Knowledge Management In Multicultural

Published Date: 02 Nov 2017

Knowledge Management in Multicultural Organisations: A Comparative Study of Hospital Organisations in Japan and Saudi Arabia

[Author’s Name]

[Institution’s Name]

Table of Contents

Introduction

Page No: 3

Background of the Study

Page No: 30

Background of the Case Study

Page No: 30

Statement of the Problem

Page No: 31

Purpose of the Study

Page No: 31

Rationale of the Study

Page No: 31

Research Questions

Page No: 32

Significance of the Study

Page No: 32

Definition of Terms

Page No: 32

Limitations of the Study

Page No: 33

Assumption of the Study

Page No: 33

Theoretical/Conceptual Framework

Page No: 33

Organization of the Remainder of the Study

Page No: 34

Classifications of Knowledge

Page No: 35

Scope of the Study

Page No: 35

Chapter Summary

Page No: 35

Bibliography

Page No: 37

Knowledge Management in Multicultural Organisations: A Comparative Study of Hospital Organisations in Japan and Saudi Arabia

Introduction

In the modern corporate culture, knowledge management is taken as an all-compassing domain. For organisations and companies, information and knowledge is considered as the most valuable asset for the entire organisational growth and development.

Keeping in view the significance of knowledge and information, organisations utilise their best resources to leverage the entire knowledge management activities in order to improve knowledge of their employees and workers.

'The role of knowledge management cannot be just- reducing mistakes, sharing best practices etc. but to create new ‘value’ for the organization'. (Naguib, 2003)

Knowledge management, in general, consists of different organisational practices and strategies.

The purpose of these practices and strategies is, mainly, to identify, allocate, represent, create, and facilitate a systematic implementation and acceptance of insights, gained perceptions and experiences within organisational setup.

V. Allee (1997) describes knowledge management as, "Think about all the information you have acquired, now process it, sort it, categorize it, store it, and use it to build knowledge and make meaning" (Allee 1997, 4).

Thus, knowledge or information is comprised of insights, perceptions and experiences, whereas knowledge management is all about managing the acquired information and knowledge which are further shared among employees and in external environment of an organisation.

'Managing cultural knowledge is crucial to success in cultivating and maintaining long-term business relationships in multicultural environments, and knowledge management provides the long needed technological support for cross-cultural management in the tedious task of improving knowledge sharing in multi-national companies and using knowledge effectively in international joint ventures'. (Felicia Albescu & Dorel Mihai Paraschiv & Irina Pugna, 2008)

Managing the knowledge is an essential task to be performed by organisations and companies on continuous basis, as this inevitable act empowers the people and fortifies the level of bondage among multicultural employees working in the same organisation. 'Japanese companies have advanced their position in international competition because of their skills and expertise at organisational knowledge creation, which is the key to the distinctive way that Japanese companies innovate'. (Beyond Knowledge Management: Lessons from Japan)

Knowledge management stands for unison and cooperation, and it is, also, the best way to minimise conflicts and disagreements among employees.

Multiculturalism in organisations is not merely a matter of different cultural backgrounds. 'The spread of knowledge is a significant consequence of the process of globalization. Knowledge is used to tackle very diverse issues such as development challenges in emerging markets or the perplexity of corporate decision-makers in the business world'. (Menkhoff, Evers, and Chay 2005)

In any organisational environment, the purpose of knowledge management is, also, to transform the acquired knowledge into wisdom, as mere provision of information through difference resources in not that enough in a vibrant organisational culture. 'Knowledge management involves the application of a range of management processes to know-how and intangibles but also to people, technologies and systems in order to add or create value in pursuit of organisational aims and objectives'. (Martin, B 2000)

In other words, knowledge remains useless, ineffective and lacklustre unless turned into something useful that can be utilised in day-to-day situations.

Dynamic organisations utilise systematic ways to make their employees and workers gain, identify and delineate knowledge and information in a way that benefits organisations as a whole.

