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THE EFFECT OF KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT AND EMPLOYEE TRAINING ON PERFORMANCE OF SMALL AND MEDIUM-SCALED ENTERPRISES (SMEs): EMPLOYEE TRAINING AS A MEDIATOR
Abstract
The main purpose of the study is to examine whether owners of apparel sector Small and Medium-scaled Enterprises (SMEs) in Sri Lanka are practicing knowledge management and providing training opportunities to their employees on how those practices have an effect on performance of those SMEs. Also, the mediating role of employee training between knowledge management and performance of apparel SMEs has been analyzed. A new model was developed to explain the relationship between knowledge management and employee training on the performance of apparel SMEs and also to determine whether the mediating effect of employee training is a full or partial. 235 owners of export-oriented apparel SMEs in Sri Lanka were taken as the population sample for the analysis. The outcome of SPSS statistics 21.0 established the relationships. The results highlight owners of apparel SMEs are currently practicing both knowledge management and employee training at workplaces in average level. The results further reveal a strong relationship between knowledge management and employee training on performance of apparel sector SMEs and a partial mediating effect of employee training. Accordingly, key findings of the study are a) higher the knowledge management higher the performance of apparel sector SMEs b) higher the employee training higher the performance of apparel sector SMEs c) and employee training partially mediates the relationship between knowledge management and performance of apparel sector SMEs. The outcome of the study further confirms statistical significance of the proposed hypotheses.
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DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.46827/ejhrms.v0i0.728
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