Towards successful knowledge management: people development approach

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relations between people development management (PDM) as independent variable and knowledge management (KM) as dependent variable, in some Iranian healthcare centers. Design/methodology/approach – Applying the structural equation model (SEM) approach. Investigating causal relations of the variables through Lisrel software. Findings – Findings show that in the researched organizations there is a significant positive relation between PDM and its components, and KM. PDM have direct significant effect (0.85) on KM. The relation between the factor titled as “learning needs analysis and induction”, and KM is fairly more important than the other factors. Research limitations/implications – More research needs to be done in the same areas to judge about the effect of human assets strategies on KM. In case of the surveyed organization, it seems there is a vital need to review the PDM and KM strategies and develop some procedures to improve and keep the business up. Practical implications – Although the proposed model has proved no causal relation between PDM components and KM, except in the case of “learning needs analysis and induction”, it does not mean that no correction action is needed in other dimensions. In other words, it is necessary to expand a well‐developed people development management project to meet a successful knowledge management. Originality/value – Our conceptual model of research has two dimensions. In one side we chose Newman's model of knowledge management, On the other side we consider a comprehensive pattern of people development management, named People Developer Standard. Through this model an appropriate framework to manage and develop the human assets and a series of developer activities will be formed to achieve people excellence.