For organisations, the knowledge management is taken as a well-disciplined, organised and structured activity, wherein each and every employee willingly participates into broadening the existing knowledgebase to further degrees. ‘Tacit knowledge can be described as knowledge that is acquired through practice and experience and can be difficult to communicate (sometimes referred to as "know-how"), while explicit knowledge is often more formal, codified in writing and seen to be easier to communicate’. ('Lessons from the business sector for successful knowledge management in health care: A systematic review' 2011)

As per its nature, knowledge management is a coordinated activity, or set of sections, which leads an organisation to make the most of very information flow. According to O’Dell, Grayson, and Essaides (1998), "Knowledge management is a framework, a management mind-set that includes building on past experiences (libraries, data-banks, smart people) and creating new vehicles for exchanging knowledge (knowledge-enabled intranet sites, communities of practice, networks)". (O’Dell, C., Grayson, C.J., and Essaides, N. 1998, 6)

In a special report titled as ‘Knowledge Management in Asia and the Pacific Division: Implementing the IFAD Strategy for Knowledge Management’, it was fund that in our own efforts to improve the management of knowledge, we will need to take cognizance of the shift agriculturally-based to service-based economies in many countries. Telecommunications and other forms of information-related infrastructure, in particular, are spreading quickly. These changes provide both opportunities and challenges in Asia and the Pacific that are rather special. It is becoming easier to reach out to rural areas, and easier for the people living in them to access knowledge and information. Yet, the knowledge and information to which they have increasing access may not translate into increased incomes or education. And, as they acquire new knowledge from elsewhere, they may be simultaneously losing valuable knowledge and traditional knowledge from their own areas that has not been recorded or shared with others. (IFAD Strategy for Knowledge Management)

Comprising those of the workers and employees with different cultural backgrounds, knowledge management is considered as a challenging task in multicultural organisations. According to Daniel F. Fahey and Gregory Burbidge (2008), a number of researchers have published articles regarding factors influencing the adoption and diffusion of knowledge management systems. (Fahey and Burbidge 2008)

Primarily, knowledge management is dependent on employees’ involvement and participation into an ongoing information-sharing activity voluntarily. ‘Knowledge management, in which information and knowledge are appropriately, clearly, and effectively kneaded throughout all the layers of the organization, is one of the critical keys to survival and success’. (Neidorf, 2002)

On the other hand, bringing all of these employees into this activity seems to be a daunting task in a multicultural organisation due to many reasons. Adriana Schiopoiu Burlea (2002) says, ‘‘the relationship culture-communication is one of the interdependence with a view to a better functioning of the multicultural organisations’. (p. 1) 'Intellectual capital is everything that is known within an organisation as exemplified in knowledge itself, in ideas and competencies and in systems and processes'. (Martin, B 2000)

'Cross-cultural knowledge management, an elusive yet consequential phenomenon, is becoming an increasingly essential factor in organizational practice and policy in the era of globalization’. (Del Giudice, Manlio, Carayannis, Elias G., Della Peruta, and Maria Rosaria 2012) According to Robin Neidorf (2002), the task of bringing leading principles and values of knowledge management into an organisation causes cultural transition for which a majority of companies and organisations are not prepared. In an organisation with a diverse culture, their manager must be able to solve the crises situations, and the same calls for a predefined strategy having a mandatory ‘control-evaluation’ constituent in order to control the internal conflicts and tensions in a multicultural organisational environment. (Burlea, 2002)

Ahmed Z ALHussain (2011) says, 'Factors such as a country's technology, telecommunications infrastructure, research and development standing, science and technology procedures and plans, and the population's educational and cultural level all play a key role in moving it towards a knowledge society. One country that is trying to move towards a knowledge-based society is Saudi Arabia'. (ALHussain, Ahmed Z 2011) Today’s organisations must be intrinsically flexible to fit into cultural change brought about employees and workers belonging to the diverse cultural backgrounds.

Particularly relating to knowledge management, it’s vital for organisations to devise a methodical approach to persuade people from different cultural settings. 'Such a culture change requires people who understand information acquisition, organisation and retrieval, wherein the more ambitious among you might strive for higher things, in which case the more you are able to fully engage with people across the business the higher you will go'. (Tebbutt D, 2004)

In the modern age of globalisation, the emergence of multicultural working environment in organisations is becoming an irrevocable trend and a growing number of multiethnic and multicultural organisations, across the world, corroborate this phenomenon.

Therefore, successful handling of the both short and long-term consequences of an increasing ratio of diversity and cultural change is, itself, termed as a demanding task with reference to knowledge management.

