The Impact of Organizational Forgetting on Knowledge Management: Evidence from Pharmaceutical Industry in Egypt

Abstract

Purpose: The purposes of this paper are to determine the impact of Organizational Forgetting (OF) on Knowledge Management (KM) among employees at the Pharmaceutical industry in Egypt.Design/methodology/approach: Present study is conducted by descriptive-survey method and its population consists of employees at the Pharmaceutical industry in Egypt. 356 standard questionnaires were distributed of which 285 questionnaires (80%) were returned. To gather data, KM questionnaire devised by Jakob (2003) and Wiig (2003) and OF questionnaire devised by Fernandez & Sun, (2009) and Moshabbeki et al., (2012) are used.Findings: The research confirmed a conceptual model for OF. Moreover, research results showed that there is a meaningful relationship between OF and KM. Research results also indicate that OF impacts on KM.Research limitations/implications: Managers should encourage their employees to share their knowledge. Organizational knowledge can be created through individuals’ interactions. This study has some limitations. First, this paper just focuses on organizations to find new perspective for the OF literature. Second, because of the scope of this research, interviewees are limited to individuals who have knowledge or take any seminars related to field of this sector. Other sectors must be considered to attain detailed knowledge related to OF because case-specific studies will bring new dimensions to the literature of OF.Originality/value: First, this study makes a research contribution to the field of OF because studies related to OF mostly consist of conceptual papers. Second, I have introduced two new perspective to the concept of OF through this research paper.