Knowledge Management Evaluation in British Higher Education Partnerships

2020 ◽  
Vol 19 (02) ◽  
pp. 2050005
Author(s):  
Christopher Bamber ◽  
Enis Elezi

The purpose of this research is to encourage higher education institutions working in partnerships to evaluate the development of partnerships not only on the basis of financial indicators but take into consideration the newly created knowledge as a result of social capital, monitoring and reviewing and continuing professional development of staff. The empirical data were collected through a survey instrument originally used for a PhD study. This research study provides a better understanding of the knowledge management evaluation stage of partnership development. Findings point out that although embedded knowledge management practices support social capital development, it is expected that higher education institutions could exploit their available knowledge to a greater extent in order to improve their impact on social capital in the context of partnership development. Research findings suggest that evaluation frameworks implemented and controlled by higher education institutions regulatory and governing bodies would benefit from particular inclusion within “assessment of performance” of Higher Education partnerships that specifically consider the social impact of partnership ventures. Knowledge management is a developing theme within academia, and findings imply that executives within higher education are committed to include knowledge management training in CPD strategies, as this not only benefits higher education institutions but will also benefit higher education partnership development. In terms of originality and value, this paper straightens the critical importance of knowledge management evaluation as part of the last stage of partnership development in order to advance in the understanding of the benefits deriving from higher education institutions partnerships. Students, scholars and practitioners of knowledge management can gather a range of insights pointed at performance and knowledge creation within a partnership context.

Author(s):  
Fahmi Ibrahim ◽  
Diyana Najwa Ali

Higher education institutions (HEIs) are in knowledge intensive environments and play a central role in knowledge creation and production through research, learning, and teaching. It is important to consider that knowledge plays a vital role to HEIs and thus could benefit from established KM practices. The aim of this chapter is to evaluate the practices or implementation of knowledge management (KM) within HEIs in the context of Brunei Darussalam. It examines the importance, processes and the challenges or barriers of KM practices. The findings demonstrate that among the HEIs in Brunei that have developed KM initiatives, there are differences in the role and approaches. This verifies that KM is multifaceted concept and contextual in practice. Moreover, the findings revealed how knowledge in theory is managed and conceptualised. In conclusion, KM plays a significant role in HEIs in Brunei Darussalam with a contribution through a conceptual KMPro framework which has the potential to provide a guideline for HEIs practitioners to succeed in KM which was criticised as elusive.


Author(s):  
Adriana Karam-Koleski ◽  
Gregorio Varvakis

This paper presents and discusses the use of knowledge management to support innovation in higher education institutions (HEI). The study was conducted at Brasil-STHEM Consortium - a network of Brazilian higher education institutions that work together in the implementation of innovation in their teaching and learning practises. 29 HEI participated in the study that was designed as an exploratory research and used the Asian Productivity Association (APO) knowledge management maturity level assessment tool as a framework for data collection and analysis.  Results demonstrate that there was openness for knowledge management and that there is technological infrastructure available for this to happen, but found  little evidence of the systematic use of knowledge management  practices. The study contributes to research and practise in education management  by proposing the use of KM theory and tools to understand how knowledge being generated by higher education institutions can be identified, stored, shared, created and applied in order to amplify its impact to educational change and innovation.   


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Enis Elezi ◽  
Christopher Bamber

Purpose Higher education institutions possess a plethora of knowledge at the institutional, departmental and individual levels. Therefore, knowledge management plays a vital role in assisting partnerships to synergise knowledge and strengthen market competitiveness when working collaboratively. The purpose of this study is to identify and critically discuss the role of knowledge management concepts that support development of UK higher education partnerships. This knowledge management research was undertaken with the purpose of exploring components of behavioural constructs in assisting the development of successful partnerships between higher education institutions. Design/methodology/approach This research embraces a qualitative methodology and makes use of an expert panel method to gather field data and assess the relevance, robustness and applicability of a conceptual model developed in the context of higher education partnerships. Guided by two research questions, the researchers elicited knowledge from eight experts, academics and practitioners, who had initiated and led partnership development between UK higher education institutions. The experts were invited and selected to attend the panel using the criteria of “Years of Experience in the Higher Education sector”, “Job Positions and Experiences” and the “Partnership Scope and Impact”. Findings Depicting in a tree analogy, the conceptual model indicates that effective knowledge management will require higher education executives, managers and practitioners to centre on nurturing “tree roots” presented as behavioural knowledge management constructs and include institutional culture, trust, absorptive capacities and communication channels. The research findings elaborate on previous research and provide a categorisation of partnership outcomes between higher education institutions, explaining that partnership outcomes can be of an “Academic”, “Marketing and Finance” or “Managerial” nature. Importantly, practical use of the model could be implemented using audit methods or benchmarking methods, whereby the categorised elements of the model are used as a criterion of assessment for audit teams. Originality/value The conclusion extracted experiential insights to provide guidance as to how higher education executives, managers and practitioners can make use of knowledge management behavioural constructs and activities to assist collaborative undertakings in the higher education sector. This paper provided a new, modified, knowledge management higher education partnership tree, thus giving researchers and academic practitioners a holistic viewpoint of important partnership knowledge management factors.


