"Knowledge Management Practices in Higher Education Institutes: A Different Approach "

Authors

  • Gholamreza Shams Mourkani Shahid Beheshti University(National University of Iran), Evin, Tehran, Iran.
  • Ahmad Momeni Rad Department of Law, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran.

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.12724/ajss.17.4

Keywords:

Knowledge management, Decision-making, Problem-solving, Higher Education

Abstract

A wide variety of organizational practices have been proposed to support the creation, storage and transfer of knowledge, yet it is often unclear how these practices relate to one another in their contribution to organizational performance. This study develops a categorization system for knowledge management practices in higher education based on two dimensions: the practices' role in the problem-solving process, and the type of problem they address. Analysis of survey data supports the proposed framework and uncovers two higher order factors that correspond to the concepts of exploration and exploitation. By focusing attention on the importance of problem-solving in transforming knowledge into business value, this research suggests a new way to understand the connection between knowledge management practices and organizational goals.

Author Biographies

Gholamreza Shams Mourkani, Shahid Beheshti University(National University of Iran), Evin, Tehran, Iran.

Department of Education, Faculty of Education & Psychology, Shahid Beheshti University(National University of Iran), Evin, Tehran, Iran.

Ahmad Momeni Rad, Department of Law, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran.

Department of Law, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran.

References

Barney, J. (1999). Firm resources and sustained competitive advantage. Journal of Management, 17(1), pp. 99 - 120.

Berthon, P. R., Pitt, L. F., & Morris, M. H. (1998). The impact of individual and organizational factors on problem perception: theory and empirical evidence from the marketing-technical dyad. Journal of Business Research, 42, PP. 25 - 38.

Boisot, M. H. (2008). Knowledge Assets. Oxford Univ. Press, New York.

Boose, J. & Gaines, B. R. (2005). The Foundations of Knowledge Acquisition. London: Academic Press.

Brown, J. S. & Diguid, P. (1998). Organizing knowledge. California Management Review, 40 (3), pp. 90 - 111 (Spring).

Choo, C. W, (1998). The Knowing Organization: How Organizations Use Information to Construct Meaning, Create Knowledge and Make Decisions. New York: Oxford Univ. Press.

Churchill G. A. (1979). A paradigm for developing better measures of marketing constructs. Journal of Marketing Research. 16, pp. 64 - 73 (February).

Cohen, W. M. & Levinthal, D. A. (1990). Absorptive capacity: a new perspective on learning and innovation. Administrative Science Quarterly, 35, pp. 128 - 152.

Constant, D., Sproull, L. S., & Kiesler, S. B. (2006). The kindness of strangers: the usefulness of electronic weak ties for technical advice. Organization Science, 7 (2), pp. 119 - 135.

Crowe, M. (1997). Intellectual capital for the perplexed. Harvard Management Update, 3 - 5 (August).

D'Aveni, R. A. (1994). Hyper-competition: Managing the Dynamics of Strategic Maneuvering. New York: Free Press.

Davenport, T. H. & Prusak, L. (2008). Working Knowledge: How Organizations Manage What They Know. Boston: Harvard Business School Press.

Davenport, T. H., Jarvenpaa, S., & Beers, M. (1996). Improving Knowledge work processes. Sloan Management Review. 37(4), pp. 53 - 65 (Summer).

Dhaliwal, J. S. & Benbasat, I. (1990). A framework for the comparative evaluation of knowledge acquisition techniques. Knowledge Acquisition. 2(2), pp. 145 - 166 (June).

Earl, M. J. & Hopwood, A. J. (1980). From management information to information management. In H. C. Lucas, F. F. Land, T. J. Lincoln, K. Supper (Eds.). The Information Systems Environment. Amsterdam: North-Holland, pp. 3 - 13.

Garvin, D. A. (1998). Building a Learning Organization, Harvard Business Review on Knowledge Management. Boston: Harvard Business School Press.

Gray, P. H. & Chan, Y. E. (2000). Integrating knowledge management practices through a problem-solving framework. Communications of the AJS, 4 (12).

Gray, P. H. *2000). The effects of knowledge management systems on emergent teams: towards a research model. Journal of Strategic Information Systems.

Hansen, M. T., Nohria, N., & Tierney, T. (1999). What's your strategy for managing knowledge? Harvard Business Review, 77 (2), pp, 106 - 116.

Holsapple, C. W. & Whinston, A. B. (2007). Decision Support Systems: A Knowledge Based Approach. Cambridge: Course Technology.

Huber, G. P. & Mc Daniel, R. P. (1986). The decision making paradigm of organizational design. Management Science, 32 (5), pp. 572 - 587.

Huber, G. P. (1991). Organizational Learning: the contributing processes and the literatures. Organization Science, 2 (1), 88 - 115.

Kiesler, S. & Sproull, L. (1982). Managerial response to changing environments: perspectives on problem sensing from social cognition. Administrative Science Quarterly, 27 (4), pp. 548 - 570.

