Organizations today should actively incorporate knowledge strategy (KS) into their Business Strategy (BS) as knowledge has been recognized as a strategic element in the performance of the organization. Hence, the current research hypothesis that the alignment between BS and KS has a positive effect on the organizational performance. In an attempt to explore the alignment between KS and BS, an operational model is proposed based on the prior studies in the strategic alignment. BS types were viewed in terms of Miles and Snow's (1978) typology of Defenders, Analyzers and Prospectors. Two KS strategies include: Aggressive Knowledge Strategy (AKS) and Conservative Knowledge Strategy (CKS) were selected to examine the KM strategic alignment with business strategies. This model was empirically validated through a survey of 106 banks selected from the six Gulf countries (Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, UAE, and Oman). With respect to the perspective of alignment, the moderation approach was chosen. The overall finding of the research demonstrated that there is a strong association between KS and BS and that the alignment between KS and BS clearly influenced the organizational performance.

This paper presents a hybrid approach to understanding the knowledge management requirements for a knowledge intensive service organization. It proposes a strategy‑knowledge management alignment framework grounded in literature. The framework was constructed by studying four published case‑studies that tackle knowledge management at world class management consulting firms. The paper then applies the framework to two cases in the knowledge intensive services sector. The first case studies a young management consulting firm needing to formalize its knowledge management policies and processes. The second case studies the creation of an IT Outsourcing Services Division by a traditional telecommunications company that needs to expand its product offering to increase its opportunities for growth in a small market. The two case studies support the proposed framework and show that it can be used to obtain practical solutions in a business environment. One of the case studies also contributes to developing the case method in research by using the Socratic Dialogue as a means to collecting and analyzing evidence.