Sustainable knowledge management during crisis: Focus on Covid-19 pandemic

Abstract

This paper consolidates literature that justifies effective knowledge management as a precursor for mitigating the effects of a crisis, Covid-19 pandemic in particular, through key antecedents of leadership, culture, and information and communication technology (ICT). A thorough review of retrieved literature relevant to the topic was conducted. The study materials were rigorously screened to limit any potential biases regarding their selection. Through the study, the paper concludes that the fight against Covid-19 crisis indeed requires knowledge to, among other things, find a lasting solution, mitigate the impacts, limit misinformation, revert to normalcy, and plan for similar crises in future. Further, the paper concludes that sustainable knowledge management during the Covid-19 crisis largely depends on a decisive leadership style that puts employees at the centre; a culture that embraces knowledge as a core asset, and supportive ICT infrastructure. Furthermore, the study reveals that relevance of ICT in the process of managing knowledge, largerly depends on a culture that accepts knowledge as a critical resource. The study establishes some challenges associated with ICT where a way forward for migrating from knowledge capture to knowledge creation and sharing has been re-affirmed. The present paper has led to the development of a model that further explains the relationships between the determinants of leadership, culture and ICT against effective management of a crisis using knowledge as a strategic resource. Further, six propositions have been put forward to provide clarity on the relationships.