Knowledge Management – Success Dynamite For Business School

In its simplest form, knowledge management is about having the capability for getting the "right" information to the "right" people on a timely basis. Academic institutions in particular management institutes (also called as business schools) have taken more interest recently in introducing KM approaches. From the academic learning point of view Knowledge Management (KM) by its nature especially is suitable. Business schools (B-schools) use information technology based tools for admissions, registrations, time table processing and performance evaluations of their faculty, students, staff and administrations. The paper presents a conceptual framework as an attempt for analyzing four phase KM methodology as one of the Knowledge Management tools in the context of Knowledge Management (KM) in Business Schools (B-schools) in India. We believe that if the framework is adopted in business schools, it will yield more benefits to increase the quality of knowledge sharing.


1.    Introduction:  There has been indeed a paradigm shift in management education in India. The new breed of management professionals need to be efficient to tackle problems from cross functional, cultural and ethical perspectives and equipped with skills to bench mark for global leadership positions. It is ironic that the importance of managing knowledge was to be realized at the centers of learning; the business schools much later than businesses. An industry which can possibly gain the most out of practicing knowledge management, and the primary function of which is to impart knowledge is education. Knowledge Management is beyond an information system. It is about storing knowledge and wisdom; converting tacit knowledge to explicit knowledge. Within the realms of higher education, public and private sectors strive to improve methods of imparting knowledge. Management education institutes are information processing systems that continuously deal with and disseminate interpretation and learning derived from a dynamically uncertain business environment. The study treats a management institute as an organization with a mission and a goal and its activities and culture directed towards the effective achievement of these goals. And the knowledge management is an increasingly essential component necessary for innovation and value creation, which is must for every successful B- school. The educational system can be aligned to produce results that will immensely benefit the knowledge economy. Introducing Knowledge Management in education is as much a misnomer as it in the context of business. Knowledge has been traditionally managed in educational institutes & businesses much before KM (methodologies) gained prominence, informally.
In educational institutes, librarians were traditionally entrusted with the function of knowledge management (or information management to be precise). Shielding against information overload has been one of their primary functions & will remain so even after the educational institutes transformed into knowledge centers. In fact a large chunk of consultants in the field of KM have been librarians in the past. These librarians now need to move on from a support role to the center stage & collaborate with the entire knowledge community at a strategic level to make KM successful.
2.    Literature Review:  Educational institutions are under constant assault by industry,journalists, and academics alike (Sargenti Patrice, Lightfoot William and Kehal Mounir, 2006) to justify their existence, relevancy, and effectiveness, given the rapid rate of change in today’s world. There are several studies conducted on KM principles and strategies towards organizational learning (Earl, 2001; Easterby- Smith et. al, 2000; Grant, 1996; Hansen et. al, 1999; Bieber et. al, 2002; Duffy, 2000; Levine, 2001). High quality research work is done on knowledge management in higher education (Bernborn, 1999; Kallick and Wilson, 2000; Kidwell et. al, 2000; Petrides and Guiney, 2002; Petrides, 2002; Serban and Luan, 2002). But few studies are devoted to institutional learning using KM practices. (Corbitt et. al, 2005) gives various factors influencing the use of KM tools in higher education. Education today is subject to the pressures of the marketplace. According to (Brown and Duguid, 2000), profound changes in competition have made institutions think like business.
This paper presents an academic framework for the adoption of KM principles in management institutions. This paper will explore KM in business school context that is used to improve efficiency and effectiveness of creation and sharing of knowledge among people. Management institutions in India are always challenged to stay relevant both in terms of education and research. Management institutions generate information about students, courses, faculty and staff that includes managerial systems, organizational personnel, lectures details, quality research and so on. Research shows that many information technology implementations in educational institutions fail not because of technology but because of insufficient attention is paid to issues related to institution’s culture (Levine, 2001; Friedman and Hoffman, 2001).