'Health care organizations, as late adopters of the knowledge management concept, are starting to implement and evaluate strategies of knowledge management. Current practices of knowledge management in health care are focused on the use of information and communication technologies (ICT)’. ('Lessons from the business sector for successful knowledge management in health care: A systematic review' 2011)

When it comes to the healthcare settings, knowledge management in multicultural organisations has been a matter of concern for researchers, as without facilitating a continuous flow and sharing of information among employees and workers this appears to be a totally discouraging phenomenon for the overall organisational growth and development. ‘Hospital portals are becoming increasingly popular since they play an important role to provide, acquire and exchange information, and knowledge management (KM) mechanisms will be useful to hospitals that need to manage health related information, and to exchange and share information with their patients and visitors’. (Lee, Goh, Chua, 2007)

Being a crucial element especially for healthcare organisations, examples of knowledge management in multicultural healthcare organisations mostly include e-libraries (electronic libraries), a wide range of clinical guidelines, research articles, and repositories, as well as best medical practices to assist healthcare organizations in managing information and knowledge. ‘A criticism of this approach is that these ICTs are static and do not provide appropriate context to make an effective clinical diagnosis'. ('Lessons from the business sector for successful knowledge management in health care: A systematic review' 2011) According to Malhotra (1997),"Knowledge Management caters to the critical issues of organizational adaptation, survival and competence in face of increasingly discontinuous environmental change. Essentially, it embodies organizational processes that seek synergistic combination of data and information processing capacity of information technologies, and the creative and innovative capacity of human beings." (Malhotra., Y. 1998)

Many researchers and scholars have raised numerous concerns on clinical knowledge management capabilities, as despite being modern and high-tech in nature many healthcare organisations with multicultural environment are not able to devise a systematic, flawless and smooth mechanism wherein each and every employee is efficient enough to take part considerably in overall activities and pursuits related with knowledge management. ‘In this context, such questions often arise: How is knowledge shared in the multicultural organization? What problems and issues emerge? How do different mentalities affect people’s responses to new knowledge and new ideas? How can knowledge-sharing processes be improved? Under which conditions do ideas generated by units or groups of different cultural traditions have a chance of being heard and implemented?’ (Del Giudice, Manlio, Carayannis, Elias G., Della Peruta, and Maria Rosaria 2012)

U Syed Aktharsha, H Anisa, and S Dawood Ali (2012) describe, 'In the 21st century, knowledge has grown to be the input to set apart organizations from their challengers and keep competitive gain. Information and communication technologies and information systems have been developed and applied by organizations to smoothen the development of the Knowledge Management (KM) process'. (Aktharsha, Anisa, and Ali, 2012)

The most important fact is that most of the information is not widely shared within healthcare organisations operating with multicultural blend of human resources.

Apart from the language barriers, there also exists a range of issues related with multiculturalism for which many organisations are not ready or well-prepared. ‘Cultural issues such as language proficiency, education and schooling, gender biases, age and work experience, were all found to influence the knowledge-sharing inclination of individuals either directly or indirectly. (Nadene King, Neels Kruger, Jaco Pretorius, 2007)

In a well-conducted research titled as ‘Corporate South Africa: making multicultural knowledge sharing work’, Nicozaan Finestone and Retha Snyman (2005) find out many companies and organisations are hesitant in acknowledging cultural differences within their workplaces. This is mostly due to the built-in cultural sensitivity to existing multiculturalism. Consequently, this is the very corporate culture of organisations that appears to be a great equaliser of cultural exchanges. With the help of top management, knowledge managers are required to form a ‘cooperative knowledge-sharing environment’ within organisations in which people with diverse cultures and multiple social backgrounds can easily interact, collaborate, and learn from one another. (Finestone and Snyman 2005)

‘A few health care researchers have examined the importance of tacit knowledge, evaluating the role that it plays, and how it ought to be considered in future research. The on-going emphasis on explicit knowledge would have to change if tacit knowledge were to be seen as an important resource in health care’. ('Lessons from the business sector for successful knowledge management in health care: A systematic review' 2011) Nicozaan Finestone, and Retha Snyman (2005) also suggest that knowledge workers must ‘be more sensitive to the influence of multiculturalism on potential implementation of a knowledge-management strategy'. (Finestone and Snyman 2005)

