Nurturing organisational resilience through knowledge management: a qualitative inquiry of parastatals

Abstract

PurposeThis paper makes a qualitative inquiry about how organisational resilience can be nurtured through knowledge management practices in parastatals to cope with environmental challenges. The paper identifies parastatal challenges and organisational resilience mechanisms.Design/methodology/approachA phenomenological paradigm through conversational discourse is used to investigate the building of organisational resilience. Twelve cases are covered to provide data that is interpretively analysed using direct quotes, causal-effect matrix and vignette.FindingsThere are various phenomenological knowledge management practices like knowledge acquisition, knowledge sharing, knowledge creation, knowledge storage and retrieval that are undertaken to cope with certain organisational challenges which this study identified. Organisational resilience mechanisms are reported.Research limitations/implicationsThis study is limited by a convenient sample and interview subjectivity as well as a small part of the public sector that was studied.Practical implicationsOrganisations should design an appropriate knowledge management system to acquire, create, share, store and retrieve knowledge as a critical resource for building organisational resilience mechanisms.Originality/valueThis study makes a contribution to the body of knowledge about how phenomenologically public organisations develop resilience mechanisms through knowledge management practices.