Dr.S.Xavier Alphonso presented the rules & regulations to be led by the XI the five year plan in regards to higher education. As per Ashish Kumar & Arun Kumar “University News” – A weekly Journal of Higher Education in India from Association of Indian Universities, New Delhi IndiaVol. 43, No. 30, July 25-31, 2005, Pp. 4 – 9 The need of  IT based KM initiatives  makes a strong case for further exploration with a view to look upon them as potent enablers for restructuring the existing Higher Education System in India, which may also cast a serious impact on the overall economics of running and maintaining the  higher education system in India. Linda Nowack1, Thomas Maul1, Werner Kraus1 and Walter Hansch1 in Knowledge Management Research & Practice (2009) 7, 100–112. doi:10.1057/kmrp.2008.33 shows how education at a university semiconductor laboratory can be improved by using a content management system to build a knowledge management system. The structuring and implementation will be shown as well as students' rating of it. The results support the conclusion that the knowledge base is a great step forward for improving education and research in a complex environment.Ms.victoria Konidari & Yvan Abernot showed Knowledge management in educational institutions: a new way of supporting teachers and assuring school's quality György Kende,  Erzsébet Noszkay - György Seres Published earlier at: Megjelent: New challenges in the field of military sciences. ZMNDU, János Bolyai Military Technical Faculty 2007 Proceeding I. ISNB 978- 963 – 06 – 3183- 9, 155-166 p.)  emphasized the role of knowledge management in modern higher education. The Impact of Information Systems on Knowledge Culture in Management Education Institutions presented by Monica Mittal Published by The International Journal Of Learning.

3.    Objective: To study the need of implementation of knowledge management in Indian B-school and to provide a four phase KM tool for implementation.
4.    Need of Knowledge Management in B-School: The knowledge base is a great step forward for improving education and research of business school in the complex environment. The students need a good working environment and the opportunity to gain and share information in order to carry out successful research and course work.
Though the system of education in B-school is precisely the place where not only the potential future knowledge workers are trained but also the place where they are present as professors1. Whereas it is commonly known that in the society of knowledge, knowledge is a significant resource, while in its creation the so called knowledge workers play the main role, therefore the endeavor is justified. Taking into consideration that this issue is fundamental for the present higher education, let us take a closer look at what we call knowledge management. According to a widely known author – Davenport ‘the knowledge management is a kind of business model, which utilizes the knowledge as the asset of the organization to reach competitive edge’. On the other hand it is also a management tool which promotes the evaluation, the utilization, the creation, the expansion, the protection, the division and application of the intellectual capital of the organization from an integrated approach. It is not difficult to accept that this definition connected to the world of business can be very well associated with that very up-to-date concept of B - school education, according to which knowledge is considered a product whereas the university student is considered a client.
5.    Dynamics of Knowledge Management in B-School:  School Education in India has expanded enormously during the last decade.  It is also encountering a few important and significant challenges.  The concept of education itself has gone through a sea change. Nowadays education is not only meant for acquiring knowledge but sharing of knowledge too. B- School education has imbibed with itself personality grooming, communication skill, presentation skill. Education is now imparted with subjective orientation rather than syllabus orientation, teaching extra units not included in the syllabus but important in current trends so as to create gem of the personality after successfully finishing the course curriculum. Thus educating them in B-school having dynamics of knowledge management for:

      Education for:
        i) Knowledge
ii) Information
                            iii) Skills
                            iv) Employment
                            v) Livelihood
                         `vi) Empowerment
                           vii) Social and National Development
While the rules & regulations of the government in creating the knowledge management based education system in their XIth five year plan are full of challenges –

6.    The Challenges Facing Management Education in India in The Xith Five Year Plan:
    i.    Expansion of Management Education in India
    ii.    Expansion
iii.    Equality
iv.    Excellence and Quality
v.    Funding of Higher Education
vi.    Academic and Administrative Reforms
vii.    Role of Private Education
viii.    Internationalization of Education

7.    Expansion of Higher Education in India: Higher Education in India has expanded many folds since independence.  The number of universities has increased  from 20 in 1947 to 378, colleges from 500 to 18064, teaching staff from a meager 15,00 to nearly 4.80 lakhs and students population in higher education from 1 lakh in 1950 to over 112 lakhs in 2005.  Many fold expansion in institutional capacity of higher education has enhanced enrolment ratio from less than 1% in 1950 to about 10% in 2007.
Since independence, the system has grown around 22 fold in terms of Universities and 33 folds in terms of number of colleges suggesting a transition from an elitist system of education of the British India to a mass system of education characterizing a democratic republic.

