Study on the factors affecting knowledge management adoption and practice in the life insurance industry
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Article one
Study on the factors affecting knowledge management adoption and practice in the life insurance industry
Narrative summary
This article aims to study various factors affecting life insurance industry regarding adoption and implementation on knowledge management. This involves collection and integration of knowledge to increase competitiveness. Knowledge management is paramount for life insurance businesses because it promotes competitive advantage. Globalization provides opportunities for industries to develop and distribute products and services by reaching a wider market and increases competition among business enterprises (Waddington, 2011). This requires every organization to make best use of its available knowledge resources in order to promote competitive advantage and survive in the extremely competitive market. Knowledge management enables an organization to adapt and act on any change to its advantage. Despite many studies on knowledge management in other industries, the area of knowledge management in life insurance industries has been left out. The research on this article reflects on an exploratory field research suing inductive methodology. The research uses a multi-case research approach through interviews with 10 senior knowledge employees working in a life insurance business enterprise. The interview focused on various stages of knowledge management (Navarrete & Veletsianos, 2012).
The multivariate method used in the study is content analysis technique in identifying main factors with their related variables. This was used to develop a comprehensive research model for knowledge management. The model is meant for future for organizational management especially in life insurance industry. This will enable realization of the worth of knowledge management and likely impediments in adoption and implementation of knowledge management (Huang, Lai, Quaddus & Rowe, 2011).
In use of content analysis, interview transcripts from participating firms were used. Primary patterns in the data were identified, coded and categorized. The contents of interviews and observations were analyzed. Analysis of field notes and interviews requires the information conveyed to be condensed. The coding scheme used in the analysis was objective in the interpretation of field notes and interviews in the research. Content analysis method was found to be cost-effective and useful as the research was more exploratory than confirmatory. I support the content analysis method because it is unobtrusive (the study derive data from the documents of an event instead of from the participants). Such documents may provide a complete record as opposed to the participants who consciously or unconsciously might fail to provide important information. In this method, one is able to use large volume of data and systematically evaluate it consistently. Such data can be corroborated with other researches and made more reproducible (Benton, Re´my & Senoo, 2011).
Research findings and conclusion
The research presents an inductive approach that uses multiple –case method to find out the major factors and variables on how knowledge management links with practice in the life insurance industry. The data collected responded well with the literature. After analysis, 12 factors and 93 variables were found. The causal models for six industries we developed for each industry and combined to develop a comprehensive model that would be used for knowledge management and practice (Von Krogh, 2011).
The research findings were in agreement with the conceptual framework. It was revealed that many external factors affected employees’ perceptions and attitudes on knowledge management. The factors influenced knowledge, management practice and affected organizational performance. All the life insurance industries involved in the research highlighted the significance of improving the infrastructure for hardware and software, knowledge management manager, sufficient facilitation from top management, value and objective of the business and attitude towards knowledge management in order to determine how the employees perceived knowledge management. The research is a major step forward in knowledge management literature because it provides a comprehensive model developed from rich qualitative evidence (Huang, Lai, Quaddus, & Rowe, 2011).
In my view, the research findings are valid and defensible. The exploratory multi-case research used is a comprehensive model that connects well with qualitative evidence and mainstream deductive study. The model can be used for future research in adopting and applying knowledge management in the life insurance businesses. The researchers try further to analyze the model using empirical surveys. The research model will also be tested using a structural equation modeling technique along with relevant suggested hypothesis. The study can also be applied in knowledge management in other commercial industries such as banks (Erzurum & Tiryakioglu, 2011).