Abstract
The study assessed the knowledge sharing practices in the NOUN regional campus faculty departments and identified gaps, with the aim to find out how knowledge is being managed, shared in an Open and distance learning institution and if knowledge management (KM) is playing a role. The quantitative study was undertaken at the 10 regional campuses of the National open university of Nigeria. The study confirmed that there is willingness to engage in knowledge sharing activities. However, the lack of a clear knowledge policy negatively impacts on the university’s ability to competitively position itself in the knowledge economy as a knowledge driven university and this impacts research productivity and distance learning course delivery at the NOUN. One of the key recommendations emanating from this research is that the university should have a Knowledge policy aligned to its strategic plan which will act as a guideline on the sharing of knowledge internally and externally as well as make it mandatory for academic staff to publish internally as well as to store their publications in the university repository.
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION
1.1 Rationale / background
Since the emergence of knowledge management (KM) as a discipline, there have been many arguments and debates over whether knowledge management is just information management in new clothes. According to Nonaka and Takeuchi (1995: 21), western philosophers have generally agreed that knowledge is “justified true belief”. Thus, the definition of knowledge is far from perfect in terms of logic. According to this definition, our belief in the truth of something does not constitute our true knowledge of it as long as there is a chance however slight that our beliefs are mistaken.
During the industrialization period value was created from factories, utilizing resources such as labour and capital. Most recently, value is derived from knowledge. Knowledge has become the resource, thus the development of the knowledge economy. Subsequently, the knowledge economy has had a substantial impact on the way companies do their business. Confronted with the knowledge intensity of products and services and the fast-paced transformation in global competition, companies have had to focus on their intangible resources to drive increased financial returns and competitive advantage (Grange 2006: 18). For companies to survive in this era they have to manage their knowledge properly. It has been reported in the management literature that companies that do well or are top in the business world have knowledge management practices embedded in their daily activities, processes and routines (Nonaka and Takeuchi, 1995:4). Therefore, institutions of tertiary distance education have since also noticed the importance of KM as they are facing competition from conventional universities as well as competition for funding from governmental and international donors. They also have pressure from students as they demand high quality tertiary education and the industrial demand for qualified graduates. With the current liquidity crisis and quest to improve the quality of graduates in a country such as Nigeria, facing economic challenges, there is indeed a need to share knowledge and information between academic faculty staff to reduce replication of information. The loss of institutional memory due to staff turnover also leads the distance education sector to embrace KM practices.
1.2 Aim of the research
The rationale of the study is that since NOUN has been in existence for 18 years, and because the lecturers are spread throughout the country in all 10 provinces where the university has its centres. As such, the lecturers have limited personal interactions, the researcher felt that it was important to conduct a study of this nature in order to evaluate knowledge sharing in an institution of this unique nature. The aim of this study was to establish the KS practices that were practiced at the National open university of Nigeria. The study assessed the KS practices in the National open university of Nigeria Regional Centres to identify gaps, with the aim to ascertain how knowledge is being managed and shared in the distance learning university space. This includes how KS enablers and barriers have impacted on course delivery within distance learning programmes.
The importance of the study is that it evaluates the measures of knowledge management adopted by NOUN in the delivery of distance teaching and open learning. It is hoped that the findings of the study would assist policymakers and course providers in implementing knowledge-based distance education delivery. This would provide empirical justification for proposed knowledge-based developments in distance education at the NOUN. The study is expected to stimulate other researchers into opening new avenues on how best knowledge management strategies can be harnessed to stimulate growth in knowledge-based distance education.
1.3 Statement of the Problem
The tertiary education sector in Nigeria is faced with a challenge of a high turn-over of academic staff. Year after year, academic staff resign for greener pastures while others retire due to old age. However, they do not leave their knowledge behind in the institutional memory. In a related study, Mapolisa and Chirimuuta (2012) explored strategies to hire back former National open university of Nigeria’s staff to the institution; and highlighted utilisation of lecturers’ expertise in quality assurance, staff development schemes, competitive salaries, and schemes to acquire houses, cars and start businesses as staff retention strategies. One of the biggest challenges many African Universities continue to face is the attraction and retention of top performers (Mihyo 2008). Even though there are resource centres or mini-libraries in all the regional centres, when employees leave the organization, they leave with their knowledge.
