Managing Change in Organizations
A Knowledge Management Perspective in the Kingdom of Bahrain
Adel Ismail Al-Alawi*, and Nehal Fareed El-Naggar**
University of Bahrain, College of Business Administration *
Royal University for Women, College of Business and Financial Sciences

Abstract: Organizations depend on data & information in running their operations, and most importantly on knowledge to develop new and improve existing technologies. According to Massa & Testa (2009) the ability of an organization to utilize knowledge to get things done and maintain a competitive advantage is more important for organizations with ‘global ambitions’ (Massa & Testa 2009:129). One of the remarkable changes that has been taking place in the business field is the change in technology which has tremendous effects on all aspects of business. Although new technologies are improving around the world dynamically, some people still have hard time accepting and coping with these new challenges. This study aims to understand the awareness of employees about Knowledge Management (KM) and to identify the main reasons for resistance to change. Where the purpose of the study is to investigate the resistance to change that influence the process of knowledge management awareness and implementation in the workplace and make relevant recommendations. This research followed a quantitative approach using a structured questionnaire following a survey method. The target population for this research included 202 employees with different levels of seniority and education in both the financial and the education sectors. The sample was selected following a simple random sampling approach to reach representative sample of all employees. A key finding is that the majority of people are not aware of knowledge management and its importance in the workplace and their commitment to KM initiatives is not vident. A concern was highlighted by the study that employees were not aware of the duties of the KM and the staff working on implementing it within organizations. Recommendations are made to increase the awareness of knowledge management in organizations; it was recommended that employees should be made aware of the KM role and practices within organizations. Further recommendations were made to increase employees’ engagement and participation in formulating and developing the KM practices.

Keywords: Knowledge Management, Knowledge Management Systems, Knowledge Management Awareness, Technology, Resistance to change, Change Management, Kingdom of Bahrain.