Investigating Organizational Readiness of Knowledge Management Implementation: A Case Study of Islamic Azad University and Payam Noor University

Nowadays، knowledge is the most important and valuable capital for each organization. Rapid changes and increasing growth urge each organization to do its best for survival. Universities can also benefit substantially from knowledge management due to their performance nature as major centers of knowledge creation and diffusion. The initial investigation of knowledge management is very important in conducting effective knowledge management. Thus، this paper investigated the readiness degree of fundamental infrastructure for implementing the knowledge management system (culture and human factors، structure and processes، technical infrastructure) and ranked the factors with respect to their salience in Islamic Azad University، Mashhad Branch and Mashad Payam Noor University. The research population of the current descriptive survey comprised the faculty members of the two universities. Stratified sampling method was used to draw a sample of the faculty members of the IAU while all members of PNU were included in the study. The research instrument was a questionnaire involving questions adapted from similar domestic and foreign questionnaires based on the literature review. The findings indicated that Islamic Azad University، Mashhad Branch was moderately ready to implement knowledge management as regards “culture and human factors”، “information technology infrastructure” and “structure and processes” dimensions. Further، the Friedman test revealed that “culture and human factors” was the most important factor and “information technology” the least important.