In relation to healthcare organisations with multicultural workplace settings, it is necessary to smartly incorporate and integrate a wide range of multiple approaches to information-sharing and knowledge-management implementation in accordance with individual needs and requirements. 'During the last quarter-century or so there has been a revolution in both health and information technology. For the globe as a whole we have seen tremendous strides made in life expectancy and disease control, together with an explosion of information technology and techniques. Humanity now has the potential to make all existing health knowledge available simultaneously to the entire population of the planet'. (Bailey, C 2003, 777)

When devising result-oriented knowledge management strategies, knowledge managers can never rule out individuals’ needs, owing to the fact that this is the very collection of different individuals that helps in executing a series of effective knowledge management initiatives. ‘Knowledge has currently been recognized from other industries as the company’s main asset, and the advancement of information technology gives new ways to create knowledge and opportunities to improve the ability to manage and utilize knowledge. Via the Internet, information about company can be revealed to the public and information about customers, suppliers, and markets can be gathered easily. However, these advantages may cause some challenges to the company as it may become overwhelmed by the volume of information and may not know how to use it for the company’s advantage’. (Pusaksrikit, Paween 2006)

Based on real life experiences, information and knowledge is regarded as the most valuable and precious asset for an organisation, because ‘experiments are catalysts for learning, especially when they are based on the joint conceptions of a group of talented managers. If the person who originally senses that external change can convince one or more colleagues to collaborate on an experiment designed to test the relevance of that perception for future business practice, the experiment will be better and conducted sooner. And, because those who commit to action together have moved well beyond friendly "good luck" wishes and promised involvement in the future, there is a better chance that a critical mass of support can be achieved. The developing knowledge-based case and the coalition pursuing it may be sufficient to engender confident corporate action’. (Hatten, KJ 2002)

It is widely noted that health initiatives of knowledge management are, usually, inclined to concentrate on evidence-based practice, including ICT. On the other hand, health initiatives of knowledge management should be an outcome of detailed homework and internal observations and experiences that may help knowledge managers in forming up a comprehensive strategy. Berta Velasco, José María Eiros, Agustín Mayo, Alberto San Roman (2011) say, 'knowledge is something that comes from information processed by using data, and includes experience, values, insights, and contextual information and helps in evaluation and incorporation of new experiences and creation of new knowledge'. (Velasco, Eiros, Mayo, Roman, 2011) ‘Overall, there is an increased interest in the health care literature about the importance of capturing, sharing, and using explicit and tacit knowledge within the daily work of health professionals. However, a predominant number of published research articles within the health sector tend to focus on the conceptual and theoretical aspects of knowledge management that, although valuable, lack a pragmatic component’. ('Lessons from the business sector for successful knowledge management in health care: A systematic review' 2011)

In a few areas, according to Sittig et. al., knowledge management in different multicultural healthcare organisations have been implemented across the world by using a range of electronic health records (EHR) systems. In a complete contrast, many recent studies recommend that electronic health records (HER) systems are not able to deliver the sought-after enhancement and positive expansion in quality of healthcare being provided at these hospital and healthcare units. This is because these electronic health records (EHR) systems were implemented without integrating functions and features of advanced CDS (clinical decision support). ‘Following passage of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, which provides significant financial incentives over 5 years to eligible hospitals and physicians that implement certified electronic health records (EHR) with clinical decision support (CDS), defined as providing appropriate information to help guide medical decisions at the time and place of care, the pressure on commercial EHR vendors to deliver full-featured, easy to use systems has increased significantly’. (Sittig, D, Wright, A, Meltzer, S, Simonaitis, L, Evans, R, Nichol, W, Ash, J, & Middleton, B 2011)

In the modern period, many organizations are well aware about the fact that they hold an enormous amount of relevant knowledge and information spread across their enriched data banks and repositories.

‘More and more communities and organisations around the world are realising the value and significance of Indigenous knowledge and the importance of preserving it for future generations’. (Hunter, J 2005) 'In Japan, creating new knowledge is not the responsibility of the selected few but that of everyone in the Organisation. No one department or group of experts has the exclusive responsibility for creating new knowledge'. (Beyond Knowledge Management: Lessons from Japan)

Despite having these, these organisations are not able to get that data and information to the right people. Especially in multicultural organisations, the state of knowledge management and sharing of information is not that much satisfactory, or adequate.

