Knowledge Management Impact on Sustainable Development

Asta Mikalauskiene, and Zenona Atkociuniene / Montenegrin Journal of Economics, Vol. 15, No. 4 (2019), 149-160 Montenegrin Journal of Economics Vol. 15, No. 4 (2019), 149-160 ‘ Knowledge Management Impact on Sustainable Development ASTA MIKALAUSKIENE1 and ZENONA ATKOCIUNIENE2 1 Professor, Department of Information and Knowledge Management, Faculty of Comunication, Vilnius University, Vilnius, Lithuania; e-mail: 2 Professor, Head of the Department of Information and Knowledge Management, Faculty of Comunication, Vilnius University, Vilnius, Lithuania; e-mail: ARTICLE INFO ABSTRACT Received January 28, 2019 Revised from February 27, 2019 Accepted May 25, 2019 Available online december 15, 2019 The modern world is changing rapidly, and one of the most important changes conditioning development is knowledge and awareness. This article analyses sustainable development as the main long-term link of society’s development ideology towards knowledge management. It is stressed that knowledge, experiences, competences, civic liability motivate people to comply with the environmental, social, and economic sustainable development requirements. It has been noticed that one of the ways to study cognitive sustainable development dimension is thinking about development as a social process of learning, which on the individual level, helps people to control their personal experience of sustainable development by independently applying it to solve problems and create their future. On the organizational level, by applying knowledge management means and techniques, the intellectual knowledge of workers is transformed into sustainable competitive advantage of the organization. On the global level, the principles of sustainable development are applied when creating sustainable international community. JEL classification: J24; M20; M50 DOI: 10.14254/1800-5845/2019.154.11 Keywords: Knowledge management, intellectual capital, sustainable development. INTRODUCTION The contemporary society experiences a transformation to new, cohesive, sustainable society by trying to provide opportunities for humankind to create safer, healthier, and richer world with continuous teaching and learning, new knowledge, values, provisions, and need to know, understand, and act meaningfully and responsibly (Chakori, 2017). The resolution “Transforming Our World: The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development”, adopted by the UN General Assembly and signed by the President of the Republic of Lithuania and 192 Heads of States, officially entered into force at the beginning of 2016 by offering sustainable development goals for the governmental authorities. This is the result of thorough and comprehensive three-year negotiations that included international, national, regional players from intergovernmental, governmental, regional institutions, private and public sectors, civil society. Sustainable development encompasses three main dimensions: economic, environmental, and social. Economic sustainable development dimension defines such development that provides conditions for long-term stable economic growth. Environmental is when the natural resources are 149 Asta Mikalauskiene, and Zenona Atkociuniene / Montenegrin Journal of Economics, Vol. 15, No. 4 (2019), 149-160 used in such amounts that there would be left some for the future generations. Social sustainability dimension requires that the person’s basic needs would be satisfied, and a qualitative life would be created (Streimikienė, Vasiljevienė, 2004; Mikalauskiene and Streimikiene, 2018). Constant changes are peculiar for sustainable development; they are conditioned by people’s personal abilities as well as regulation and assurance of social and economic speed development in governmental and organizational levels. The application of knowledge management to the implementation of sustainable development goals attaches great importance to the intellectual capital, creativity, innovations that encourage sharing good as well as bad experiences, ensuring interaction of technologies, talents, and tolerances that are useful for the organization and the whole economy, and culture of lifelong learning (Molodchik, Shakina and Bykova, 2012; Kok, 2007; Bischoff, Vladova and Jeschke, 2012; Ming-Chang Lee. 2017; Johannessen, 2017; Byukusenge and Munene, 2017). The theme of knowledge management application to sustainable development is relevant and analyzed in the works of scientists (T. Auer, I. Caddy, K. Sbarcea, A. Charles, M. Cushman, T. Chun Wei Choo, Cornford, N., S. Ferreira, T. Davenport, L. Halawi, M. Neto, G. Probst, Polley V., H. Prusak, Y. Malhotra, R. Marshall, P. Maston, N. Mitev W.M. McElroy, M. Neto, M. G.Krogh, J. Roos, D. Kleine, K.Sbarcea, R. Smith, J. Stiglitz, K. Sveiby J. Swart, W. Venters). The article defines the impact of knowledge management on sustainable development by revealing the relations between sustainable development and knowledge management, the definitions of knowledge management and cognitive sustainable development dimension and foresees the impact of knowledge management when aiming to increase organization’s competitiveness. When analyzing the impact of knowledge management on sustainable development, the importance of intellectual capital is stressed; the concept of cognitive sustainable development and its relations to knowledge management are highlighted; it is revealed how knowledge management conditions the organization’s goal of sustainable competitiveness and its realization. This article has been prepared by applying systematic scientific literature analysis, logic analysis, analogy, and summary methods. 1. KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT, INTELLECTUAL CAPITAL AND SUSTAINABILITY The changes of 19th–20th centuries in the work sector were focused more on the sustainable economic growth. When reviewing the transmission from an agrarian economy towards industrial, knowledge society, organizational knowledge, intellectual capital acquires greater importance and approval that they are some of the most valuable resources for sustainable economic future (Bontis, 2000). The society required new information that would clarify the previously unexplained and intangible processes (Auer, 2004). The growing interest in the intellectual capital coincided with the creation of knowledge economy, knowledge society, and the noticed importance of knowledge and skills possession and usage. The use of knowledge means that relations (social capital) and processes (structural capital) are very important and necessary for knowledge transformation to product or service. This is as well related to the process of conversion: from possessing knowledge (frequently referred to as human capital) to the use of knowledge that is named as Intellectual Capital (Figure 1). The theory of human capital (HC) is based on economic logic aiming to analyze individual decisions related to the investment in more efficient skills and knowledge. The knowledge capital of the o (...truncated)