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Introduction
The growing interest in organisational knowledge over the last decade has brought an increased focus on the role of strategy in knowledge management (KM). In an attempt to improve KM in organisations, a number of authors have proposed a variety of strategic approaches to deliver performance and competitiveness in firms (e.g. [24] Hansen et al. , 1999; [20] Earl, 2001; [31] Jasimuddin et al. , 2005; [18] Denford and Chan, 2011; [33] Lambe, 2011; [7] Bettiol et al. , 2012). Consistent with the increasing importance of strategy in the KM literature is the topic of "alignment" that has been studied in a number of contexts other than KM. Contributions of existing alignment research are with regard to business strategy and other functions (e.g. information and communication technology (ICT), marketing, etc.) and the resulting outcomes on organisational capabilities and performance ([26] Henderson and Venkatraman, 1993; [11] Chan, 2002; [47] Tallon and Pinsonneault, 2011; [51] Yayla and Hu, 2012). However, there appears to be inadequate research focusing on the alignment between KM strategy and workgroup KM processes in organisations. In fact, some literature sources have suggested that many organisations fail in their attempts to align their KM strategies with knowledge processes in teams or workgroups ([17] Davenport and Prusak, 1998; [20] Earl, 2001; [41] Pinho et al. , 2012).
The authors adopt the notion of [26] Henderson and Venkatraman (1993, pp. 2-3) and define alignment with respect to KM in this paper as a continuous process of refinement that comprises "the fit and linkage between an organisational KM strategy emphasis and associated KM processes". Based on the current management literature on alignment, the authors believe that there is a research gap in the understanding of alignment between the organisation's KM strategy and workgroup KM processes which underpin the success of KM. In fact, of the few key studies ([24] Hansen et al. , 1999; [53] Zack, 1999; [20] Earl, 2001; [34] Maier and Remus, 2002) on KM strategy, none have clearly spelled out the alignment between KM strategy and knowledge processes in workgroups. Since there are no clear guidelines in the KM literature on the notion of alignment, this research aims to answer the following research question: how can organisations achieve alignment between their KM...