This is because in a majority of these multicultural organisational settings relevant information and knowledge is mostly distributed across multiple locations, or remain contained in different foreign languages.

Therefore, this is the point where employees and workers find it difficult to make the most of the information-based content effectively. (Knowledge Management & Collaboration) Nadene King, Neels Kruger, and Jaco Pretorius (2007) say that are many kinds of variations and dissimilarities in the way employees and workers from different cultural and social backgrounds, interpret or agree to the act of knowledge and information sharing. Many western cultures, due to their educational systems, are hesitant in supporting a social exemplar of knowledge and information sharing, and cling to values of self-independence, autonomy, and self-determination, as well as the attainment and realisation of those of the personal interests of the employees and workers belonging to different cultural and social backgrounds. In a complete contrast to western cultures, Asian cultures nurture and encourage a sharing workplace environment where teamwork plays a leading role in leveraging knowledge-management activities. (Nadene King, Neels Kruger, Jaco Pretorius, 2007)

Knowledge is referred as power almost in all societies and cultures, but the same power appears to be totally toothless when not shared among individuals in a workplace settings.

This pertains to the lack of supportive knowledge management system mainly. ‘When individuals have been exposed to past political turmoil leading to present empowerment policies such as affirmative action, knowledge distribution takes on a different dimension – one in which knowledge sharing becomes a power play’. (Nadene King, Neels Kruger, Jaco Pretorius, 2007) ‘Despite widespread claims about the importance of knowledge management, little has been written to help leaders understand how to consistently create and use meaningful corporate knowledge. This can occur when organizations truly have a "knowing culture," and their leaders are committed to learning from action and applying what they learn to promote their organization's competitive advantage. While creating such a culture is hard work, it must become a priority for today's business leaders'. (Hatten, KJ 2002)

International Labour Organization (ILO) has taken several initiatives to promote knowledge management in Asian countries. For example, at the Asia Employment Forum in Beijing in 2007 the ILO’s members called for improved knowledge networking to help them meet the targets of the Asian Decent Work Decade. In response a knowledge sharing strategy for Asia and the Pacific was drawn up. It has three components: 1. Strong internal capacity to codify and share key lessons and expertise; recognise and collect valuable information and resources; develop and maintain networks of staff connected to relevant resources; 2. Creation of communities of practices to foster mutual capacity-building and learning; share and leverage resources in the ILO areas of work; connect ILO constituents to each other and to other stakeholders and partners; 3. Application of ILO expertise to generate timely, evidence-based policy advice; shape regional labour agendas to advocate decent work principles, and create demand-responsive tools, methods, approaches and systems for stakeholders. (Knowledge sharing in Asia Pacific)

Knowledge management helps healthcare organisations achieve optimal organisational productivity and output, and on the other hand, lack of supporting system for information and knowledge management affects growth of organisations to a large extent. C. R. Gowen, G. N. Stockz and K. L. Mcfaddenx (2008) say, 'To achieve a competitive advantage, organizations have recently adopted Six Sigma initiatives and knowledge management systems. However, investment in quality and information systems is not necessarily effective'. (Gowen, Stockz, and Mcfaddenx, 2008)

Being a multicultural organisation doesn’t mean to deal different people in a different way, as this mainly pertains to benefiting from a diverse blend of employees who may provide a wealth of precious information and valuable knowledge out of their own observations and lifelong professional experiences. 'The creation and proper governance of actionable knowledge and intellectual capital have become key preconditions for sustained societal and corporate competitiveness in an era of rapid globalization. This represents new opportunities and challenges for policy makers, business leaders, managers and employees in both public and private sector organizations'. (Menkhoff, Evers, and Chay 2005)

Knowledge management in healthcare institutions can be well understood through relevant examples. For instance, Partners in Health and the Institute for Healthcare Improvement ‘set up a pilot programme involving 41 clinics, using business software to link the clinics with a global team of TB experts, thereby forming a specific community of practice for solving problems, sharing innovations and gathering evidence. Each team gathered its own information which was then aggregated by the project planning group and redistributed back to the clinics and the health ministry to use for their own planning. Each clinic designed its own plan within common shareable standards, with an obligation to contribute to the common knowledge pool’. (Bailey, C 2003, 777) Conducted by Chei Sian Lee, Dion Hoe-Lian Goh, and Alton Yeow-Kuan Chua (2007), a detailed research studied existing mechanisms of knowledge and information management as used by twenty hospital portals operating in Asia and North America, whereas these portals were widely used to create, access, and transfer knowledge. 'We developed a systematic and structured approach to evaluate how well the portals captured and delivered information to patients and visitors about the hospitals' business processes, products, services, and customers from the perspective of three KM mechanisms (i.e. knowledge access, knowledge creation and knowledge transfer). Our results show that our selected hospital portals provided varying degrees of support for these KM mechanisms'. (Lee, Goh, Chua, 2007)

