How do the top 40 business schools in the UK understand, teach and implement KM in their teaching?
| Date | 06 April 2017 |
| Published date | 06 April 2017 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/WJSTSD-02-2017-0004 |
| Pages | 111-134 |
| Author | Allam Ahmed |
| Subject Matter | Public policy & environmental management,Environmental technology & innovation |
How do the top 40 business
schools in the UK understand,
teach and implement KM
in their teaching?
Allam Ahmed
School of Business, Management and Economics,
University of Sussex, Brighton, UK
Abstract
Purpose –The emergence of “knowledge economies”brings along new lenses to organizational management
and behaviour. One of the key concepts at the heart of this new wave is knowledge management (KM).
The purpose of this paper is to scrutinize how KM is taught and discussed within the context of business
schools around the UK.
Design/methodology/approach –The general research question is: how do top 40 business schools in the
UK understand, teach and implement KM in their teaching? To answer this question, the author reviewed
the curriculums of leading schools and contacted all schools to collect more information and data.
Findings –The study reveals that KM has yet to carve a self-standing place for itself within taught
programmes in UK business schools.
Research limitations/implications –The study’s methodological design can explore the relevance of KM
as a term, but it can only provide limited perspective into how this complex and multidimensional concept is
operationalized in business schools’curriculums. Moreover, the capacity of business schools to frame KM
holistically is beyond the scope of this research.
Practical implications –Framing KM discourse within the relevant academic literature, this paper outlines
that, while KM is being scrutinized as a research topic, interest in KM has yet to be translated into a
widespread integration of KM as a taught skill within business schools.
Originality/value –The study is considered as one of the first attempts to investigate how KM is
understood, taught and implemented in teaching and curriculum design within the UK business schools.
Keywords UK, Knowledge management, Teaching, Knowledge economy, Business schools,
Business management
Paper type Research paper
Introduction
While there is a wealth of published and informal literature, thought derived from practice and
dialogue on these topics, a consensus on what constitutes the core elements of knowledge
management competencies and knowledge management education is lacking.
A statement made on the occasion of the 2011 Knowledge Management Education Forum,
which brought together 75 educators at George Washington University in Washington, DC
(cited in Singh, 2012).
Knowledge and knowledge management (KM) have attracted immense attention in
academia, with great interest seen in economics, management, information technology,
anthropology,sociology, epistemology,psychology and other disciplines(Quintas et al., 1997).
A“crystal-clear”understandingof what is meant by knowledge is required to fulfilthe intent
of KM, which is to manage knowledge practically and effectively to reach broad operational
strategic objectives (Wiig, 2000). However, this has proved to be difficult (Purvis et al., 2001),
and there is a plethora of attempts at defining the term.
World Journal of Science,
Technology and Sustainable
Development
Vol. 14 No. 2/3, 2017
pp. 111-134
© Emerald PublishingLimited
2042-5945
DOI10.1108/WJSTSD-02-2017-0004
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
www.emeraldinsight.com/2042-5945.htm
The author would like to acknowledge the help and support of Gioel Gioacchino and Dalia Mustafa for
the data collection and for Charlotte Kemp editorial and proofreading work.
111
Teaching KM
in UK
universities
Polanyi’s (1966) significant work marked the origin of the concept of tacit knowledge –
a knowledge that tends to be personal, obscure and difficult to transmit (or sometimes even
to recognize). Polanyi described psychological experimentation based on the famous
learning process of classical conditioning to demonstrate what was meant by the notion that
“we know more than we can tell”(p. 4).
Making appropriate tacit knowledge explicit and portable is a key component of KM
(Swan, 2001); this is an emerging multidisciplinary field that has many facets based on
theories, metaphors and approaches from several disciplines (Roknuzzaman and Umemoto,
2013). Although KM is perhaps predominantly originated from the significant work in
epistemology by the early fathers of western philosophy (Sutton, 2007), its intellectual roots
also include religion, economics, business theory to understand work and its organization,
rationalization of work (Taylorism), total quality management, artificial intelligence and
learning organization (Wiig, 2000).
For Jashapara (2004),KM is: “the effective learning processes associated withexploration,
exploitation and sharing of human knowledge (tacit and explicit) that uses appropriate
technology and cultural environments to enhance an organization’s intellectual capital and
performance”. This definition stresses that KM is a multidimensional process, which utilizes
ICTs, influences organizational learning and has implications for strategic development and
organizational change. Several notable scholars have long argued that the long-term
prosperity of many organizations depends on the organizational effort to explicitly manage
the knowledge of their employees and use it as a source for growth and corporate profit
(Haslinda and Sarinah, 2009; Herschel and Nemati, 2000; Herschel et al., 2001). Skyrme and
Amidon (1998)argue that KM has become a core competencethat companies must developin
order to succeed in tomorrow’s dynamic global economy. Additionally, the information and
knowledge professions have become an important facet of the modern economy (Thompson
et al., 2008), and every sector from manufacturing and services to public administration has
engaged in KM initiatives (Heisig, 2015).
The concept of a knowledge-based economy (KE) is used to describe an economy that
creates, disseminates and uses knowledge to enhance its growth and development.
A knowledge-basedeconomy revolves aroundinvestment in research anddevelopment and in
innovation as the basis for the capacity building necessary for knowledge absorption and
informationdissemination. Universitiesshould adopt programmes that upgradeskill levels of
workers –in turn, enhancing the economy’s ability to distribute and share knowledge.
According to the World Bank’s Knowledge Economy Index (KEI), the picture
across most countries varies from economies with impressive progress towards knowledge-
based economies and building capacityfor knowledge creation such as Sweden (KEI ¼9.43),
which leads the world index, to economies with a large decrease in their KEI, such as
Myanmar (KEI¼0.96). The UK ranks number 14 afterseveral European and OCED countries
such as Finland, Denmark, the Netherlands, Norway, New Zealand, Canada, Germany,
Australia,Switzerland, Ireland and the USA.Using the World Bank’s KnowledgeAssessment
Methodology (www.worldbank.org/kam), the recent performance of all countries (146) is
illustrated in Table I. These indexes reflect the readiness of world economies to take
advantage of the new economy and speed up the process of economic transformation.
The emergence of “knowledge economies”brings along new lenses to organizational
management and behaviour. One of the key concepts at the heart of this new wave is KM:
the ability of companies to “know what they know”is identified as an increasingly crucial
success factor for both public and private sectors. As organizations begin to look carefully
at developing effective KM frameworks, it is only sensible to think that young professionals
should be prepared to deal with complex KM systems. Business schools are among the most
poised to teach students how to manage and develop increasingly sophisticated KM
strategies. But do they?
112
WJSTSD
14,2/3
To continue reading
Request your trial