Institutional Funds of Knowledge (Working Paper) (original) (raw)

Knowledge Management: The ?Fifth Face? of Institutional Research

New Directions for Institutional Research, 2002

Building on the main themes presented in the volume, this chapter explores their implications for institutional research. Their underlying premise is that institutional research could and should play a critical role in advancing the knowledge management paradigm: transforming data into information into knowledge and ultimately gaining organizational “wisdom” and building competitive advantage. This concluding chapter looks at the advantages and challenges of knowledge management from an institutional research perspective.

Institutional Innovation: Novel, Useful, and Legitimate

This chapter advances the theoretical construct of institutional innovation, which we define as novel, useful and legitimate change that disrupts, to varying degrees, the cognitive, normative, or regulative mainstays of an organizational field. Institutional innovation, like all innovation, is both novel and useful, but differs in that it is also legitimate, credible and appropriate. Legitimacy is hinged to four characteristics such that institutional innovation is theorized to be: 1) normative or value-laden; 2) progressing in bursts of change over time; 3) socially constructed and culturally embedded; and 4) associated with logics that shape practices. We develop a framework, outlining the definition, composition, and processual nature of institutional innovation, as well as its generative potency. Finally, implications for theory, practice, and future research are offered.

Knowledge management and organisational culture in higher education institutions

2011

This paper focuses on the higher education area in a small Central European country. Its purpose is to explore the concept of culture, the concept of knowledge management (KM) as well as the correlations among their dimensions at the university level. Since we assume that it is educational personnel who is involved in KM processes, our research covered the teaching staff. Our questionnaire is based on a similar research carried out by . The literature is reviewed and the empirical analysis is performed in order to examine and to explain the relationship between organisational culture and knowledge management. The findings presented in the paper can be important for further development of the higher education sector in Central and Eastern European countries as well as for other profit oriented industries. Dieser Artikel beschäftigt sich mit dem Bereich der höheren Bildung in einem kleinen mitteleuropäischen Land. Ziel ist, die Konzepte von Kultur und Wissensmanagement, sowie die Zusammenhänge zwischen ihren Dimensionen auf der universitären Ebene zu untersuchen. Da wir der Meinung sind, dass der Wissensmanagementprozess im Bildungswesen besonders das Personal betrifft, fokussiert unsere Untersuchung auf das Lehrpersonal. Unser Fragebogen basiert auf einer ähnlichen Untersuchung von Wilkens et al. (2004). Neben einer Betrachtung der Literatur wird eine empirische Analyse durchgeführt, um die Beziehung zwischen Organisationskultur und Wissensmanagement zu untersuchen bzw. zu erläutern. Die Ergebnisse dieser Studie können für die weitere Entwicklung der höheren Bildung in Mittel-und Osteuropa wie auch für profitorientierte Organisationen bedeutsam sein.

Institutional Cultures/ Environments: Preliminary remarks

Report on the Second National Higher Education Transformation Summit , 2015

This was not an easy assignment, especially since the major concepts at play, institutional culture and transformation, are generally regarded as slippery and their over-proximity in our everyday talk about the sector give it the appearance of floating signifiers. Those who shy away from it probably know the material stakes that are carried by these concepts. Such wariness has become a discourse in itself, aimed at certain ends. For others, that which is invoked when these concepts are used is more important than its „attached‟ meanings. And then there are those who are aware that our concepts are of necessity fragile, since they are sometimes called upon to stand proxy for that which is not yet cognisable. I attempt to take these different positions into account. The "racialised" categories used in this paper are inevitable and do not undercut my broader political understanding of Black. Similarly, the use of institutional categorisations do not confirm an unsophisticated, naive adherence to such hierarchies; they are simply employed to make my arguments more intelligible in the morass of "race" and "orders" in which we find ourselves. I also work with broad generalisations; my apologies. This is not to discount the varieties of contexts and histories which the limits of a paper such as this precludes pursuing. Micro-institutional cultures and dispositions can thus not feature in my analysis. I also include myself as an institutional and sector agent throughout the analyses in this briefing paper. In addition, my style is speculatively analytical, and political; something for which I make no apology. I have worked on these ideas in various capacities: as a member of the Transformation Oversight Committee (TOC); as a role-player in the transformation work of Universities South Africa; my work on Critical Studies in Higher Education Transformation; and my daily engagements with friends and colleagues. This needs be acknowledged alongside my gratitude to so many students who freely invite me into their space, are hospitable when I invite myself, and willingly share their experiences. Higher education, nationally, regionally and globally, is faced with an infinite number of challenges. These range from those related to globalisation and the predation of neo-liberal logics, to matters of access, throughput and participation rates, research, teaching and learning, internationalisation, differentiation, diversifications, funding, student aid, and its responsiveness to societal challenges. This briefing paper does not focus on these, though it may become clear how some of these challenges are intertwined with what we call institutional culture. In addition, I take for granted that universities and the social realities of the societies and communities within which they are located, mirror each other to a large extent. I am not dwelling on this truism. Two other types of analyses with import for reflecting on institutional cultures need to be flagged here, though they do not feature in any substance in this briefing paper. First, the discourse on contradictions and tensions within the higher education sector, with certain conceptions of excellence and quality in tow, has a profound impact on how we think and do transformation. This particular understanding of transformation as demanding trade-offs between equity and quality; redress and efficiency; and change and development have already been explored by others (Cloete et al. 2002; Cloete and Moja, 2007 and Cloete, 2014). Second, the interplay between the mission, mandates and roles of higher education has consistently being explored by Badat's writings (2006; 2007; 2010; 2013) as a useful reminder of the larger purposes of the sector.

