An ISM approach to evaluate critical success factors for knowledge management strategies in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

Abstract

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) government aims to reduce fiscal deficit by improving efficiency, reducing costs, as well as its subsidies. This often calls for the creation, use and exploitation of new knowledge. Therefore, knowledge assets must be properly managed to provide an environment for well-informed decisions. The aim of this chapter was to investigate the critical success factors (CSFs) for effective implementation of KM strategies in the KSA public sector organisations. Qualitative results were derived from semi-structured interviews with 42 public sector directors and managers to gain insights into the topic being investigated. As revealed in the study, the CSFs for effective implementation of KM strategies are broad, but nine key CSFs stand out. The association between the identified factors is established by employing an interpretive structural modelling (ISM) methodology that is based on multi-criteria decision-making approach. The MICMAC (Matrix of Cross-Impact Multiplications Applied to Classification) analysis is carried out for identifying the factors having high influential power. The research result indicated that ‘leadership’ and ‘organisational culture’ are the most significant critical success factors having highest driving power. These factors are deemed to be most effective for adopting KM strategies in the KSA public sector organisations. The chapter concludes that the leadership plays a key role in implementing KM strategies in the KSA. Leadership is about preparing organisation with a KM vision and values. The findings of this research provide valuable insight and guidance which will help the public sector decision makers to accomplish KM strategies effectively.