In multicultural organisations, the large-scale scope of knowledge management is, still, inhibited by a number of those antisocial and anti-cultural factors that are mainly fostered by the internal employees and workers, rather than being enforced by the outside sources. Cowell R (2006) says, 'Knowledge management need not be complicated or expensive, but it is essential, and modern health services are complex and fast changing, but their reason for existence is consistent: to provide a service for patients'. (Cowell, R 2006) Supposed to be a kind of sarcasm on modern organisational culture, the culpability of being antisocial and anti-cultural is not that fallacious or erroneous. Sami A. Khursani, Omar S. Bazuhair and Dr. M. Rashid Khan (2011) depict the current status of knowledge management in Saudi Arabia. According to this, 'To cope with a rapidly transforming world, technology and research managers are paying close attention to the exiting knowledge at the onset of undertaking any major new technology or R&D work1, 2. This reality is also applicable in emerging nations, such as Saudi Arabia. Saudi Arabia is driven to attain and sustain rapid economic growth and diversification to provide quality jobs for a fast growing population by leveraging knowl-edge capital'. (Khursani, Bazuhair, and Khan, 2011)

'China’s high-priority effort to become a more knowledge-based economy and society means that knowledge management (KM) is increasingly important; For example, the timely transfer and use of business knowledge can provide a competitive advantage in practically any given industry. Despite its enormous promise in business and science, effective KM also faces formidable obstacles'. (Burrows, G, Drummond, D, & Martinsons, M 2005) Today’s organisational culture is highly diversified and culturally enriched due to the wide presence of those of the people and human resources who belong to multiple cultural, social and ethnic backgrounds, but this positive phenomenon, also, tells another story.

Since it requires a great deal of resources and values to handle, understand and listen to a variety of people with dissimilar cultural settings, being a multicultural organisation is an achievement itself. The need is to make sure that everyone plays a part in knowledge sharing in any organisational setting. Dr. Serafin D. Talisayon (2008) believes that many leading organizations in knowledge management practice in Asia are shifting their focus from excellence in operational productivity and quality management to excellence in strategic innovation and learning through knowledge management. (Talisayon, 2008)

Interestingly, these are, again, the very internal factors including employees and other human resources that tend to be stumbling blocks for desired sharing of knowledge and information with other employees.

‘Largely referred to as traditional or local knowledge, indigenous knowledge refers to the large body of knowledge and skills that has been developed outside the formal educational system. Indigenous knowledge is embedded in culture and is unique to a given location or society, and indigenous knowledge is the basis for decision-making of communities in food, security, human and animal health, education and natural resource management.' (Hunter, J 2005)

Many people feel themselves losing power and value when sharing their knowledge and experiences with others. Many people think its wastage of time and energy to transfer their lifelong learning with others, and many regard the act of knowledge sharing with other staff members as a threat to their own worth and importance in organisation they work for. 'The reasons why knowledge is the focus of so much attention today has to do partly with globalisation and the interaction of technological and organisational change'. (Martin, B 2000)

There is another bitter fact many would find it difficult to accept, as an untold but prevalent racism or racial discrimination prevents many of the employees in sharing their intellectual assets, especially with those of the people who don’t have similar socio-cultural background in relation to their own cultural backdrop. 'With the current economic environment pushing workplaces to trim already lean budgets, improving efficiency and retaining employees who are adept at doing more with less becomes critical to an organization's survival'. (Noteworthy Productivity Tools for Personal Knowledge Management)

Realising the importance of knowledge and information sharing, there is majority of hidebound human elements within organisations which is unwilling to act like a bridge between known and unknown.

In fact, organisations always need people who let it pass a constant flow of knowledge to the other end. However, researchers have been not capable to find out this major barrier confronting ceaseless knowledge management in organisations.

