INFLUENCE OF KNOWLEDGE SHARING ON SUSTAINABILITY OF SUGAR COMPANIES IN KENYA

Abstract

Sugar companies in Kenya like many other firms in the world have used Knowledge Management Practices (KMPs’) since 1959, to transform knowledge to enhance their performance and sustainability but have realized dismaying results as their performance consistently decline with some companies sinking under heavy debt burden. Most companies downsize on their workforce as others get shortlisted for privatization for being on the verge of collapse at a time when domestic demand for sugar remains high, causing rising sugar imports from 4000 tons in 1984 to 249,336 tons in 2001. Studies have been conducted on KMPs’ with focus to corporate performance but none has fully considered the influence of knowledge sharing on organizational sustainability particular in sugar companies in Kenya. The objective of the study was to establish the influence of Knowledge sharing on sustainability of sugar companies in Kenya. The study used null hypothesis in testing the objective; ‘Knowledge sharing has no significant influence on sustainability of sugar companies in Kenya’. A sample population of 250 respondents from all the five operational state owned sugar companies’ managerial staff was studied using descriptive survey. The outcome of this study is expected to cause a paradigm in improving management, performance to cause sustainability of sugar companies and adds stock of invaluable literature materials for reference by scholars. The study reveals from its descriptive statistics on table 4.12 that Knowledge sharing has a mean score =3.55 and standard deviation = 0.46 indicate that it has influence on sustainability. Inferential statistics in Table 4.14 also reveal that Knowledge sharing registers r=.292 and a p-value of .000 at 95% confidence interval, accounted only for 8.5% (R2=.085) of variation level of sustainability. The ANOVA showed F [(1, 248) = 23.055, p<0.05)] confirming that it is a weak predictor of sustainability of sugar companies in Kenya. On the basis of the test, the study rejects the null hypothesis that ‘knowledge sharing has no significant influence on sustainability of sugar companies in Kenya’ and concludes that the companies should encourage knowledge sharing culture and experience based promotion policies. Culture of knowledge sharing amongst the sugar companies by encouraging inter-company benchmarking both locally and abroad and the companies to implement knowledge sharing strategies like experience through group based promotion systems is recommended