Knowledge management used in technology operations for innovations and value creation

Abstract

Knowledge Management (KM) facilitates organizations with critical business decisions for competitive advantage. However, organizational leaders and technology teams still struggle with understanding how KM strategies and practices can help the company with innovations and business value additions. Therefore, this qualitative descriptive case study was performed in 2021 to examine KM’s capability maturity in creating business value and innovation for a large financial institution in Texas, headquartered in Virginia. The population sample consisted of one director, two Technology Operations Center Managers (TOCMs), and 10 power users (non-managers). The problem addressed by this study was understanding and describing the KM capability maturity and its relationship with leadership’s perceptions of KM value to determine how different features have impacted value creation and innovation. The two guiding research questions were: 1) How do KM administrators and senior leadership understand and describe KM related to creating business value and innovation in financial technology operations? 2) Why do TOCMs and power users understand and use KM the way they do? The conceptual framework was KM, business value, and innovation. Tools like Capability Maturity Models of Knowledge Management (CMM of KM) helped the researchers and TOC participants assess their current level of KM use and areas for improvement. Data collection was completed through a qualitative questionnaire after eligibility checks against company intranet profiles. Data analysis used NVivo 1.5 coding to identify themes from the TOCM participants’ perspectives to compare with archival and historical data. This study’s results contributed to the existing body of knowledge about KM from a technology operations perspective, including gaps in alignment and communication.