Knowledge Management Needs And Practises At The University Of Namibia: A Case Study Of The Namibia Business School (Nbs

ABSTRACT

Nowadays, many organisations, including educational institutions, realise that traditional resources are not the only sources that should be managed during the transition to Knowledge Economy and Knowledge Society. Knowledge has become a strategic organisational resource for the 21st century that should ensure stable growth of performance and competitiveness for an organisation. The critical analysis of literature revealed that the role of knowledge management (KM) in achieving and sustaining a competitive advantage (CA) has been strongly emphasised in the extant literature. However, none of the existing studies examined knowledge management in the young business school in Namibia. Furthermore, little attempt has been made to address the relative importance of different factors constituting the organisational KM infrastructure capability in the context of emerging Southern African universities. This study is the first of its kind in Namibia.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the knowledge management needs and practises at the Namibia Business School required to achieve its short and long term strategic goals of becoming a “world class business school”. This paper aimed to investigate any existing knowledge management system at NBS and give recommendations, were necessary, regarding developing such a system as is prerequisite for attaining a competitive advantage in the market. This study adopted Nonaka and Takeuchi’s Knowledge Dynamics Model which involves knowledge creation and the transformation of Knowledge between tacit and explicit knowledge, as well as the SECI Model by Nonaka and Takeuchi (1995).

The researcher chose to combine a Quantitative research approach (through quantitative surveys with the use of questionnaires) and a Qualitative approach (through interviews). The research participants in the study were full-time and part-time staff members of the Namibia Business School. The study used a judgemental sampling technique The results of 45 surveyed respondents; full- time and part-time staff of the Namibia Business School (NBS), reconfirmed a general agreement found in the literature that staff members are keen to exchange and share knowledge because they trust one another. It is recommended that the organization should consider how to introduce and/ or improve training and education for its staff. NBS should create a formal system which allows for training staff and to share and exchange knowledge more formally. Also it is recommended that the NBS establish a formal knowledge management system for the school. The NBS can seek expertise within and outside the university in order to be able to develop and establish this system.