Challenges in knowledge management education

Abstract

The members of panel will discuss the opportunities information professionals who are able to work closely and challenges facing knowledge management education.with the knowledge workers, understand their needs and The panel will share their experiences in the development communicate their concerns to the management of the of four knowledge management programs at Kent State organization. Knowledge professionals will help University, Dominican University, University of organizations identify opportunities, deal with Oklahoma, and Nanyang Technological University in competition, generate synergy, and create a knowledgeSingapore.sharing environment. Today's organizations are faced with many challenges, such as producing the desired objectives (efficacy), solving the right problems (effectiveness), and using the minimal quantity of resources (efficiency) in a competitive and complex environment. Among other necessities, organizations have to identify knowledge sources and assess their value when possible. They need to be proactive and/or adapt to the rapid pace of change. They should be able to recognize the needs of their costumers or users and be able to develop or adapt mechanisms that permit them to measure their intellectual capital and build the technological infrastructure that would facilitate knowledge sharing and utilization. Organizations also need assess and create a culture that allows knowledge sharing, socialization, collaboration, and the creation of communities of practice.Knowledge workers and knowledge professionals are an important, if not vital, component of the knowledge organization. Regardless of the industry, type of organization (profit or nonprofit organization), or the business sector, they all require a new breed of Traditionally, information professionals' roles were limited to the identification, acquisition and organization of explicit knowledge or information. Today, that role is being expanded to include other forms of knowledge activities--tacit and implicit knowledge in the form of skills and competencies. Tacit knowledge is personal and gets transferred through human interaction, training, observation and replication in different environments. It can only be shared by socialization, interaction and training, and it requires interpersonal communication. As knowledge professionals need to deal with human resource issues as well as organizational issues, a new set of skills and competencies are needed. Such skills and competencies require a multidisciplinary program and cannot be catered for by one single discipline. Disciplines involve include information technology, information science, communication and cognitive science, and business and management.At the moment, most knowledge management practitioners and self -proclaimed experts come from various backgrounds with different levels of skills and 2004

Lifewide, lifelong comprehensive approach to knowledge management education – emerging standards

“…The second dimension, the literature review on the subject of knowledge management education, produced 62 published articles, chapters and communications. The most prominent of these are cited here (Al-Hawamdeh, 2003;Al-Hawamdeh, 2005;Al-Hawamdeh et al, 2004;Bartczak, 2010;Chaudhry and Higgins, 2001;Chaudhry and Higgins, 2003;Chen Chiu and Fan, 2002;Rehman and Sumait, 2010;Rehmann and Chaudhry, 2005;Ruth et al, 1999Ruth et al, , 2002Saito, 2007;Saito et al, 2004;Weidner, 2002). Bedford (2013) categorized the literature by its coverage of (1) the focus of the curriculum; (2) program administration; (3) program goals; (4) program research focus; and (5) faculty credentials and experiential credibility.…”

How library practitioners view knowledge management in libraries

“…Traditionally, information professionals' roles were limited to the identification, acquisition and organization of explicit knowledge or information. Today, that role is being expanded to include other forms of knowledge activities‐ tacit and implicit knowledge in the form of skills and competencies (Al‐Hawamdeh, 2004). Managing the “tacit” intuitions and “know how” of organizational members or knowledge workers has become a great challenge for information professionals (Bishop, 2001; Maponya, 2004).…”

Responding to the challenges of KM education in the LIS sector: some academic and professional perspectives

“…In an educational context, the professional literature has identified the major challenges in terms of the breadth of the KM concept, the multiplicity of its required competencies, and the identification and implementation of elements of KM into LIS curricula (Koenig 1999;Milne 1999;Hawamdeh et al 2004).…”

“…Increasingly, much of the emphasis within the literature has been on the interdisciplinary nature of KM and the issues of integrating different disciplines within programs, including resource implications, and the difficulty of finding staff who are both willing and able to teach KM (Hawamdeh 2005;Sutton 2007). While at the moment there is evidence of disparate approaches to KM in different departments, with provider perspectives a major determinant of curriculum content (Chaudhry and Higgins 2001;Hawamdeh et al 2004;Saito 2007), there are also signs (Loon and Hawamdeh 2002) that an interdisciplinary and integrative approach to KM education is likely to prove more fruitful. Achievement of such a goal will require the integration of different conceptual approaches, together with an acceptance that determining the appropriate level of involvement from associated disciplines, creating consensus among them and catering for such integration will be challenging issues for KM education (Loon and Hawamdeh 2002).…”