Modeling the Dynamics of Knowledge Management in Educational Institutes: A System Dynamics Approach

Abstract

Research problem. Recently, being known as the most vital asset to as well as the capital of organizations, the issue of organizational knowledge creation has attracted a great deal of attention in several settings encompassing educational centers and institutions. Not only may a high-quality capital account for the success of a given organization, publishing its success stories, and consequently both clients’ and employees’ satisfaction, it can result in the escalation of scientific, human, and financial resources. Knowledge management has been defined as the process of discovering, acquiring, developing, maintaining, evaluating, and applying the right knowledge at the right time by the right person in an organization through the creation of a link between human resources, information technology, and communication while creating a suitable structure for achieving organizational goals (Afrazeh, 2005). Similarly, Hoffman, Hoelscher, and Sheriff (2005) described it as the process of creating and sharing knowledge in such a way that the results can be used effectively in the organization. In educational institutions also, knowledge management is a systematic and organized process of creating and disseminating information, selecting, refining, and disseminating explicit as well as implicit knowledge, in order to create a unique value which can be used to strengthen the learning and teaching environment (Gonzalez & Martins, 2017). Having probed into the relevant literature, we realize that in many studies (Jashpara, 2004; Messa & Testa, 2004; Newman & Conrad, 2000) knowledge management includes four general processes: knowledge creation, knowledge retention, knowledge sharing, and knowledge application. Purpose of the study: In this research, using the system dynamics method, a model is proposed to identify the effective factors in the knowledge management cycle in an educational center. Then, the effectiveness of the identified factors over time is simulated and the changes in the behavior of the institute, which are the result of the changes in the behavior of the staff as well as capabilities and tendencies, are observable. This study attempts to identify the most influential factors in the knowledge management process using the presented dynamic model and by examining the factors. The levers suggest appropriate operations to focus on these factors. Research method: This is applied research that is conducted using the system dynamics approach introduced by Sterman (2000). This approach is used to represent the status quo of a system and its changes in the future. Identifying and problematizing the main issue through studying related works and interviewing twenty-eight experts in the field using a semi-structured researcher-made survey; creating dynamic hypotheses and drawing the cause-effect diagrams and the flow diagram; using Vensim software to simulate the mod, and finally, sensitivity analysis was the stages followed respectively. The results of this study showed that by implementing the knowledge management process in the institute, the performance of the teaching personnel increased in an s-shaped manner; the experience improved exponentially, and the family-student contentment improved which would consequently result in organization growth. Finally, the researchers presented and analyzed two proposed policies.