More stake, less gravy? Issues of knowledge and power in higher education

South African Journal of Higher Education, 1997

The notion of stakeholders is prominent in debates about higher education. This paper picks up on two different positions pertaining to the notion of stakeholder involvement and the development of knowledge in universities. The first position argues that a "stakeholder" notion of knowledge is based on a subjectivist epistemology, a crude empiricism and doesn't allow for critical engagement with knowledge. In this way the notion of stakeholders undermines the very nature of education as an initiation into an intersubjective body of knowledge, shared interests and development in critical reasoning. The second position holds that the "stakeholder" view represents an engagement with knowledge that is based on a clear recognition of the strategic links between knowledge and power, also of the location in the institution where control over knowledge is brokered. Less attention is focused on knowledge for its own sake and more on the tactics of achieving power over decision making and hence over the framing and production of knowledge.

Grounding Institutions of Higher Learning as Learning Organizations for Developing Intellectual-Knowledge Society

The Formation of Intellectual Capital and Its Ability to Transform Higher Education Institutions and the Knowledge Society

This chapter explores the complex and dynamic environment in which institutions of higher learning (HEIs) have to operate and the imperative for them to transform themselves into learning organizations. This chapter is underpinned by the concept of learning organizations as its theoretical exposition to gauge the capacity of universities to learn and transform themselves. The chapter argues that institutions of higher learning are strategically poisoned to transform themselves as learning organizations. Thus, learning organization-based HEIs could be advanced by transmitting knowledge through teaching and learning, knowledge production through research and managing, and disseminating knowledge through community engagement or service learning. These responsibilities form part of the integral and core business of the HEIs, especially of the universities.

Role of knowledge creation, sharing and transfer towards institutional learning in

2018

The purpose of this study is to improve the quality of education, research and its contribution towards the development of institutions in Pakistan. The population in this study was public universities recognized by higher education commission Pakistan. The unit of analysis was vice chancellor, deans, heads of department and lecturers. A purposive sampling technique was used to fill the close-ended questionnaires. The collected responses analysed by implementing, Pearson correlation and multiple linear regression models. The result showed that knowledge creation, knowledge sharing and knowledge transfer has significant positive correlation and positive impact on the institutional learning in public universities of Pakistan. There is need to establish and promote knowledge creation, sharing, and transferring culture in universities by the policymakers and management of universities. Constructive arrangements to promulgate the knowledge culture can play its role in upgrading the quality of education, research, and solidarity. The previous research does not show statistical analysis of knowledge creation, sharing, and transferring collectively to estimate its effect on institutional learning in the perspective of public universities in Pakistan.

The Institutional Organizational Theory As A New Research Framework For Understanding Contemporary Organizations

Economic Themes

This paper presents basic postulates of the institutional, organizational theory as a new research framework for understanding contemporary organizations structuring and functioning. More and more structures in modern societies are being institutionalized due to changes in technical, social, and political spheres. Organizations in institutionalized sectors do not prove their legitimacy by their rationality and effectiveness, but by implementation of the current institutional pattern. Institutional pattern has its regulatory, normative, and cultural-cognitive components, and it is imposed on organizations within a sector by means of coercive, normative, and mimetic mechanisms. The consequence of implementing of a uniform institutional pattern in the structuring and functioning of all organizations within a sector is organizational isomorphism. The described elements of the institutional, organizational theory are applied in the analysis of structuring and functioning of universities ...