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1 – 10 of over 1000
Article
Publication date: 12 April 2013

Margaret Harris, Colin Chisholm and George Burns

The purpose of this paper is to provide a conceptual viewpoint which proposes the use of the post graduate Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) approach to learning in…

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Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to provide a conceptual viewpoint which proposes the use of the post graduate Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) approach to learning in undergraduate education and practice‐based training.

Design/methodology/approach

This is an examination of the KTP approach and how this could be used effectively in undergraduate education and training to encourage and increase practice‐based learning and employer engagement. The methodology consists of a literature review, and a case study of the KTP approach. The literature reviewed examines the KTP approach, employer engagement in education and strategic government approaches to stimulate investment in knowledge and skills for workforce development, and the development of practice‐based learning in the UK. The KTP provides a case study to illustrate a successful model of employer engagement, which benefits all parties to it, and assists with the strategic development required by successive governments.

Findings

The suggestions are based on the authors’ investigation and their understanding and experience of: the KTP approach; practice‐based learning; undergraduate education; and learning and teaching approaches. The paper suggests that the KTP approach (normally a post‐graduate model) could be extended to undergraduate education to provide sustainable practice‐based learning that fits well with the strategies and ideologies of government, employers and academia.

Practical implications

Barriers to employer and academic engagement, such as that linked to the confused terminology used to describe practice‐based learning, and competing political ideologies, should be researched further to gain a better understanding of how to mitigate these in order to make the KTP approach in undergraduate education successful. The implications are that synergistic development of the KTP approach in an increased range of academic and workplace partnerships needs to be done before a fully tested model could be agreed.

Originality/value

The originality is the idea of utilising a well acknowledged post‐graduate model of learning within an undergraduate environment. The value is to increase the awareness of the benefits of the KTP and how the approach could be adapted for use in undergraduate environments for the eventual benefit of students, academics, employers and policy makers.

Article
Publication date: 31 July 2019

Wendy Maria Purcell and Teresa Chahine

Disruptive megatrends, such as technology and globalization, are driving transformational change in universities as they seek to differentiate themselves given economic and social…

Abstract

Purpose

Disruptive megatrends, such as technology and globalization, are driving transformational change in universities as they seek to differentiate themselves given economic and social market forces. However, higher education (HE) institutions can struggle to achieve change at the scale and speed needed, given their pluralistic nature and competing goals. As primarily collegiate organizations run by academics, leadership and governance are by persuasion and consensus over diktat. A retrospective analysis of the transformational journey of a UK university that set its radical new mission to become “the Enterprise University” has been undertaken, and a new leadership and governance framework articulated. The paper aims to discuss this issue.

Design/methodology/approach

Drawing upon a conceptual framework of leadership and governance to codify change management and its acceleration, the change journey in a university undergoing a strategic transformation has been analyzed. Leadership and organizational frameworks are examined focusing on the interactions between the senior management hierarchy (SMH), as the command-control operating system, and the adaptive community of social networks within the university and external stakeholders. The critical steps in effecting institutional change and the nature of the social agreements underpinning transformation are subject to retrospective analysis. How ideas flowed through the organization to create value through innovation is reviewed.

Findings

Analyses reveal how the SMH worked with the adaptive social networks of staff and stakeholders in concert around a shared purpose, identifying enablers and barriers to a healthy idea flow. Drawing on the leadership and governance framework empowers organizational transformation, paying more deliberate attention to the stewardship of ideas and how change actually happens. To thrive in volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous environments and sustain competitive advantage in a dynamic global market place, leaders need to be able to harness the social forces and inspire people to take actions around a shared vision of the future.

Originality/value

Universities represent a traditional community of knowledge workers and service professionals where approaches to leadership and governance are typically collegiate and consensual. Examining the strategic transformation of a university seeking to move at pace to accommodate the global disruption of the HE sector is relevant to how change happens in related environments. Given the growth of the knowledge economy, represented as organizations and networks, key lessons are available. The importance of activating people around shared purpose through deliberate engagement by leaders with social networks is relevant to delivering transformation in conditions of super complexity.

Details

Leadership & Organization Development Journal, vol. 40 no. 5
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0143-7739

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 17 August 2011

Peter Scott

The purpose of this paper is to consider whether recent changes in higher education – notably a tripling of student fees and the withdrawal of most direct public funding for…

1043

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to consider whether recent changes in higher education – notably a tripling of student fees and the withdrawal of most direct public funding for teaching – pose fundamental challenges for the pattern of governance, leadership and management in colleges in universities. It considers the impact not only of these visible, politically‐driven changes but also of less visible and longer‐terms shifts in curriculum, teaching delivery, learning cultures and research organisation.