The success stories of ‘green revolution’, ‘space technology’, ‘nuclear energy’ and ‘information technology superiority India has achieved’ -  we owe these all to  the  education system as it evolved during 60 years of India’s independence.  It can not be denied that it is Indian higher education system that to a significant extent has contributed to India rising to become the World’s second fastest growing economy, the World’s third largest economy, fastest growing mobile phone market, owner of the largest bandwidth capacity and contributing second largest portion of scientists and engineers in the world. Thus to suggest that India’s higher education system is basically a robust, resilient and cost effective system cannot be termed to be unfair and unrealistic.  No doubt by no means we are suggesting that it is adequate and does not suffer from wants, rather our passionate plea here is for greater concern both public as well as private for reforms and rejuvenation of the system on the basis of knowledge management.  

8.    Expansion: India has experienced appreciable growth in the number of institutions of higher education during last six decades and particularly since 1990.  This growth has already been because of expansion of number of State Universities and institutions deemed to be Universities.  The period since 1990 has also seen the emergence of private Universities.  The expansion of central universities has rather been slow and skewed in terms of regional distribution.  (Seen in this context the recent announcement by the government and provision in the XI plan for setting up 30 Central Universities at least one each in the states not having any central university established so far.

9.    Equality: The 11th plan emphasizes on inclusive and equitable higher education.  This will call for conscious efforts to ensure that the achievement in higher education does not suffer from disparities across region, gender, social groups such as scheduled castes, scheduled tribes, other backward castes, minorities, physically challenged and poor. The 11th plan strategy for inclusion recognized three imbalances namely inter – regional, inter-social group and gender.  The Plan proposed some measures to reduce these imbalances.

10.    Excellence & Quality: It is to be emphasized that when we talk of ‘quality’ it is essential to bear in mind quality to whom and quality education for what.  In other words ‘quality’ needs to be understood in objective terms and in the context.  It is saddening to note that 128 universities who got themselves accredited by the NAAC only 32 percent could get ‘A’ or above level of rating while another 52 percent of them could manage with ‘B’ or above grade.  The remaining 16 percent fall in grade ‘C’ or above. 
NAAC assessment indicates that 68% of colleges are rated as ‘B’ while another 23% colleges is rated as ‘C’ grade; and only the remaining 9% are A grade.  Universities are somewhat better for only 46% universities are rated as B grade while another 23% are C grade; and the remaining 31 are A grade.

Ensuring quality education based on knowledge management demands structural and institutional reforms in addition to committing enhanced financial resources. Imparting quality education would entail better infrastructure; greater use of ICT; teaching and learning in smaller groups; granting autonomy to the faculty, department and individual teachers. But more than that, imparting quality education requires ‘faculty development’ or what many call ‘faculty recharge programmes’ so that the faculty does not go stale, it retains its vibrancy and dynamism in doing research, in learning, and innovating and in devising new methods of teaching.

Faculty development demands providing better research facilities, creating more teaching fellowships, and better service conditions.  In order to attract more qualified and more meritorious to join teaching faculty it is important to give them incentives, more so when today private industry and multinational corporations are in a position and are willing to offer attractive and mind boggling pay packages.   The salary structure of teaching faculty needs to be respectable, faster promotional avenues, of course linked with teaching and research performance, and giving more autonomy in terms of mobility and exchanges are some of the measures, which could be adopted for faculty development and recharge.

11.    Academic and Administrative Reforms: Unlike expansion, equity/inclusiveness and quality/excellence, where efforts are in making, the policies concerning reforms in the arena of academics, administration and governance are already well formulated and publicity announced.  These are all elaborated upon in detail in the reports of Radhakrishnan Commission (1948), Kothari Commission (1968), National education Policy (1986), Programme of Action document (1992), CABE committee reports, resolutions of the conferences of the Vice Chancellors organized by the UGC and the AIU and a host of other committees constituted by the UGC and MHRD from time to time.
   