Kirs, P. J., Sanders, J. L., Cerveny, R. P., & Robey, D. (1989). An experimental evolution of the Gary and Scott Morton framework. MIS Quartely, 13 (2), pp. 183 - 197 (June).

Kogut, B. & Zander, U. (1992). Knowledge of the film, combinative capabilities, and the replication of technology. Organization Science, 3 (3), pp. 383 - 397 (Aug).

Lave, J. & Wenger, E. (1991). Situated Learning: Legitimate Peripheral Participation. Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press.

Leonard, D. & Sensiper, S. (1998). The role of tacit knowledge in group innovation. California Management Review, 40 (3), pp. 112 - 132 (Spring).

Leonard - Barton, D. (2006). Wellsprings of Knowledge. Boston: Harvard Business School Press.

MacMullin, S. E. & Taylor, R. S. (1984). Problem dimensions and information traits. Information Society, 3 (1), pp. 91 - 111.

March, J. G. (1991). Exploration and exploitation in organizational learning. Organization Science, 2, pp. 71 - 87.

Miles, R. E. & Snow, C. C. (1995). The new network firm: a spherical structure built on a human investment philosophy. Organizational Dynamics, 23 (4), pp. 5 - 18.

Mintzberg, H., Raisinghani, D., & Theoret, A. (1976). The structure of un-structured decision processes, Administrative Science Quarterly, 21, pp. 246 - 275 (June).

Nahapiet, J. & Ghoshal, S. (2008). Social capital, intellectual capital, and the organizational advantage. Academy of Management Review, 23 (2), pp. 242 - 266.

Nonaka, I. & takeuchi, H. (1995). The Knowledge-Creating Company. New York: Oxford University Press.

Nonaka, I. (1994). A dynamic theory of organizational knowledge creation. Organization Science, 5 (1), pp. 14 - 37 (Feb).

Nunally, J. C. (1967). Psychometric Theory. New York: McGraw-Hill.

Polanyi, M. (1966). The Tacit Dimension. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.

Popper, K. R. (1972). Objective Knowledge: An Evolutionary Approach. Oxford: Clarendon Press.

Porter, M. E. (1985). Competitive Advantage. New York: Fress Press.

Prahalad, C. K. & Hamel, G. (1990). The core competence of the corporation. Harvard Business Review, pp. 79 - 91 (May - June).

Quinn, J. B., Anderson, P., & Finkelstein, S. (1998). Managing professional intellect: making the most of the best, Harvard Business Review on Knowledge Management. Boston: Harvard Business School Press.

Rice, R. E. (2007). Network analysis and computer-mediated communications systems. In S. Wasserman, & J. Galaskiewicz (Eds.). Advances in Social Network Analysis: Research in the Social and Behavioral Sciences. Thousand Oaks: Sage.

Ruggles, R. (1998). The state of the notion: knowledge management in practice. California Management Review, 40 (3), pp. 80 - 89 (Spring).

Sarvary, M. (1999). Knowledge management and competition in the consulting industry. California Management Review, 41 (2), pp. 95 - 107 (Winter).

Sawy, O. A. & Pauchant, T. C. (1988). Triggers, templates, and twitches in the tracking of emerging strategic issues. Strategic Management Journal, 9 (5), pp. 455 - 473.

Schneider, W. & Shiffrin, R. M. (1977). Controlled and automatic human information processing: I. Detection, search, and attention. Psychological Review, 84 (1), pp. 1 - 66.

Simon, H. A. (1960). The New Science of Management Decision. New York: Harper & Row.

Sitkin, S. B. (2005). Learning through failure: the strategy of small losses. In L. Cummings, & B. Staw (Eds.). Research in Organizational Behavior. Greenwich, CT: JAI Press.

Sprague, R. & Watson, H. (1996). Decision Support for Management. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.

Stein, E. W. & Zwass, V. (1995). Actualizing organizational memory with information systems. Information systems Reseach, 6 (2), pp. 85 - 117 (June).

Stewart, T. (1997). Intellectual Capital: The New Wealth of Nations. New York: Doubleday.

Vandenbosch, B. & Higgins, C. (1996). Information acquisition and mental models: an investigation into the relationship between behavior and learning. Information Systems Research, 7 (2), pp. 198 - 214 (June).

Zack, M. H. (1999). Developing a knowledge strategy. California Management Review, 41 (3), pp. 125 - 145 (Spring).

Zmud, R. W. (2003). Opportunities for strategic information management through new information technology. In J. Fulk, & C. Steinfeld, (Eds.). Organizations and Communication Technology. Newbury Park: Sage.

Downloads

Published

2010-07-01

Issue

Vol. 9 No. 2 (2010): Artha Journal of Social Sciences

Section

Articles

License

Copyright (c) 2017 Artha - Journal of Social Sciences

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.