Determinants of Knowledge Sharing Through Institutional Repositories among Academic Staff in Selected Public and Private Universities in Kenya
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Date
2025-10
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Kenyatta University
Abstract
In recent times, organizations have experienced changes that have been characterized by the shift from relying on information to the utilization of knowledge. This led to the birth of the Knowledge Management (KM). With organizations investing in embedding KM in their operations, a component of KM being implemented is knowledge sharing. In this study, Knowledge Sharing (KS) is the process by which knowledge generated and stored in an organization is communicated from the source to the recipient. Universities have not been left behind in implementing KS by facilitating their academic staff in this endeavour. They have invested in ICT platforms where respective academic staff share knowledge generated and gained through research. The ICT platforms residing in institutions are referred to as Institutional Repositories (IRs). An evaluation of a number of university institutional repositories, show that academic staff in some faculties have contributed more research and knowledge outputs, while others have little or no contributions. This study led to establishing what determines academic staff’s decision to share their research and knowledge outputs via institutional repositories in selected universities in Kenya. The research objectives that guided the study included: establishing ICT skills of academic staff, the provision of a university ICT policy on knowledge sharing through institutional repositories, the perception of academic staff members in knowledge sharing and the reward systems for knowledge sharing through IRs. This study adopted the Knowledge-Sharing model developed by Cheng et.al. in 2009 as its theoretical model. Descriptive research design was adopted for the study. The study location for the research was the University of Embu, a public university, and St Paul’s University, a private university. The target population in the selected universities was 151 academic staff. A questionnaire was used as the data collection tool. Qualitative data was analysed based on the themes of the study. Descriptive statistics were used to analyse quantitative data and were presented through frequencies, percentages, tables, and graphs. The study major findings included; the academic staff members have a positive perception on knowledge sharing through IRs, self-archiving of knowledge and research outputs through IRs is yet to be embraced, academic staff are not aware if KS through IRs is included in their respective university ICT policy and the academic staff are not satisfied with rewards system in place for awarding knowledge sharing through IRs and suggested monetary and non-monetary rewards as measures to improve on the reward systems. The study recommended that academic staff to be facilitated on self-archiving of their knowledge and research outputs via Irs. Also, universities to include and discuss KS through institutional repositories in their respective ICT policies, conduct user education to academic staff on KS through institutional repositories issues that are discussed in their ICT policies and to evaluate and improve on the rewards system that the respective universities have established.
Description
A Research Project Submitted In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Award of the Degree of Master of Science in Knowledge Management in the School of Pure and Applied Sciences of Kenyatta University. October, 2025
Supervisor:
Caroline Mutwiri