utilize its knowledge assets and to derive competitive advantages. The organization should deploy a holistic approach for KM that spans business strategy, information system (IS) strategy, organization culture, and human factors. This research has investigated the strategic alignment between knowledge strategy and business strategy - KMBS-SA and the strategic alignment between knowledge strategy and IS strategy - KMIS-SA in the banking sector among the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries. Using the proposed model, the study explored the impacts of KMBS-SA and KMIS-SA on the organizational performance. The main hypothesis of this research is that knowledge is the main resource in an organization, and by aligning this resource with the business strategy and IS strategy, the alignment will contribute positively on the performance of the organization. The research model was illustrated in two different conceptualizations hypothesizing the different relationships between knowledge strategies, business strategy and IS strategy. The first conceptualization illustrates the KMBS-SA and KMIS-SA, and an investigation on the contribution of theses alignments on the organizational performance. The second conceptualization of the research model aims at investigating the impact of different types or profiles of KMBS-SA and KMIS-SA on the organizational performance. This study examined different alignments between two profiles of knowledge strategy - Aggressive Knowledge Strategy (AKS) and Conservative Knowledge Strategy (CKS), with various types of business strategy according to Miles and Snow's (1978) strategic typology, and, the alignment of the two profiles of knowledge strategy with various IS strategy based on the STROIS approach by Chan et al. (1997). Using both conceptualizations, the role of knowledge strategy as a moderator or a mediator in the contribution of the business strategy and IS strategy towards the organizational performance was examined. The primary data for this study was collected through a survey of 106 banks from the six Gulf countries: Kingdom of Bahrain, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, United Arab Emirates (UAE), and Oman. The first overall conclusion demonstrated that there is a strong association between knowledge strategy and business strategy and that KMBS-SA clearly influenced the organizational performance. The second overall result of this research shows that in the context of GCC countries, knowledge strategy received stronger support as moderator of the IS congruence association with performance and that KMIS-SA is the primary determinant of the effectiveness of IS in the GCC banks. From the finding, it is recommended that the GCC banks should take KMBS-SA and KMIS-SA challenge seriously and should consider the alignment implication before moving ahead to implement a strategic plan. Furthermore, the research finding revealed that GCC bank should not ignore the different dimensions of knowledge strategic choices. The banks need to determine different profiles for their knowledge strategy in order to support all aspects of business strategy and IS strategic dimensions that are most important for the organization. They should then direct the organizational knowledge resources to support these profiles. Finally, it is recommended that the banks should define and establish a position in KM in order to oversee the knowledge strategy and KM issues.