The analysis of the effects of knowledge sharing infrastructures on improving the quality of crisis management operation via organizational learning (case study: Isfahan Red Crescent society)

Crisis is a part of business environment and it is impossible to resolve all the crises threaten the organization. Crisis management operation enables the organizations to cope with or manage some crises effectively, and provide required tools for a complete and rapid learning about the occurred crises. Crisis management transfers this implicit message that the crisis is important and no system is at a long-term and stable condition. Thus, although organizations are not able to predict or plan for future accurately, they should provide adequate preparation for dealing with known and unknown threats. Preparation will be obtained by using and sharing the valuable experience of others, and more importantly, learning lessons and applying them. Therefore, this research aims to analyze the effect of knowledge sharing infrastructures in order to improve the quality of crisis management operations through organizational learning among relief workers of Red Crescent society of Isfahan province. In this descriptive-correlational study, all relief workers of Red Crescent society’ bases in 24 cities of Isfahan province (about 3082 ones) were studied and finally 360 persons were selected by stratified sampling. By using the self-administrated questionnaire, the validity and reliability were examined based on cronbach's alpha coefficient. Data were analyzed using SPSS-20 software and Smart PLS. The findings are as follows: the factor loading for strategy, culture, structure and information technology in knowledge sharing infrastructure are 0.867, 0.842, 0.824, and 0.828 respectively. The factor loading for organizational learning with dimensions of consistency, single loop, double loop and triple loop including 0.837, 0.864, 0.847, and 0.876. The dimensions of crisis management (prevention, preparedness, reaction, review) estimated to be 0.804, 0.840, 0.881, and 0.783 respectively. Effectiveness ofknowledge sharing on organizational learning and crisis management are such as 81% and 24%; and effectiveness of organizational learning on crisis management estimated 58%. The results of t- test show that there is a meaningful relation between knowledge sharing and organizational learning (t=37.87, p<0.0001), knowledge sharing and crisis management (t=4.36, p<0.0001) and also organizational learning and crisis management. According to the results, changing strategies seems essential to provide the motivational incentives and to have a friendly atmosphere for sharing knowledge and experiences. Also, it seems necessary to carry several maneuvers and further reviews as groups, to use new educational system, document the lessons learned from the various missions in electronic repository.