The Impact of Knowledge Management on Organizational Performance Excellence in the Private Jordanian Universities of the Northern Region

Accelerating changes and challenges at various levels have made knowledge management imperative for all organizations to adopt development, innovation and added value to the services they provide. As such, this is reflected in their capabilities and performance excellence compared to competing organizations. Accordingly, this study attempts to demonstrate the impact of knowledge management on performance excellence in private Jordanian universities, in the northern region. Focusing on the improvement of efficiency, effectiveness, internal operations, and cost-effective services, as well as the enhancement of employees' performance, which culminates to total cost reduction. In order to achieve the goal of this study, a questionnaire was designed that includes variables related to knowledge management, its processes, and performance improvement and development. The questionnaire was administered to a sample of university employees comprising (155) respondents. Among the results reached by the present study is that there were three out of six dimensions of knowledge management (i.e., knowledge application, knowledge distribution, and knowledge storage) that positively affected organizational excellence, with no effect for (knowledge acquisition, knowledge sharing, and knowledge generation) on Organizational performance excellence. In addition, the mean value of the Organizational performance development processes exceeded (3.57), which means that knowledge management had a prominent impact on the process of reaching organizational excellence in the private Jordanian universities. The study recommended further implementing and consolidating the concept of knowledge management in all Jordanian private universities, and making it a priority. It also called for adopting the best programs, applications, and practices in this field through delivering training programs, discussion panels, seminars and purposeful conferences. The study recommended paying more attention to the infrastructure, technology, communication networks, and allocation of financial and intellectual resources for KM. Keywords: knowledge management (KM), organizational performance excellence (OPE), performance excellence, private Jordanian universities (PJU). DOI: 10.7176/EJBM/16-3-11 Publication date: April 30 th 2024