From Knowledge Capture to Value Creation: A Critical Assessment of Knowledge Management Processes in an Indian Public Sector Bank

Abstract

Knowledge management (KM) has emerged as a significant issue of organizational competitiveness and value creation in the contemporary economy that greatly relies on knowledge predominantly in service based economy such as the banking industry. The Indian public sector banks (PSBs) have their own distinct challenges in capturing, sharing and exploiting organizational knowledge because of the human capital diversity, complication of the procedure, and immensity of the accumulated institutional memory. This essay is a critical review of the knowledge management practices (knowledge capture, storage, sharing, and application) and the value added by it to one of the Indian state-owned banks. A descriptive and analytical research design assisted in the collection of primary data using a structured questionnaire among the employees on the managerial and operational level, and was supported with the help of the secondary sources of information, such as policy documents, annual reports, and former empirical studies. These statistical methods as descriptive statistics, correlation and regression analysis were applied to examine the effectiveness of KM practices and their relationship with operational efficiency, quality of the service and effectiveness of decision making. The findings reveal that the knowledge capture and storage systems are relatively advanced but have a lot of room relating knowledge sharing culture, technological application and practical utilization of knowledge to generate strategic value. The systematic KM framework that is supported by web based systems, the will of the leadership, and incentivizing knowledge sharing mechanisms is a critical issue that has been emphasized in the research. The article introduces the limited empirical literature on KM at PSBs in India and gives valuable implications on how to transform the knowledge resources into durable organizational resources by policymakers and the management of the bank.