Critical Knowledge-Sharing Barriers and Knowledge Governance in Vietnamese Higher Education Institutions

Abstract

This research reveals the Vietnamese higher education institution (HEI) environment to examine knowledge sharing issues in developing countries. It compares knowledge management (KM) governance mechanisms in HEIs in a developing country with KM governance mechanisms used widely in developed countries. The authors position this research in the contextual of management capacity, infrastructure, and training issues. This chapter considers how strategies to develop and implement knowledge transfer are both led and governed in Vietnamese HEIs. Data were analyzed and triangulated from interviews, focus groups from different universities, and government and university websites in Vietnam. Four significant factors are identified in the KM process—bureaucratic management, hierarchical governance patterns, lack of autonomy, and underdeveloped KM systems—as contributory factors. The results are compared with extant KM governance literature and finds that knowledge is managed through bureaucratic mechanisms. Vietnamese academics rarely share their knowledge critical to research and research-led teaching.