Knowledge management and human resources performance: evidence from Turkish family businesses

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the effects of knowledge management (KM) processes on human resource management’s (HRM’s) performance in family-owned organizations. Therefore, a model is proposed to explain the core processes of KM and their effects on HRM's performance.

A field study is conducted based on data collected from family-owned companies in Turkey. The survey instrument is a self-administered questionnaire composed of 36 questions in total. There are three demographic questions, 18 questions aim to investigate KM processes and 15 questions aim to investigate HRM practices.

The results show that KM processes have significant positive relationships with HRM performance. Among the processes of KM, knowledge generation (KG) is found to have the most significant effect. This study shows that KM processes are enhancing HRM performance in family-owned organizations.

First of all, it is conducted on family-owned companies. Hence, the results may change based on types of organizations. Second, convenience sampling was used in data collection. The majority of data were collected through HRM departments who were available, reliable and easy to access. Despite many advantages of this sampling technique on major disadvantage is lacking clear generalizability. For this reason, it is presumed that HRM awareness is high in the selected participants. Different sampling methods may lead to different results. Thus, for future research, it would be useful to make cross-cultural and cross-sectorial studies to compare the business cultures and to find more accurate outcomes related to KM and HRM implementations.

Nowadays, most of the family-owned companies are well aware of the statement that both KM and HRM have significant positive impacts on organizational outcomes. This research's findings indicate that KM processes enhance HRM performance in family-owned organizations. Therefore, family-owned organizations should pay more attention on KM processes and the linkage between KM and HRM in order to obtain better HRM results.