12.    Internationalization of Education: The issues concerning internationalization of higher education can be discussed into two broad heads, which represent two broad dimensions of the issue. The first aspect deals with the demand for opening Indian higher education for international service providers while the second aspect deal with the internationalization of Indian higher education.  Going abroad for higher education has long been the most cherished goal for students of underdeveloped and developing countries.  While most foreign students were known for their diligence and dedication and were often a source of pride for their universities, they were seldom seen as a source of revenue. But things have changed a great deal in the post WTO/GATS regime.
13.    Implementation of Success Mantra in B-School: The knowledge management and its range of means, and the solutions of best practice already successful in the world of business would be extended and utilized for the applications of a modern B- school education. Methods currently employed would be obsolete, all too soon, hence the need for incorporating newer solutions is the demand of the hour. The implementation of KM in education, a variation from e-learning, is relatively new when the approach of web-services is concerned. This is due to the fact that the area of knowledge management is so wide that it is difficult to understand its implications within an educational environment. Initial research reveal that proposals of such kind are common, however these are more concerned with e-learning rather than knowledge management.
14.    TOOL - The Four Phase KM Methodology: We have described here a four-phase methodology for KM projects. Obviously this methodology does assume a certain chronology of processes in implementing KM solutions. A  number  of  KM  initiatives  have  succeeded  without  adhering  to  well defined methodologies or processes.  It is equally true, though, that these educational institutions have been unable to answer the “What next?” question that crops up immediately.   While quick initiatives are certainly worth encouraging simultaneously, following a more systematic and rigorous methodology for evolving a knowledge strategy ensures that there is a sense of direction in the overall approach, this also allows the retrofitting of the gains and learning from the first few projects into the future course of action.


The four phases are as follows:
1.   K-Need Identification
2.   K-Acquisition Framework
3.   K-Net Design
4.   K-Net Implementation

15    K-Need Identification: At  the  business  strategy  level  one  can  look  at  broad  groups  of  knowledge categories or K-Sets for being able to take some strategy decisions.  However, in the K- Need Identification and Analysis phase, a more rigorous analysis is called for.  The K- Gap analyzer comes in handy during this phase too. The  underlying  principle  behind  a  knowledge  strategy  is  that  an  organization needs to know how the presence or absence of specific knowledge entities is affecting its   overall   business.Towards   this   end   the   following   correlations   have   to   be established:
i.    Translate business strategy to KBD’s.
ii.    Identify those KBDs that pertain to new areas of operation. For those, a fresh analysis analysis of knowledge requirements needs to be done.  For current areas, an as- analysis as described below, needs to be done.
iii.    Translate each KBD into Key Business Processes (KBP).  This assumes that the organization  has  already  gone  through  an  exercise  of  optimizing  its  business processes. It  is  best  to  do  it  at  this  stage  if  it  has  not  been  done.This  will prevent  the  organization  from  investing  its  time  and  resources  to  supplement knowledge levels for activities that might be redundant.
iv.    For each KBP, identify all the activities involved.
v.    Depending on the size and complexity of the organization, each activity might have to be broken down into several levels.
vi.    Each activity (or sub-activity) would be executed by one or more individuals. In  the  ‘need  identification’  phase,  each  employee  will  need  to  establish  this reference in terms of linking his activity to the corresponding KBP and KBD, besides the regular process of identifying the department or project that they are working in.This exercise by itself will help to identify redundancies within the system.  It also, in a subtle way, gives each employee a sense of participation and responsibility towards the overall business endeavor.
vii.    The  employee  then  identifies  their  knowledge  needs  to  perform  their  specific activity.  These are listed as a comprehensive list of knowledge entities and are highly specific to the nature of the task being performed.   
viii.    Once the ‘knowledge entities’ are identified, the employee would have to rate each of them on a scale of low, medium or high along two dimensions. These two dimensions are the knowledge level required for executing that particular job and the knowledge level currently available.   The knowledge entity would get a score of 1,2 or 3 (for low, high and medium respectively) and of course a score of 0 if it is non-existent.  Hence the ‘required knowledge score’ as well as the ‘current knowledge score’ can be arrived at.   It needs to be understood that the   current   knowledge   score   should   connote   the   knowledge   immediately available so that is also reflects the time lag, if any, to obtain it and the ease or difficulty  in  being able  to  access  it  on  time. It  is  important  to understand  that  a  good  knowledge  strategy  has  to  take  cognizance  of  both availability and dissemination of knowledge assets.  Depending on the nature of the organization, a facility can be provided for employees’ assessments of their knowledge scores, to be refined by their superior who is likely to have a more holistic understanding of organizational activities.

