Knowledge Management Practices in the Higher Education Sector with Special Reference to Business Schools

Abstract

Higher education institutions are creators and disseminators of knowledge, yet, it is questionable whether they follow scientifically established knowledge management practices. The paper attempts to review the knowledge management practices appropriate for business schools and highlights key enablers and barriers. There is a special need in business schools versus rest of the higher education ecosystem in respect of knowledge management in business schools, given the differences in the value of diverse kinds of knowledge and their storage and retrieval. This paper lists the major parameters of knowledge management relevant to higher education and presents a framework for managing knowledge as a strategic tool for developing and maintaining sustainable competitive edge for business schools. It observes that business schools hold in higher regard current and upto- date applied, actionable, and context-rich kinds of knowledge, whereas other constituencies of a university value less transient kinds of knowledge. Also, knowledge in business schools is found more in networks than in nodes and hence effective leveraging of such knowledge calls for different strategies. The integration with knowledge ecosystems outside the institutional libraries is crucial. The nature of knowledge expected by business schools is scholarly yet rooted in practice. The contexts provided included globalization, higher education internationalization, and there is special mention of their implications for knowledge management.