Survey of knowledge management practices in Indian manufacturing industries

Purpose – Knowledge management (KM) involves strategies and processes of identifying, capturing, and leveraging knowledge to enhance competitiveness. The new world of knowledge‐based organizations is distinguished from the organizations of the last millennium by its emphasis on monitoring and controlling the organization by shared knowledge derived from internal and external data sources. It believes in continual transformation of the knowledge‐base according to changing business strategy. The objective of this paper is to understand the KM practices in Indian manufacturing organisations, which are going through a major transition in this area. Design/methodology/approach – This paper reports the findings of a postal survey carried out to access the impact of KM practices in Indian manufacturing industries. Data were collected and analysed for 71 industries under this category. Findings – The results indicate that the main reasons why these organisations are focusing on KM are gaining completive advantage and creating new knowledge. However, culture and financial constraints are amongst the highest ranked barrier for KM implementation. Originality/value – There have been major changes in the Indian engineering industry in terms of better awareness and adoption of KM practices. The paper addresses many related issues in this direction.