This seems like an involved and complex procedure that would take up a lot of time and effort.Actually,  this  is  not  so. If  the  K-Gap  Analyzer  is  available  as  an automated  tool  on  the  organization’s  intranet,  it  would  take  each  employee  barely  15 minutes  to  file  the  required  details  on-line,  once  the  organization  level  details  of business strategy, objectives and processes are worked out as an initial, one-time effort. The gap analyzer is then capable of analyzing these inputs and scores at multiple levels of consolidation to yield some extremely useful insights. However, it needs to be kept in mind that most of the early KM projects in any organization are bound to entail change management issues.   This phase would be the right time  to  create  the  ‘Change  Vision’. Behavioral  changes  especially  in  an organizational  context  cannot  be  expected  to  happen  overnight. The  process  has  to start right at the beginning of the project so that by the time the technical solution is ready for a rollout, significant progress has also been made to create the right culture for implementation.   Towards this end, at this stage the ‘change management agents’ either  by  way  of  external  consultants  or  internal  leadership  or  both  have  to  be identified. K-Acquisition Framework

Once   the   knowledge   gaps   have   been   established   and   the   KM   project(s) identified,  the  next  step  is  to  figure  out  how  and  from  where  these  knowledge components have to be acquired and disseminated.  The following need to be achieved at this stage:

•    Knowledge codification
•    Identification of sources for acquiring these knowledge inputs
•    Creation of knowledge maps by linking source and destination for knowledge elements.

Broadly speaking,   the   Transformation   model   deals   with   explicit   knowledge   while   the Independent model attempts to find solutions to sharing of tacit knowledge.   Detailed classification of knowledge is something that can be determined by each organization depending  on  what  typology  it  is  most  comfortable  with  and  suits  the  needs  of  the organization best.   For each K-Set or K-Entity, the source for acquisition can broadly be classified as under:
    I to K Transformation Category
- from structured databases
        - from information repositories – both text and multimedia (existing)
        - from information repositories – existing but non-digitized



Independent Knowledge Category
-skill enhancement programs (training)
-external resources (people/organizations/sites)
-internal expertise (people / products)

For creation of knowledge maps, a knowledge need as represented by a K-Set or a  K-Entity  has  to  be  associated  with  corresponding  knowledge  objects  (K-object) Which are going to be the knowledge source for acquiring that piece of knowledge?  A K-Object  could  be  an  individual  (expert),  book,  document,  e-mail,  manual,  web content,  website  address,  project  reports  or  any  multimedia  content. Having identified the sources for K-Objects, the probable destinations would also need to be identified to complete the K-Map at a conceptual level.   (Creating K- Maps at the time of implementation has other aspects to it as well, like providing an on-line  guide,  a  complete  catalogue  of  K-Objects  customized  for  every  knowledge worker,  a  navigation  aid  and  so  on).The K-Acquisition Framework phase thus provides the blueprint for identifying, capturing and tagging all the required sources of knowledge.   Simultaneously, the blueprint for managing the soft or behavioral issues should also be in place.  A clear action plan has to be drawn up by the change agents.

16.    K-Net Design:
The  stage  is now  set  for  the  technical  design  of  the  KM  solution. The following activities are done in this phase:
•    Identification of the KM application portfolio.
•    Selection of appropriate technology for implementing the solutions.
•    Specifying  the  infrastructure  requirements  in  terms  of  hardware,  network  and software.
•    Choice of the appropriate KM tool or framework, should any be required
•    Detaining the technical specifications for the KM solution.