Unfortunately, this is, itself, a major flaw in contemporary social and business researches that have yet to identify disfavouring aspects behind less significant penetration of knowledge-sharing culture within multicultural organisations. 'Having knowledge about something, some situation or event can enable managers to take decisions and to act in ways that are more likely to be rational than would have been the case had they not had the knowledge'. (Martin, B 2000)

Indubitably, forming an ideal multicultural environment requires a systematic approach, but these systems are not that much efficient in recognising the hidden motives that play a leading role in preventing knowledge management.

What remains for today’s researchers is to delineate gender bias, language proficiency, language barriers, age and working experience etc. with regards to knowledge management, while none of the studies look into or even try to examine visible but unknown mass of disgruntled people found a plenty within organisation. In many cases, organisational structures are also found to be working against knowledge management systems. In many organisations, the litany of disapproving factors includes HR policies as well, suggesting lack of coordination between different departments in the same organisations. 'KM in China is distinctive, constrained somewhat by technological limitations, but influenced more significantly by psychological factors (such as cultural values) among groups and social levels'. (Burrows, G, Drummond, D, & Martinsons, M 2005)

The relevant examples of negative practices of human resources management refer to the widespread trend of promoting selective employees on the basis of their social, cultural and ethnic affiliations. In return, the group of partially promoted employees strive to contain the wealth of acquired knowledge and information within themselves, or share the same data and knowledge with limited number of people. ‘The new human relations engagement models demand serious redesign of organisations wanting knowledge management systems. Younger workers want knowledge at their fingertips, want real-time database access, want ability to search rapidly through both intranets and the Internet, want real-time conversations’. (New talent brings new demands - Knowledge Management)

Thus, the act of knowledge sharing comes out to be a conditional organisational activity, allowing people to share their information and experiences according to their likes and dislikes, rather than acting like a pool of information or reservoir of knowledge for rest of the staff.

As long as knowledge management is an absolute, unconditional and all-inclusive domain, limiting the scope of this negatively affects organisations to a greater extent.

Other than restricting an overall organisational growth and progression, multicultural organisations also suffer the loss of significant data because senior employees and workers keep their lips sealed, especially when it comes to transfer their knowledge to junior lever staff. ‘Organisations planning to shift to a KM model must realistically assess their current state of openness. There are also loyalty issues. Many younger recruits feel little long-term commitment to their employers-and feel also that their employers feel little or no loyalty to them’. (New talent brings new demands - Knowledge Management)

This negative behaviour inhibits innovation and improvement within organisations, and consequently paves the way for an organisational culture where knowledge sharing becomes an official declared taboo.

Particularly, this modern age is facilitated by a number of high-tech applications, gadgets and widgets that are primarily based upon a wide range of information technology applications.

In the same way, the emergence of information technology in any of its tangible and intangible form has, also, redefined the definition and practical meanings of intellectual property. In view of that, many organisations form many types of rules and regulation with a single purpose, which is nothing but to obey such rules and clauses that ensure utmost protection and care of one’s intellectual property rights.

Now, this reawakening of intellectual property rights prevents many people to act like deaf and dumb creatures within who don’t hold any sort of information and knowledge to share with others. ‘These are that new recruits feel bored and not connected, and there's a high turnover of recruits. Other signs include an organisation with no information sharing, few social communities, and that when executives leave, they take clients with them. KM-aware human relations departments need to redesign their templates for assessing employees, and be much more adaptable than old-style organisations’. (New talent brings new demands - Knowledge Management)

This is, again, the failure of modern researchers and advocates of property rights who have, totally, disregarded the fact that these are only the shared intellectual properties that promote innovation and enhancement within organisations. ‘In modern, complex and fast changing healthcare services, there is no single answer to the question of how knowledge is managed. But there are realistic options that can be piloted to optimise staff commitment and reduce obstacles, and these are surely preferable to, and more satisfying than, doing nothing’. (Cowell, R 2006)

Background of the Study

Knowledge management in multicultural organisations is an ongoing task. Widely taken as the most crucial and challenging job for the managers, organisations have devised many suitable ways to facilitate a systematic knowledge management mechanism wherein all employees equally participate in the sharing information and knowledge. In relation to Asian organisational cultures, there is a need to explore the status of knowledge management, especially in those of the organisations that are termed as ‘multicultural organisations’.

