Sheryl Buckley

Higher education and knowledge sharing: from ivory tower to twenty-first century

Knowledge is the driving force of a knowledge economy. Therefore, the way knowledge is shared and created and the way these actions are managed could lead to either a competitive advantage for an organisation or it could lead to its demise. Managing especially academics’ knowledge to the benefit of all can be even a greater challenge to any academic institution. The reason for it is that for too long universities have perceived themselves as the monopolies of knowledge, ‘sitting on an ivory tower’. Since universities are the transmitters as well as generators of new knowledge, a way of increasing their knowledge bank is through knowledge sharing. One way to share knowledge is through a community of practice. Volumes of literature have been written about communities of practice but the greatest majority deals with communities of practice in organisations and not in academic institutions. However, knowledge sharing within communities is complex. The literature shows that challenges such as a lack of trust, a lack of incentives and a poor culture of learning in an organisation have an effect on effective knowledge sharing. The need to establish the degree of knowledge sharing in an academic institution and subsequently create a framework to assist universities with managing it is created. A questionnaire consisting of open- and closed-ended questions was administered to academics. This article reports on academics’ awareness and views of a community of practice at a higher education institution in South Africa. The empirical evidence shows that academics would be willing to share knowledge. A number of inhibitors were identified such as, time constraints, an unwillingness among academics to share knowledge, and a lack of support or participation from management.

Knowledge Management Innovations for Interdisciplinary Education: Organizational Applications

Knowledge management innovations provide essential pathways through which teachers, researchers, students, and knowledge management professionals who are interested in understanding and applying knowledge management theory and practice can transfer their insights and experiences into both organizational and educational settings.Knowledge Management Innovations for Interdisciplinary Education: Organizational Applications is a detailed resource on knowledge management and innovations that has been written and edited to provide flexibility and in-depth knowledge management innovations, strategies, and practices. The combination of a primary emphasis on theory and practice with applications to interdisciplinary education, as well as organizational environments, makes this book unique among the burgeoning literature on knowledge management.

Organizational Knowledge Facilitation through Communities of Practice in Emerging Markets

Communities of Practice are accessible to both experts and new members of a particular community with diverse academic and cultural backgrounds as well as varying social expectations and experiences. Despite the tremendous opportunities for collective learning and knowledge sharing that Communities of Practice offer, not enough is known about these communities in emerging economies and their potential to facilitate cooperation between experts from around the world.