The academic system has lately started to borrow and implement management techniques specific to the private sector to enhance organizational performance. However, several voices underlined that these approaches are partially inadequate to the academic environment because academic management is a complex and multilateral process, mainly focused on individuals’ development.
There is a variety of knowledge management infrastructure in the academic environment, as well as research practices, and thinking patterns charactheristic to HEIs. As a part of the Academic Advance project, University Lecturer Rareș Mocanu proposes a desktop research study on the modalities employed by members of HEIs for evaluating knowledge management and its impact on organizational performance and other connected areas.
According to the study, HEIs use knowledge to obtain and sustain competitive advantages. While universities rely on teaching and learning processes, they are not defined as learning-based organizations, advancing the idea that HEIs need to develop robust knowledge management systems and create knowledge strategies to become learning-based organizations. To this end, various knowledge management models that can be applied in academia are briefly presented by the author: communities of practice (CoP), the Wiig model, the Meyer and Zack model, the Gopal and Gagnon model, the KMAT model, the Triple Helix model, the chain-linked model (CLM) or Kline model, etc.
The concluding section of the study shows that HEIs should be considered Knowledge-Intensive Firms (KIF), or entities whose employees fulfill highly complex tasks based on their knowledge and heterogeneous judgment while having a high degree of autonomy (click here for full study – available in Romanian only).
On the author:
Rareș Mocanu is University Lecturer and head of the master’s program in Corporate Management and Branding at the Faculty of Management, SNSPA. He has an extensive experience in product and brand management, in UX & UI, and in CRM for various multinational corporations. The local and international multicultural environment in which he operated provided Rareș with a good understanding of market development trends, current consumer behavior, as well as a strategic vision of business opportunities. As a researcher, Rareș is currently interested in topics related to knowledge management and user experience.
