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The combined macro-environmental effects of globalisation, technological change, increasing competition, new legislation and increasingly demanding consumers have created pressure within organisations to remove inefficiencies. Today, organisations are challenged to be more creative and innovative, to constantly improve performance, to form new partnerships and alliances and to undertake new ventures outside traditional organisational boundaries. Factors that led to organisational success in the past, no longer meet the rising expectations of consumers for cheaper, higher quality goods supplied in faster, broader markets. These intensive demands have led to organisations seeking new avenues for success. Knowledge Management has emerged in recent years as a management tool, offering organisations the opportunity to exploit their most valuable asset - knowledge. This thesis attempts to demystify some of the confusion that currently surrounds the Knowledge Management field. An extensive literature review highlights various stands of the subject that are open to investigation. Critique of these tenets facilitates the construction of a conceptual Knowledge Management model, known as the MeCTIP model. This model provides useful insight into the role of Knowledge Management within organisations. Development of the MeCTIP model led to further research activity for theory testing. Findings from exploratory research, administered using a multi-method approach, support development of the MeCTIP model. To further test the value of the model, empirical research is conducted; this is operationalised through the development of a new measurement tool. Instrument development and validation was undertaken through a structured process that has found general acceptance in the literature. The process includes a literature review, pre-testing, expert review, piloting of a questionnaire, calculation of reliability coefficients, descriptive statistics and factor analysis. The measurement tool is tested and applied within three industrial sectors across the United Kingdom. The responses are analysed to ascertain Knowledge Management contribution to organisational improvement, development and sustainability. The analysis was achieved through the application of traditional regression analysis and the use of t, F and goodness of model fit statistical significance tests. Results from statistical analysis sustain the MeCTIP model. Knowledge Management is found to be a strong mechanism for organisational change within the current, unstable economic climate.

Creativity has been recognised as an essential ingredient of Human Resource Development (HRD) to help enhance organisational success. However, there appears to be limited empirical evidence to show that HRD activities can actually stimulate the individual creative potential for growth and development and thus contribute to organisational performance and effectiveness. This research aimed to investigate the role of HRD as an enabler of creative behaviours among employees. The thesis took a multiple and interdisciplinary research approach, utilising concepts from creativity and personality research to explore the impact of HRD interventions on the ability of employees to perform more creatively at work. The research also sought to identify and understand the factors facilitating creativity within HRD interventions as well as the role of the work environment in creative development. The geographical context for this study was Northern Ireland and more specifically the hotel sector. Focusing on four of the SME hotels in the region, a mixed-method approach was adopted involving HRD interventions, creative self-assessments, participant observations and interviews. In terms of data collection, the researcher simulated HRD interventions in the form of creativity enabling workshops where a sample of managers from each hotel was asked to participate in various activities, utilising tools designed to stimulate creativity. The researcher observed how factors such as teamwork and facilitator support impacted the creative solutions developed by the workshop participants. Additionally, prior to the workshop commencing, a survey instrument was used to capture participants' perceptions of their creativity and creativity in their workplaces. Interviews were also conducted among a sample of workshop participants and General/HR Managers to better understand their perceptions of the workshops as well as creativity more generally. The findings highlighted that there is a direct connection between HRD and creativity, where the HRD interventions employed in the study appeared to increase awareness of the participants own creativity and produce more creative behaviours. The findings also illustrated that HRD interventions such as those employed in these workshops can facilitate creativity from across different levels of management. Clear evidence emerged that managers individually or as members of a team may be spurred by such interventions resolved to address organisational problems by themselves, as well as when instructed to solve problems at the lower level of management. The study also found that barriers in the work environment may undermine the benefit of HRD interventions for creativity, with such barriers largely related to low organisational commitment to creativity, challenges of communication and trust between employees. This thesis makes an original contribution to knowledge by narrowing the gaps in the literature on how HRD relates to creativity and the impact of the HRD-creativity nexus on individual and organisational performance. Several key theoretical and practical implications emerge from the findings facilitating the development of a conceptual framework that can be used as an underpinning for future research.

The purpose of this thesis is to report the results of an exploratory study that conceptualizes and develops a valid model for two key dimensions of KM: knowledge sharing and innovation, at different levels of organizations with organizational culture impacts on people, process and technology, in the context of China. Data were collected from Chinese service sector in business consulting companies. Using focus group, elite interview, in-depth interview and cases studies based on KM and KM culture models from literature. The research models were examined by a preliminary and a pilot researches as validated then applied to a main study followed by a confirmatory research. Five cases are included. Results indicate that the current Chinese KM practice in KM has its own characteristics and impacts from Chinese culture, which was not all in accordance with previous studies and survey results. Reasons of the result are explored. Findings were confirmed with a confirmatory study and the model developed satisfies the criteria for reliability and validity in KM studies. A KM Culture model is established. This study contributes to KM research by providing a set of valid and reliable research model and process while presenting results from Chinese business environment on knowledge sharing and innovating at different levels that are influenced by organizational culture.