The National open university of Nigeria claims to be a centre for academic excellence in Nigeria through its vision and mission, having developed distance learning and having the largest student enrolment in Nigeria (National open university of Nigeria: 2009). This means that this growth in student enrolment, as well as in the distance learning programmes, has posed a new challenge for the academic staff at the NOUN in terms of developing appropriate strategies and innovations in research and innovation and in providing teaching and learning at the university. Rowley (2000: 329) argued that universities do have a significant level of knowledge management activities, and it is important to recognise these, and use them as foundations for further development, rather than to invent a whole new paradigm. Therefore, a university such as the National open university of Nigeria is expected to participate in a wider knowledge creation process which leads to the creation of knowledge repositories from which future generations of scholars and researchers may draw.
1.4 Research questions
The research questions that arose from the problem set out to assess the existence of KS practices. The main question of this study was whether the National open university of Nigeria faculty is practicing knowledge sharing. Related questions were:
- Does the NOUN have a culture of sharing information and knowledge?
- How is innovation, creativity and new ideas by academic staff encouraged in the university?
- Are there appropriate technological resources to facilitate effective KM
- How do academic staff members conceptualize, internalize and use new knowledge?
- What are the opinions of academic staff about the benefits of KS practices?
1.5 Delimitations of the study
The study was limited to full time academic staff at the National open university of Nigeria. However, the findings and recommendations can be generalized for the tertiary distance education sector.
1.6 Limitations of the study
The researcher encountered constraints in terms of time and resources. Some respondents did not return the questionnaires and initially there was apathy in completing online questionnaires. The time for carrying out this research was short such that all avenues to data collection would not have been fully explored. Some questions on knowledge sharing and its appropriateness were raised in the study only in so far as they are expected to have a particular bearing on the knowledge sharing patterns. The research took place concurrently with academic semesters for the researcher thus the researcher could not find ample time to meet the supervisor for discussions as the researcher is a full-time employee during weekdays.
1.7 Significance of the study
Research in the field of KS in Nigerian distance education institutions has received limited attention. The issue of KS is a major concern to universities in general and open and distance learning institutions in particular since this has implications for staff retention, research productivity and output and course delivery and throughput. The study is significant because it is being conducted at a time when NOUN is moving towards technology-based instruction and course delivery. It is expected that the study will add value to the future strategic planning and to give recommendations to how best the NOUN can achieve its academic excellence goal in its mission through knowledge sharing. The study is significant because since NOUN is relatively in its infancy stages, it was important to conduct a study of this nature in order to evaluate a growing concept, knowledge management, in an institution of this unique nature. This can also be justified by the fact that the various stages of growth must be closely monitored. The study therefore aims at influencing the university policy-makers and course providers as to why they should factor in knowledge management when designing their modular course programmes. This is to ascertain whether knowledge management plays a significant role in course planning and delivery through assessment of a growing segment in distance education, which is the management of knowledge
1.8 Outline of chapters
Chapter 1: Has introduced the study and explained the rationale for the study.
Chapter 2: The literature review in Chapter 2 of the thesis discusses the philosophical and conceptual arguments relating to a knowledge sharing (KS) with an aim to shed light on empirical studies conducted in knowledge sharing in a university setting
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Chapter 3: The Research design and methodology chapter outlines the research process. It includes research design, selection of subjects, instrumentation and field procedures. This chapter also describes the data collection and recording, data processing and analysis procedures. The research data is based on a sample of academic staff from 10 regional centres of the National open university of Nigeria.
Chapter 4: presents, analyses, interprets and summarizes the data collected by questionnaires. Chapter 5: from the findings, the author makes some reflections and recommendations for the policy planners at National open university of Nigeria as well as suggestions for future studies.
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