Motivational factors affecting knowledge application capability of it staff members to improve information technology service management performance in higher education sector in Australia

Motivational factors affecting knowledge application capability of it staff members to improve information technology service management performance in higher education sector in Australia

Information technology services have become the most important assets of all organisations. They include, but are not limited to, hardware and software solutions, in-person and remote help and support, email services, and networking problems. These services are used as inputs to other services and hence play a crucial role in supporting the overall objectives of organisations. This important role has led to the establishment of IT service management (ITSM) that can be understood as a fashionable Information Systems (IS) to manage and operate services, while ensuring alignment with the objectives. This is done through intensive use of knowledge resources. The challenge to improved ITSM performance is to motivate IT employees towards applying knowledge resources that allow an effective First Contact Resolution (FCR) of IT incidents. Motivational factors such as career advancement and personal growth underline IT employees’ knowledge application capability that enhance the process of FCR. ITSM prior studies examined several aspects of knowledge management capabilities such as knowledge creation and sharing. However, mere creation and sharing of knowledge do not necessarily improve the performance. The performance depends on knowledge application capability rather than on the knowledge itself. IT staff members have several reasons to create and access knowledge but not to apply it. Causes are not clear to date, but include lack of opportunity and time, risk and distrust of the source of knowledge. In this study, importance is given to understanding of how motivational factors affect knowledge application capability of IT employees. This research study used motivational theories as key drivers for this purpose. Based on a mixed methods approach, the empirical study has been conducted in two phases on IT staff members working in a sample of Australian universities. Phase 1 involved a qualitative study with IT managers using semi-structured interviews to identify the factors. The collected data was analysed using both manual and computer-aided methods. The manual analysed followed three major steps of Miles, Huberman, and Saldana (2013). The computer-aided method employed Leximancer software. Phase 2 involved a quantitative explanatory study with IT employees using online questionnaire to test the linkages between factors. In this phase, the Statistical Package for Social Sciences alongside the Analysis of the Moment Structure were used. The study has made important contributions to academic and business circles in the domain of IS. To literature, it has addressed a gap in the research regarding knowledge management capabilities of IT staff members. To business, it is also significant in that it contributes to improve the performance of ITSM.