Institutionalization of Knowledge Management: A Nexus for Boosting Research Uptake and Learning in Universities in Kenya

Abstract

In the knowledge-based economy, knowledge has become a precious commodity and its essential contribution to economic competitiveness and social welfare has been widely recognized. The generation and transformation of knowledge has always been associated with Universities and they should therefore be major players in knowledge business. Unfortunately, KM in universities is still a fairly new concept which is neither fully understood nor supported. The paper is based on information collected from a review of related literature. The purpose was to analyze ways to close the gap between the present status of KM in universities and user expectations in order to enhance learning and scale up research uptake .To accomplish the above purpose, the paper reviewed literature anchored on KM as a concept, current status of KM in universities and business world to succinctly lay bare the need for institutionalization of KM in Universities as a strategy to boost learning and research uptake. Findings revealed that knowledge management per se has not been formally adopted, tacit knowledge sharing is not formalized and any sharing is adhoc, and there is lack of established mechanisms for harvesting tacit knowledge. Institutionalization of KM will enhance access to all organizational knowledge as all sources of knowledge will be identified. Secondly knowledge sharing will be boosted as knowledge experts will get in touch and work collaboratively to stop the culture of re-inventing the wheel. The authors recommend formalization of KM in universities, establishment of a KM divisions, development of KM strategies, policies and need for management support.