بررسی به اشتراک گذاری دانش در پیاده سازی برنامه ریزی منابع سازمانی (ERP) : چارچوب فرهنگ سازمانی

This is a multi-site case study of firms that have implemented enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems. It examines eight dimensions of culture and their impact on how ERP implementation teams are able to effectively share knowledge across diverse functions and perspectives during ERP implementation. Through synthesizing the data, we develop a cultural configuration that shows the dimensions of culture that best facilitate knowledge sharing in ERP implementation. The results also indicate ways that firms may overcome cultural barriers to knowledge sharing. A model is developed that demonstrates the link between the dimensions of culture and knowledge sharing during ERP implementation. Possible research questions on which future research can be based are also identified.

Enterprise resource planning (ERP) is a tool that helps companies cut costs and improve efficiency by integrating business processes and sharing common resources across an organization [49]. ERP systems institutionalize the sharing of resources by requiring the consolidation of diverse and decentralized computing platforms, data models, and functional processes in order to improve operational efficiency [30] and [47]. ERP systems are large, complex and often require fundamental changes to the way organizations perform processes. They may also impact the organizational decision making that underlies the processes [17]. There is evidence that ERP enables organizations to achieve decision support benefits such as improved knowledge processing, enhanced decision making reliability, and better ability to gather corporate evidence to support the decisions made [19]. Furthermore, managers believe it is important for ERP systems to provide decision support for quicker decisions, lower costs of decision making, and improved ability to manage large quantities of knowledge [19]. In order for this to occur, however, appropriate organizational knowledge must be incorporated into an ERP system so that the system has a sufficient underlying knowledge structure to achieve this support. Knowledge from a diversity of perspectives and experiences must be shared and incorporated during ERP implementation [26] and [28]. Knowledge is a multi-faceted concept and is embedded within many entities in an organization including the organization's culture, policies, documents, and members themselves [1]. Knowledge is often described in terms of a taxonomy of knowledge types (e.g., tacit vs. explicit, individual vs. collective, declarative vs. causal vs. relational). However, another way knowledge is described is in terms of its pragmatic nature. The pragmatic facet of knowledge taps the types of knowledge that are useful to an organization such as knowledge about products, best practices, business frameworks, and projects [1]. The way knowledge is shared among individuals is tied to its pragmatic nature [18]. Because ERP requires firms to integrate processes across an organization, one of the most important areas of knowledge sharing in an ERP implementation is sharing of the knowledge that individuals possess about processes and business frameworks [26]. Therefore, we define knowledge sharing in this study to be the sharing of knowledge about business processes and the related knowledge required to make these processes work. “In order for an individual's or a group's knowledge to be useful for others, it must be expressed in such a manner as to be interpretable by the receivers” ([1], p. 110). Thus, we examine knowledge sharing during ERP implementation to identify factors that facilitate this expression.

The proposed cultural configuration and research model arising from data collected during our multi-site case study extends theory about knowledge sharing in ERP implementation. They provide a theoretically grounded basis upon which future research can be built. Findings suggest that ERP implementation teams are influenced by, but not necessarily bound by existing organizational culture. Although theories exist that support the idea of subcultures within an organization [11], [21] and [40], these findings extend these theories specifically for the IS discipline. Because ERP is often implemented to support change in the fundamental structure of an organization, it can also require or bring about changes in the underlying organizational culture to support the integrated, cross-functional nature of an ERP environment [3]. Furthermore, the requirements for knowledge sharing do not stop with the implementation [26] and [39]. Therefore, rather than forming a sub-culture, the initiatives that ERP implementation teams pursue in order to overcome cultural barriers to knowledge sharing on the team during implementation may actually form the framework for changes in the broader organizational culture in the post-ERP implementation environment. The research model and cultural configuration can also be used as a foundation for investigating further the nuances of knowledge sharing in the ERP environment. While we examined knowledge sharing from a pragmatic perspective in this study, future research should also investigate knowledge sharing from a tacit vs. explicit knowledge perspective. This may yield additional insight on the way cultural barriers affect the sharing of these specific types of knowledge.