A  quick  cost  benefit  analysis  usually  helps  to  take  certain  operational decisions.  Simultaneously, one would have to determine the infrastructure requirement in terms of the network connectivity, bandwidth requirements, servers,  etc. based on data and content volumes, the number of employees and their geographic spread.   Of course,  more often than not,  companies  might already have an intranet infrastructure which  means  there  would  be  no  incremental  investments  excepting  perhaps  for additional servers and some upgrades, besides purchase of commodity software.
At  this  stage  the  detailed  functionality  and  technical  specifications  of  the proposed  solution  would  need  to  be  worked  out.    Processes and procedures for knowledge capture, storage, dissemination, retrieval, updation and archiving have to be clearly spelt out.   In KM projects, it definitely helps to use the Prototyping and Rapid Application Development methodologies adhering to standards like UML that ensure a constant interaction between the developers and knowledge workers.

 

K-Need identification process does not turn out to be a mere Training Need Analysis which their human resource department is already carrying out anyway.The  K-Gap  analyzer  clearly  establishes  the  linkages  between  learning programs and the overall knowledge strategy in both conceptual and quantitative terms.
By  the  end  of  this  phase,  therefore,  all  components  of  the  knowledge  solution would  be  worked  out  to  the  last  detail.The  technical  solution  for  the  knowledge initiative  would  have   been  completely   developed  and  tested,  and  the  necessary infrastructure  (hardware,  software,  network,  etc.)  for  the  eventual  implementation would  have  to  be  in  place.Equally  important  is  the  change  management  initiative, which needs to be well underway.  Top management along with the change agents need to ensure that employee buy-in is ensured at an early stage (at around the time that the technical solution is being rolled out).  Creating a positive environment of preparedness and eagerness among the prospective knowledge workers to be a part of the knowledge sharing activity is an extremely vital ingredient to a successful KM implementation.

17.     K-Net Implementation: This  is  perhaps  the  most  critical  phase  of  any  KM  project. It is perhaps a misnomer to call it a phase, thereby suggesting that it has a start and end point.  Unlike in  most  other  projects,  where  KM  is  concerned,  implementation  has  to  lead  to internalization and assimilation of the knowledge processes as part of the mainstream activities. The activities and processes thus far are fairly simple  to execute, but it is during implementation that the best skills of all people concerned have to come to the fore. The infrastructure is in place, the technical solution has been developed and validated, what is left to achieve is the buy-in from people.  It is precisely this heavy dependence on people that gives a larger-than-life implication to a KM project.  If it has the power and backing of all the people behind it, a KM implementation can lead to benefits that are  most  often  much  larger  than  what  was  contemplated  at  the  outset.
There  are tangible  and  intangible spin-offs  that  are  seldom  foreseen  at  the  beginning  of  the exercise.   On the other hand non-acceptance by the people can make such projects an unmitigated disaster as well.  Unlike software projects, success does not depend merely on  clearly  quantifiable  and  measurable  parameters  like  how  technically  robust  the solution   is,   whether   it   has   been   adequately   tested   and   meets   the   performance requirements.  It depends on that highly subjective and unpredictable parameter called ‘people  involvement’.

18    Conclusion: There has been indeed a paradigm shift in management education in India. The new breed of management professionals need to be efficient to tackle problems from cross functional, cultural and ethical perspectives and equipped with skills to bench mark for global leadership positions. There has been a crying need to usher in a quality movement and to benchmark the same with world standards.
Knowledge Management Offers a framework for the creation of a dynamic professional group of teachers, based on co-development and co-learning, as factors that could encourage the promotion and valorization of implicit learning and experience in the field.  It argues that the above professional group of teachers could create an intelligent team able to produce collective experience, knowledge, competence, and intelligence. As  Davenport   has  said  while  talking  about  Information Ecology, the right balance of IT and cultural factors is necessary: “From where I sit, successful knowledge management always    occurs    through a combination of technological and behavioral change.” The study focused on the various knowledge activities of faculty members to understand the type and extent of impact of information systems on those activities and how those activities contribute to value creation and building a knowledge culture in an educational institute.

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