ABSTRACT
This study investigated the status
of Knowledge Management (KM) in the administration of federal universities in
South-East Nigeria. Five Research questions and two hypotheses guided the
study. Descriptive survey design was used. The population of the study was 420
administrative and academic in the universities investigated, while the sample
of 212 was drawn using simple random sampling technique. A 30-item
self-developed questionnaire, Status of Application of Knowledge Management in
Administration of Federal Universities Questionnaire (SAKAFUQ), was used to
collect the data. Cronbach Alpha technique was used to test the reliability of
the instrument and it yielded overall reliability index of 0.98. Real limits of
numbers were used to take decisions. Mean and standard deviation were used to
answer the five research questions, while t-test was used to analyse the two
null hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. Findings of the study revealed
that the level of the status of application of KM by both administrators and
academics in the federal universities in South-East, Nigeria is low. It also
showed that the extent to which applying KM in administration enhanced
professional advancement of both administrative and academic staff is little.
The findings further showed that use of KM tools low. Based on the findings,
recommendations were made which include; that administrative and academic heads
should make effort more to embrace the internet, that university management
should make key and longest serving employees to write memoirs of their
experience to be presented on the day of their sent forth. Finally, the
teaching of KM should be made a component of post-graduate study in all
universities.
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
Background to the Study
Computer,
robotics, automation, artificial intelligence, internet and other related
technologies came into being in the last century. No doubt, these are some of
the foremost products of cutting edge technology. Since their arrival in the
1940s, efficiency and effectiveness in almost all spheres of work were
redefined. Surprisingly, till date, there still appears to be no end to the
possibilities these products bring into the world of work. It is important to
note that one crucial factor that brought the creation of all these is
knowledge and how it is being put to use. Given the place of knowledge in
proffering solutions to difficult humans problems, the cost of acquiring it and
the volume of it resident in various deans, vice chancellors, registrars, directors
of institutes, books, journal, databases, internet, intranet, and so on the
need to investigate the present status of Knowledge Management (KM) in some
universities arose.
Knowledge
can be described as the awareness of information, idea, principles, or truths
and facts which can be applied to create possibilities as well as solve
real-life problems. Tiamiyu and Aina (2008) opined that knowledge is an
organized accumulation of information at specific points. This means that knowledge can be found in various
forms. These include human beings, documents, databases, internet, and so on.
Out
of the forms of knowledge, human knowledge, which is knowledge possessed by
humans is unique in its mode of acquisition and processes (Fadele & Madu,
2009; Tiamiyu & Aina, 2008). In agreement with this assertion, Ajenikoko
and Adeyemo (2004) noted that despite the
high level of computerization, automation, artificial intelligence and other
attempts to simulate human knowledge, none of these–not even expert systems–has
been able to demonstrate the uniqueness of human knowledge. Human knowledge
which can also be referred to as human knowledge asset, intellectual asset and
intellectual capital is critically important in all organizational operations
as it is held by employees in such organisations (Bontis & Choo, 2002;
Bresman, Birkinshaw & Nobel 2010). This
is why Bontis and Choo (2002) and Booker, Bontis and Serenko (2008) noted that
great expertise is lost when highly
competent individuals leave organizations such as the university system.
While
internet connectivity enhances global visibility which is a factor critical in
the webometrics ranking of universities, it is important to note that
there is attrition of very highly competent individuals away from Nigerian
universities to other countries because of inadequate funding. These factors
are partly implicated for poor quality of research and teaching in Nigerian
universities (Ajayi & Ekundayo, 2011; Babalola,
Jaiyeoba, &Okediran, 2007).As a result, Onwurah and Chiaha (2008) were
alarmed that despite the volume of knowledge related activities in Nigerian
universities none of these universities was among the 500 top-ranked
universities in the international ranking of universities. According to
Coomassie (2009), this trend is contrary to what obtained in the 1950s through
to mid-1975 when funding was adequate to allow research go on without
distractions. Better funding, Adebowale (2004) and Adesina (2006) concluded,
was what made those years to be the most productive years in the history of
Nigerian universities. They further concluded that it was during this time that
Nigerian intellectual community recorded considerable international presence in
terms of scholarship and publications
In
addition to the foregoing, there is depleting capacity for profession
advancement on the part of administrators as well as academics as costs of
professional trainings are high in juxtaposition to their earnings. Concomitant
to this is the falling job satisfaction causing many university administrators
to eagerly desire and switch to pure academic employment in belief that the
latter is more flexible and enjoys higher job status. When this trend is not
checked,there will be underutilization and outright waste of well-motivated and
highly competent academics and administrators in federal universities.
Corroborating this, Haslinda and Sarinah (2010), concluded that valuable human
and knowledge resources will be wasted unless management of
such organizations accept and supports efforts to gather, transform, record and
share knowledge that will bring optimal functioning of such organizations.
These and a deliberate effort to create knowledge for a particular goal are the
major thrusts of Knowledge Management (KM).
KM deals with all processes
of on-the-job discussions, formal apprenticeship, discussion forum,
professional training and mentoring (Bontis & Choo 2002; Sorenko,
Bontis& Booker, 2010). Given the prevalence of modern means of
communication, as observed by Scott (2006) and Spanbauer (2006), modern KM
application involves but not limited to knowledge sharing and transfer as KM
process sometimes requires requisite ICT skills, availability of basic ICT and
e-learning infrastructure like Web 2.0, intranet and internet, teleconferencing
for the purpose of assembling or reaching geographically distributed knowledge
asset and expert locations. This is corroborated by Haslinda and Sarinah (2010)
who noted that KM comprises efforts to gather, sort, transform, record and
share knowledge using various channels. This variegated approach is important
as KM focuses on codified and uncodified knowledge as well as human wisdom. In
a university system, a situation whereby outgoing holders of prominent offices
like the registrar and the vice chancellors are made to write memoirs shortly
before or immediately they leave such offices will enrich the KM processes. In
summary, for the purpose of this investigation, an operational definition of KM
can be seen as a.....
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