2014 ◽  
Vol 18 (5) ◽  
pp. 905-918 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel Jiménez-Jiménez ◽  
Micaela Martínez-Costa ◽  
Raquel Sanz-Valle

Purpose – This paper aims to assess the importance of different knowledge management practices to promote organizational innovation in multinational companies. The links among internationalization, reverse knowledge transfer and social capital and organizational innovation are analyzed. Design/methodology/approach – Structural equation modeling was used to check the research hypotheses with a sample of 104 multinational companies. Findings – The results show that internalization has no direct effect on organizational innovation but a indirect effect trhrough the transfer of knowledge from external subsidiaries to the headquarter. Furthermore, this knowledge and other that comes from internal and external social capital is essential for the development of innovations. Research limitations/implications – Self-reporting by the CEOs may be the most significant limitation, as a single key informant provided the data; multiple informants would enhance the validity of the research findings. A second limitation is the cross-sectional design of the research that does not allow observation of the short- and long-term impact of the relationships among the variables. Practical implications – Organizational innovation is not an easy task. However, those multinational companies which foster knowledge management practices that generate new knowledge from external subsidiaries, internal or external social relationships, will facilitate the generation of innovations. In consequence, these companies should foster the generation of knowledge from different sources. Originality/value – The focus of the study in this paper is on multinational companies and the possibility to acquire knowledge from different sources (inside organization, external local environment and international context). Specially, focus on the transfer of knowledge from subsidiaries to headquarters (reverse knowledge transfer), as it is insufficiently investigated by current literature.


Author(s):  
Mamokgadi Z. Masete ◽  
Chengedzai Mafini

Background: The demand for higher education in South Africa continues to increase, placing pressure on public higher education institutions to satisfy this demand. Supply chain management is one of the practices that may be implemented to ensure that public universities improve their operations and can, therefore, meet the increased demand for higher education in the country.Objectives: This study aimed to explore the barriers to the implementation of supply chain management practices at a South African public university.Method: The study used a qualitative case study approach using a sample of 17 members of management and staff at a South African traditional university in the Limpopo Province. Data were collected using a combination of a focus group discussion and semi-structured in-depth interviews.Results: The study generated eight themes that embody the barriers to the implementation of supply chain management at the institution. These themes were labelled as stakeholder buy-in, knowledge of supply chain management, supply chain systems and processes, procurement policy and practices, implementation of supply chain management, stakeholder change management, human resource management and organisational culture.Conclusion: Various internal barriers impair the implementation of supply chain management practices at the institution. Administration at the institution has invested limited resources, time and initiatives to ensure the successful implementation of supply chain management. The focus should be directed to finding lasting solutions to each of the barriers identified in this study. Further studies should address the issue of external barriers to supply chain management in public higher education institutions.


2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 185-200 ◽  
Author(s):  
Muhammad Asrar-ul-Haq ◽  
Hafiz Yasir Ali ◽  
Sadia Anwar ◽  
Anam Iqbal ◽  
Muhammad Badr Iqbal ◽  
...  

Purpose Organizational politics has been a topic of conceptual and empirical interest for researchers and practitioners for many years. The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between organizational politics and employee work outcomes in educational institutions. In addition, this paper also aims to assess the moderating role of social capital. Design/methodology/approach Employee perceptions about organizational politics and its impact on their work outcomes have been assessed empirically with a sample of 270 full-time employees in higher education institutions of Pakistan. The data have been collected from faculty members of five universities of Pakistan using survey method. SPSS and AMOS have been used to analyze the data and SEM has been used to test the hypotheses. Findings The results indicate a moderating effect of social capital on the relationship between perceived organizational politics and employee outcomes, and the most significant employee outcomes are job stress, job satisfaction and turnover intentions. The findings of the study support the view that organizational politics has negative association with employee job stress and turnover intentions. Research limitations/implications Higher education sector in Pakistan is facing certain challenges, which affect talent retention. The findings of this study will help the administration of higher education institutions to develop effective strategies to cope with the challenges of organizational politics, such as motivation, satisfaction and retention of their employees. Originality/value The study adds to the literature on organizational politics by highlighting and validating its adverse effects on employee work outcomes in the context of Pakistani higher education.


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