Design/methodology/approach

Higher education has changed more than most other publicly funded services. Within the space of two generations it has moved from being a collection of institutions catering for an academically (and socially) selected elite, to become a mass system enrolling almost half of young adults – and an increasing proportion of adult students. Yet its governance and management have been marked by continuity. This paper considers the challenges that this greatly extended role for higher education poses for leadership – but in the context of stable arrangements for governance and management. Higher education leadership is also compared, and contrasted with, leadership in other parts of the public sector.

Findings

Although higher education has been influenced by the New Public Management, it has changed less than other publicly funded services. Although Vice‐chancellors have taken on many of the trappings of executive leaders, most continue to be drawn from traditional academic backgrounds. Few professional managers have broken through into top leadership roles. Governance arrangements, in particular, have changed little – posing issues of strategic oversight and management accountability. Nevertheless, universities have demonstrated remarkable resilience and adaptability, experiencing few of the crises (financial and otherwise) common in other parts of the public sector. This apparent paradox may indicate how effective university leadership may be in the context of managing more open and distributed “knowledge” organisations.

Originality/value

Conventional wisdom, within central government and elsewhere, suggests that higher education may be experiencing a “deficit” in relation to modern leadership cultures. This paper challenges that assumption, suggesting that other parts of the public sector, especially, those employing a large number of expert and autonomous professionals, could learn from the experience of universities.

Details

International Journal of Leadership in Public Services, vol. 7 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1747-9886

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 2 March 2015

Hedda Bird

The purpose of this paper is to build understanding of how to engage a highly educated workforce with the benefits of performance management through sharing the lessons learned…

1033

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to build understanding of how to engage a highly educated workforce with the benefits of performance management through sharing the lessons learned from introducing performance reviews (appraisals) into an academic environment.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper presents a case study of a four-year programme in a UK higher education establishment. The author was closely involved in the last two years of the programme, and completed a detailed evaluation of the programme for the client.

Findings

Performance management creates significant value within a highly educated workforce through bringing together individual capability and expertise to focus on delivering the strategy. Obstacles to success such as routine complaints of “time-wasting” and “pointlessness” can be overcome by wide and deep engagement with employees throughout the design and development of the approach.

Research limitations/implications

This is a single case study; however, the author has worked on many similar programmes with highly educated work forces with very similar results.

Practical implications

The vast majority of staff positively want a high-quality performance review; the practical challenge is to channel this desire into shared ownership and responsibility for the success of performance review in practice.

Originality/value

Literature abounds with analysis of what is wrong with performance review, this paper is a rarer piece in that it develops our understanding of how to set up performance management and review for success.

Details

Industrial and Commercial Training, vol. 47 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0019-7858

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 25 July 2008

Charles Ehin

The purpose of this paper is to provide a conceptual and flexible framework for the management of knowledge workers in the current information economy.

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Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to provide a conceptual and flexible framework for the management of knowledge workers in the current information economy.

Design/methodology/approach

Research from such diverse fields as anthropology, evolutionary biology/psychology, paleontology, molecular biology, neurophysiology, and social network analysis are used in an attempt to find commonalities in these disciplines that will help determine the effects of various organizational contexts on human nature and the innovative capabilities of knowledge workers.

Findings

Provides definitive explanations/reasons why knowledge workers should not be managed using Industrial Age management concepts and organizational structures. Also includes four clearly defined descriptive principles for the development of Knowledge Age organizations and social networks.

Practical implications

An especially useful multidisciplinary source for the development of innovative enterprises capable of motivating and expanding the creative potential of knowledge workers.

Originality/value

The paper identifies critical needs and methodologies for managing knowledge workers in addition to providing fundamental principles for the advancement of flexible and innovation rich organizations.

