Knowledge management fishbone: a standard framework of organizational enablers Emad M. Kamhawi Abstract Purpose – The main purpose of this study is to craft and test a framework for the link between knowledge management (KM) and performance in organizations, with a view of providing a deeper understanding of the different KM output levels or stages that this link goes through, as well as highlighting the organizational context of each level in that link. Design/methodology/approach – A survey method was used to elicit opinions from 167 mid- and top-level managers from the top 81 Bahraini businesses. Findings – The study results produced a fishbone model. Its spine positioned knowledge management activities as the first output level, leading to innovation as the second, which in turn impacts the organization’s level of agility, and finally links to performance as the head of that skeletal model. Research limitations/implications – The results highlight the different organizational enablers for these stages, which have been diagrammed as the ribs of the fish skeleton-like model. Originality/value – The framework may become a standard model, i.e. may work as a reference for academics and practitioners to help evaluate which KM level needs to be emphasized, at what time, and then what critical factors managers should work on, in order to maximize the organization’s outcome from each stage of the model. Keywords Knowledge management, Performance, Agility, Innovation, Critical success factors, Organizational enablers, Knowledge management activities, Organizational performance, Bahrain Paper type Research paper Introduction Building theoretical frameworks is one of the methods which researchers use in order to provide an understanding of the phenomena they study. Such frameworks may provide great contributions to a body of knowledge, especially if they address important issues. Knowledge management (KM) is one of those important and complicated disciplines that require such frameworks. It is portrayed in business literature as a management approach with the potential to affect the whole of an organization, especially its processes and information systems, as well as culture and skills (Currie, 1999; King and Zeithalm, 2003). Therefore, many research efforts tried to develop frameworks related to how we can manage knowledge effectively. Some of these frameworks focused on identifying and modeling the different sets of knowledge management activities (KMAs) that organizations have to deal with, in order to orchestrate knowledge resources in the organization (Kamhawi, 2010; Lee et al., 2005). Other studies tried to develop frameworks for the critical success factors (CSFs) that drive the implementation of KM programs, which in turn impact performance in organizations (Kulkarni et al., 2007; Wong, 2005). However, it is still not clear from the current literature whether KMAs lead directly, as many may assume, to higher performance, or the impacts of KMAs go through stages or some intermediate levels of outputs. Another related concern is that if there are intermediate stages in the link between KMAs and performance, what could be the CSFs for each stage? PAGE 808 j JOURNAL OF KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT j VOL. 16 NO. 5 2012, pp. 808-828, Q Emerald Group Publishing Limited, ISSN 1367-3270 DOI 10.1108/13673271211262826 Emad M. Kamhawi is based in the Department of Management Sciences and the Efficient Productivity Institute, Zagazig University, Zagazig, Egypt. Received October 2011 Revised February 2012 February 2012 Accepted March 2012