Background of the Case Study

The task of acquiring and utilising knowledge within complex organisations is one that is recognised by scholars and practitioners to be highly complex and challenging. The development of knowledge management systems reflects this complexity and challenge, but also demonstrates the onus that organisations have placed upon knowledge management and the importance that is attached to this practice. This dissertation will focus upon knowledge management in multicultural organisations, and will conduct a comparative study of hospital organisation in Japan and Saudi Arabia.

Statement of the Problem

The current status of knowledge management in Asia is not fully measured so far. There are a few studies showing the knowledge management trends in many developing and underdeveloped countries in Asia. Particularly with reference to Japan and Saudi Arabia, the field of knowledge management calls for latest researchers to evaluate the prevailing KM practices in Asia.

Purpose of the Study

The purpose of the study is to analyse the current status of knowledge management in organisations in general, while giving a major emphasis healthcare organisations in particular.

Rationale of the Study

Many developed countries benefit from knowledge management, but the status of knowledge management is not that clear in Asia. This study is an attempt to explore widespread KM practices in general, with a special focus given to healthcare organisations in Asia.

Research Questions

What’s the current status of knowledge management in multicultural healthcare organisations? Do Asian healthcare organisations have flawless knowledge management systems? And what are the obstacles and hindrances behind unsatisfactory knowledge management standards in multicultural organisations?

Significance of the Study

This study is significant as it explores the status, problems and new areas of knowledge in multicultural organisations.

Definition of Terms

Knowledge Management: 'Knowledge management involves the application of a range of management processes to know-how and intangibles but also to people, technologies and systems in order to add or create value in pursuit of organisational aims and objectives'. (Martin, B 2000)

Multicultural Organisation: Multicultural Organisation comprises those of the workers and employees with different cultural backgrounds.

Limitations of the Study

This study is mainly limited to the multicultural organisations in relation to the status of knowledge management, and current practices of knowledge management with these organisations.

Assumption of the Study

An underlying assumption of the study is that rapid globalisation ratio has made it difficult to ensure effective and efficient knowledge management in multicultural organisations. Despite its geographical limitations, the findings of the research will be equally applicable to other countries as well.

Theoretical/Conceptual Framework

This study discusses not a single, but several theories about the subject being investigated, along with the phenomenon under investigation and the results.

Organization of the Remainder of the Study

This paper has been divided into 5 chapters. The 1st chapter includes introduction of the given subject, with major highlights and introductory details about the issue. This chapter, also, includes the Research Plan, Objective, assumptions, significance and scope of the study, along with theoretical and conceptual frameworks of the study. This chapter, also, raises the research question. The 2nd chapter of this dissertation consists of a detailed literature review, mentioning the major studies and researches conducted on the given subject. 3rd chapter presents methodology of the research, including the design of the research being conducted. Accompanied by the introduction and detailed literature review of the given topic, this study conducts its own research in the 3rd and 3th chapters. According to this, 3rd chapter will show the methodology of the research plan, while the 4th chapter will discuss the research results and findings of the 3rd chapter. This will be followed by the 4th chapter which will discuss the findings of the research in details. The last chapter will conclude the study with appropriate suggestions and recommendations for further researches to be conducted in the same area. The 5th chapter will, also, briefly discuss the implication for future studies. 5th chapter will conclude the paper with proper recommendations and suggestions for future studies.

Classifications of Knowledge

Most of the information and knowledge is qualitative, where a considerable emphasis is also given to quantitative information as well.

Scope of the Study

Scope of this study is largely confined to measuring the obstacles and difficulties to an efficient knowledge management in multicultural organisations, especially within the health sector.

Chapter Summary

The field of knowledge management is beyond intellectual barriers and hindrances, and gets promoted when people are happy to share whatever they know or possess in from of information, data, knowledge and experiences. Knowledge management within multicultural organisations is critical, because sharing the information brings people from diverse cultural background closer to each other. Therefore, organisations must be systematically capable to decode and interpret whatever told by the people who speak in other languages with strange pronunciation having a quite bizarre tone of voice. Knowledge management is taken as an all-compassing domain, but confronted by many known and unknown barriers and obstacles. Apart from the know factors, these obstacles largely belong to those of manmade schema that inhibit the flow of knowledge to other people.