Details

Journal of Intellectual Capital, vol. 9 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1469-1930

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 22 August 2011

Margaret Lam

How does one classify instructional videos uploaded by musicians of different caliber and mastery on video‐sharing sites? What kinds of communities are forming around these…

1156

Abstract

Purpose

How does one classify instructional videos uploaded by musicians of different caliber and mastery on video‐sharing sites? What kinds of communities are forming around these content sources? How does one address the different perception and understanding of what music means to a diverse audience? How does one identify and address the needs of new kinds of users, who learn how to play music by using primarily online resources? While this paper does not seek to directly address all these questions, it aims to raise them with the aim of contextualizing the discussion as a necessary foundation to effectively address the more practical questions above.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper presents a knowledge organization model of music knowledge based on the concept of musicianship as used in music education. A balanced and holistic approach is sought, especially in light of the interdisciplinary nature of the challenge being addressed. Drawing on Hjørland's work on domain analysis, and Hennion's concept of the user of music, this paper discusses music as a domain, music as information, and music as knowledge.

Findings

In particular, the concept of listening and genre are considered important ways through which one mediates one's understanding of music as knowledge. There are four “layers” in the model: Vocabulary of Music; Structures and Patterns of Music; Appreciation of Music; and Cultural‐Historical Contexts.

Originality/value

The model addresses knowledge organization challenges specific to the domain of music.

Details

OCLC Systems & Services: International digital library perspectives, vol. 27 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1065-075X

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 March 2003

John Van Beveren

This study explores knowledge management within an Australian regional health care organization. Many barriers inherent in the organizational structure and design of the…

4291

Abstract

This study explores knowledge management within an Australian regional health care organization. Many barriers inherent in the organizational structure and design of the organization that are indicative of the public health sector have been identified and discussed. From the results and discussion it is concluded that new models, tools and techniques for knowledge management specific to the environment of the public sector and particularly the health sector are required.

Details

Journal of Knowledge Management, vol. 7 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1367-3270

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 January 2000

Michael H. Zack

If knowledge management programs are to build lasting value, they must directly support the competitive strategy of the organization.

Abstract

If knowledge management programs are to build lasting value, they must directly support the competitive strategy of the organization.

Details

Handbook of Business Strategy, vol. 1 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1077-5730

Book part
Publication date: 17 July 2011

Luis Felipe Gómez and Dawna I. Ballard

The concept that an organization's actions or inactions constrain or enhance its future options and outcomes and – ultimately – its long-term survival, is here referred to as the…

Abstract

The concept that an organization's actions or inactions constrain or enhance its future options and outcomes and – ultimately – its long-term survival, is here referred to as the organization's viability. Following a dynamic capabilities framework, we identify two communication practices that help develop both transactive memory systems and a firm's long-term viability, information allocation and collective reflexivity, and call for the development of others. We discuss the interrelationship of these two practices as nurturing the development of transactive memory systems critical for organizational long-term viability. We then discuss organizational structures that prompt or constrain the development of these two communication practices – organizational members’ perceived environmental uncertainty, perceptions of time as scarce, feedback cycles between actions and outcomes, and organizational members’ temporal focus – and offer propositions concerning these relationships. We emphasize the relevance of TMS through the exploration of three characteristics of the relationship between TMS and the long-term viability of organizations. Finally, we conclude with recommendations for organizational development practitioners for fostering TMS through the facilitation of sites for collective reflexivity.

Details

Research in Organizational Change and Development
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78052-022-3

Article
Publication date: 10 September 2018

Adji Achmad Rinaldo Fernandes

The purpose of this study was to examine factors that affect knowledge management at universities in Makassar, Indonesia.

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Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this study was to examine factors that affect knowledge management at universities in Makassar, Indonesia.

Design/methodology/approach

This study used explanatory research to find the causal relationship between the variables in the model. The unit of analysis was students at four universities in Makassar. The four universities were Hasanuddin University, Makassar State University, Islamic State University of Alauddin Makassar and Polytechnic of Ujung Pandang. Sample technique for this study was determined by using the proportionate stratified sampling method with a total sample of 300 students. Data were collected by using questionnaires and interviews. The analysis method used to test the model was structural equation modeling.

Findings

The results show that organization culture has a positive and significant influence on motivation. Organization culture also has a positive and significant influence on knowledge assets. Technology has a positive and significant influence on knowledge assets but not on motivation. Moreover, organization culture, technology and motivation do not have a positive and significant influence on knowledge management. Knowledge assets have a positive and significant influence on knowledge management.

Originality/value

Originality of this paper shows that built the model of organization culture and technology on motivation, knowledge asset and knowledge management to know about its effect, methods and variables that used in this study have not been discussed in previous studies with the same purpose, method and same location.

Details

International Journal of Law and Management, vol. 60 no. 5
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1754-243X

Keywords

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