Journal of Knowledge Management, Economics and Information Technology

This paper intended to determine the role corporate culture plays in facilitating or hindering knowledge management (KM) practices, especially knowledge sharing, in selected private higher education institutions in Botswana and whether there is a fit or misfit between organisational culture of these institutions and international KM best practices.
Several key literary KM sources were consulted in which the theoretical underpinnings of the study were firmly grounded. This study used a quantitative method through the questionnaire as a data collection instrument.
A sample comprising 132 respondents was chosen from a total population of 670 comprising academic staff from five selected higher education institutions. The culture of these institutions was found to be negatively impacting on KM practices by, for example, not recognising and rewarding employee effort in promoting KM behaviour, not involving employees in decision-making, and failing to cultivate trust among employees and between employees and management.

  Organisational Culture as a Knowledge Management Enabler in Selected Private Higher Education Institutions in Botswana: A Question of Fit or Misfit (636.9 KiB, 3,088 hits)

Knowledge sharing is becoming more and more important as such educational institutions are trying to harness this opportunity to students’ learning environment in order to create value.

Therefore, the motivation behind this research is to conduct an empirical study to explore the factors that influence the success of knowledge-sharing using web technologies among students in higher education.

A total number of 263 respondents were used in this study after removing the outliers from the actual data collected in International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM).

Based on the research model, multiple regression analysis was run on the group of constructs. The findings indicate benefit, experience, workgroup, knowledge culture, technology availability, and technology support were the significant variables that influence knowledge sharing using web 2.0 tools in the university.

While in this study, cost has no positive effect in influencing knowledge sharing using web technologies in the university.

  Determinants of Knowledge Sharing Using Web Technologies among Students in Higher Education (576.8 KiB, 3,603 hits)

Knowledge is valuable assets of organizations. One of the effective ways of creating new knowledge is highlighting knowledge sharing process among people. In this study the researcher tries to investigate the solutions for knowledge sharing problem in the classroom context. We have two objectives. One is to examine whether participants’ decision-making process in knowledge sharing behaviour through digital game depend on their colleagues’ knowledge sharing behaviours. The second is to examine the perceived payoff of sharing knowledge and specify if it can be characterized through the game theory. The descriptive study was carried out among 30 students from KLMU College in Malaysia. The result indicated the students’ decision making to share their knowledge was dependent to peers knowledge sharing behaviours. In addition, the perceived payoff of sharing knowledge between the students could be characterized by an assurance game. Finally, the paper provides some implication for lecturers or managers who want to provide effective knowledge sharing in their classrooms or organizations.

  Enhancing Knowledge Sharing Among Higher Education Students through Digital Game (702.6 KiB, 3,356 hits)

Successful knowledge management in institutions relies heavily on the process of knowledge sharing. Subsequently, the electronic tools of communication are no longer treated as repository within knowledge management but are regarded as collaborative tools in today’s knowledge-driven organization. To further strengthen the positive effects of knowledge sharing through e-communication tools, institutions need to identify and enhance those tools that are being successfully acknowledged and implemented by the users. Basically, they must invest on the tools, which are used more comfortably by the users in order to develop the knowledge sharing procedures comprehensively. The goal here is to discuss current research and investigate the most efficient available tools for online knowledge sharing in institutes of higher learning from the lecturers’ viewpoint. This study helps to identify the most proper systems for this purpose and to improve them for achieving better outcomes in academic environments. A survey was conducted to acquire data for this study. The questionnaire was designed and distributed through email to more than 700 Lecturers in a Malaysian university, out of which 150 complete responses were collected.

  Implications Knowledge Sharing through E-Collaboration and Communication Tools (236.9 KiB, 8,374 hits)