Adoption of knowledge management systems by South African municipalities: a technology-organizational-environment (TOE) perspective

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to assess the extent to which South African municipalities have adopted the use of knowledge management systems. The study was also aimed at explaining the reasons behind the adoption of these systems. As knowledge management systems are there to enable the use of knowledge management in organizations, the adoption of knowledge management practice was briefly reviewed. The causal factors that enable or inhibit such adoption were explained. The focus of the research was both descriptive and explanatory. Within municipalities, questionnaires through an on-line system, were sent to senior managers/executives such as Chief Financial Officers or Chief Information Officers or Knowledge and Information Officers. Questionnaires were sent to all 281 South African municipalities. 93 responses were received from these municipalities. Although the target respondents were the heads of departments with municipalities, some responses were from the category “other”. The research paradigm that was employed was a positivist approach.. The research was based on a firm-level theory, called the Technology-Organisational-Environmental(TOE) model. This model was chosen, after a comparison with other theories such as Diffusion on Innovation, Institutional theory and lacovou et al model. The results on the extent of adoption of knowledge management systems showed that half of the municipalities that responded to the questionnaire have adopted some form of knowledge management systems. The results of the type of knowledge management systems adopted showed that more than 50% of the municipalities that responded have adopted at least one knowledge management system. The discrepancy can be attributed to the understanding of knowledge management systems by some of the respondents. The hypotheses that were supported were that size has a positive correlation to the adoption of knowledge management systems, and that the complexity of the knowledge management system has a negative relationship to the adoption of knowledge management systems. Relative advantage and compatibility were partially supported, while cost, top management support, maturity and stakeholder pressure were not supported. The implications for practice are successful adoption of knowledge management systems are that the systems to be adopted must be usable and less complex, must be compatible with other legacy systems in the organisation and that the benefits that these systems bring to organisation must be clearly communicated. Implications for academia are that both the technology and organisational factors play a crucial role in the adoption of knowledge management systems in the South African context.