Knowledge management for effective and ethical management of public schools: Perspectives from South Africa

Norma Romm,Bongani Nkambule

doi:10.17275/per.22.60.9.3

Norma Romm, Bongani Nkambule

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.17275/per.22.60.9.3

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Abstract

In this article, we consider the instituting of effective and ethical knowledge management in the arena of public schooling, with reference to a multiple case study involving three schools in Emalahleni Circuit 1, 2 and 3 in South Africa. Teachers, HoDs, administrative clerks, and principals (20 participants altogether) were interviewed in depth concerning their understandings of knowledge management. We explicate Nonaka and colleagues’ model of knowledge management, which they developed to apply to business and public organizations and which is considered seminal in the literature on knowledge management. It is tied to (Japanese) principles of ba – where people recognize their occupation of a shared space with others. We relate this model to a discussion on the applicability of the African concept of Ubuntu to the knowledge management practices in the selected public schools. We use these cases to consider Ubuntu-directed knowledge management as a process of developing sharedness of purpose among the stakeholders within the schools (internal stakeholders) and outside thereof (in the wider community and society). We indicate to what extent and in what ways the participants experienced knowledge management in this way

Highlights

Linking Effective Management to Ethical ConsiderationsMoloi suggests that knowledge management (KM) applied to a schooling context calls for a school to “develop a deep capacity among its entire staff to be at the forefront of knowledge and skill in teaching and learning” (2010, p. 622)
In the article we explore this notion further by examining how the participants commented on the style of leadership that they detected in the schools and how it impacted on their experiences of KM in the schools
We would suggest that we still need to take into account the value of a ba-inspired development of a “shared space”, and to continue to explore its relevance for KM. (See Drucker, 1971.) This is pertinent to our considerations with reference to the South African multiple case study, where, we argue, the concept of ba can be seen to resonate with that of a we-directed commitment to Ubuntu

Summary

Introduction

Linking Effective Management to Ethical ConsiderationsMoloi suggests that knowledge management (KM) applied to a schooling context calls for a school to “develop a deep capacity among its entire staff to be at the forefront of knowledge and skill in teaching and learning” (2010, p. 622). The distinction between efficiency and effectiveness originates from Drucker’s famous “The Effective Executive: The Definitive Guide to Getting the Right Things Done” (published in 1967, with additional editions in 1985, 1996, 2002, 2006) Drucker proposes this understanding of effectiveness as applying to both business and public organizations, but he recognizes that in different cultural milieux ways of defining decisions as being the “right” ones can vary. He refers (1971) to the Japanese ideal of consensual decision-making and how this may appear strange to certain Western executives. This is the cultural milieu in which Nonaka and colleagues developed their knowledge management (KM) approach to knowledge creation and knowledge sharing towards defining “right” courses of action to be pursued (Nonaka, 1994; Nonaka, Byosiere, Borucki & Konno, 1994; Nonaka & Konno, 1998; Nonaka, Toyama & Konno, 2000; Nonaka & Toyama, 2003; Nonaka & Takeuchi, 1995; Takeuchi & Nonaka, 1986)

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