CCE Theses and Dissertations

Date of Award

2022

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

College of Computing and Engineering

Advisor

Ling Wang

Committee Member

Martha M. Snyder

Committee Member

Mary Harward

Keywords

information management, job performance, job satisfaction, knowledge management, knowledge management processes, management information systems

Abstract

While we might know anecdotally that the implementation of knowledge management in an organization improves job satisfaction and job performance, there are limited empirical studies that assess this assumption. There have been studies done in this area but the results vary in terms of which knowledge management processes have an impact upon job satisfaction and which do not. Similarly, many studies make assumptions that job satisfaction leads to improved job performance without testing for that variable. The goal of this dissertation is to assess whether the knowledge management processes have a positive impact upon job satisfaction and job performance and if job satisfaction itself impacts job performance. A secondary goal is to examine if the results vary based upon demographic factors such as job classification, location or functional group. This research is a survey-based, cross sectional quantitative study which examined knowledge management workers in one organization with multiple locations with a focus on North America but included other areas as well.

Of the five knowledge management processes studied (acquisition, sharing, creation, codification and retention) only knowledge sharing and knowledge retention demonstrated a positive impact upon worker job satisfaction. This finding supports, in part, previous findings in other studies of the impact of knowledge management processes.

Knowledge management worker job satisfaction overall showed a positive impact on worker job performance. Prior studies have made the assumption that there is a connection between job satisfaction and job performance without actually measuring this connection. This study, however, did measure this connection and verifies that a connection exists. Separately this study found that none of the five knowledge management processes individually showed a positive direct impact upon worker job performance when measured collectively or by job level.

In a new finding, this study demonstrates that the impact of knowledge management processes on job satisfaction varies based upon job level, location, and functions.

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