The impact of knowledge management practices on business strategies and organizational performance

Business organizations formulate business strategies to identify the strategic objectives they aim to accomplish, and business managers develop business plans as a roadmap to guide them through the process of attaining these objectives. However, the environment is increasingly becoming more complex and rapidly changing and the economy have already transformed in some parts of the world to become knowledge based. Managers are therefore becoming increasingly aware of the need to manage their knowledge in a more structured way and of the need to think of ways to effectively and efficiently manage their knowledge to sustain the company's competitive advantage and survival. There is evidence that Knowledge Management (KM) can have a favorable impact on organizational performance, however, the factors need to be clearly defined, and correlations need to be measured exactly to make the maximum benefits of KM initiatives. The purpose of this research project is to assess the impact of KM on the business strategy and the overall organizational performance at different organizations in Sudan working on different industrial sectors. The research found that KM practices were used inside Sudanese organizations, however, that was done in unstructured way to get more benefit from it. Having those KM practices in house provides significant opportunities for improving those practices inside Sudanese organizations. Top management commitment, organizational culture and Human Resources Management (HRM) have been identified as the major influences on KM and its practices. The research highlighted the need for the recognition of employees' efforts in order to encourage learning and development of new ideas. It also highlighted the need for conscious efforts to manage Knowledge sharing and learning, inside Sudanese Organization. The oral culture of Sudanese people makes the face to face exchange of knowledge, the major methods of transferring information and knowledge inside Sudanese organizations. The research recommended that KM practices can be introduced inside organizations by making it part of the work processes, hence, guarantee its benefits and outcomes.