Soft enablers of knowledge management in Malaysian companies: a qualitative study

Abstract

Knowledge management is an important area of study because knowledge is treated as a commodity by organisations these days. Despite this fact, many organisations are finding it difficult to effectively manage knowledge. This study reports on the 'soft' enablers of knowledge management in Malaysian MSC status companies. These enablers were identified using multiple case studies. The results indicate that there are nine factors namely collaboration, mutual trust, learning, leadership, incentives/rewards, centralisation, formalisation, T-shaped skills and kiasu-ism impacting knowledge management activities in these companies. To our knowledge, this is perhaps the first study of its kind in Malaysia.