Knowledge Management Processes for B-Schools

201 Published By: Blue Eyes Intelligence Engineering & Sciences Publication Retrieval Number: I30380789S319/2019©BEIESP DOI: 10.35940/ijitee.I3038.0789S319  Abstract: This study, explores the intentions of institutions of Indian B-Schools academicians towards knowledge management and knowledge management processes. The use of knowledge management is recognized as an institutional capacity and tends towards growth. A review is conducted based on knowledge management treated as strategic and tactical plan. A pilot study is carried out and the findings are presented in the paper. The pilot study is based on the responses to the questionnaire prepared on the basis of literature. A closer link has to be brought in between the knowledge management and knowledge management processes as it helps our future managers and also provide them the skills they require throughout their life. It is felt that there should be a stronger requirement for change and responses from universities to address them and close the gap. There could be the knowledge management and its practices contributing to the performance of B-Schools and overall development of the institution.


I. INTRODUCTION
A vast literature has identified the gap between knowledge management and its processes in higher education and also brings about the awareness and its importance. Attempts have been made continuously to bridge this gap. The size and causes of the gap between knowledge management and its processes are based on emphasis amongst B-Schools. The gap is more prominent in B-Schools, there is a link between knowledge management and knowledge management processes. For knowledge management and knowledge management processes there is a wider agenda. The focus is on bridging the gap between knowledge management and knowledge management processes. It is confirmed that strengthening of knowledge management and knowledge management processes has lot of potential in delivering the skills required by the upcoming generation of administrators. Several questions require responses one is interested to know the factors raised by faculty that has impact on knowledge management. The cause for the gap along with remedies must be addressed by the universities. The intention of the academicians is for knowledge management or knowledge management processes to be explored which could trigger their preferences. [6] Revised

II. LITERATURE REVIEW WHAT IS KNOWLEDGE?
Basically the meaning of knowledge and the most accepted one is it is true, justified and a belief [2]. It can be said to be a clear perception of the action and a factual knowledge. The knowledge interpretations derived through the researchers are illustrated with examples in the Table 1 Source: Reference [2] The overview of the definitions of knowledge can be categorized and figured out as 1. There is clear distinction between data and information.
2. It could be in the minds or expressive.

It can be organizational as well as personal
Knowledge can be said on the basis of a function as a process to get the information, share it, interpret and share into facts that are intellectual and can be used by single or in groups. Based on the classifications, the knowledge can be classified into innovation, core and advanced. Core knowledge is the minimum time and knowledge level required for the game to be played. Knowledge level doesn't give and ensure a viable term which is long. The knowledge is held by members of the industry and which in turn provides a little advantage over the non-members, the advanced knowledge is completely viable. The knowledge is of same level and quality though the knowledge content may vary from the competitors. Thus the organizations prefer to get head on with people in same positions hoping to know more than the competitor. Innovative knowledge allows the organization to take the lead of the industry and the competitors by showing that they significantly differentiate it from the competitors. This infers to say that the organization familiarity and an orientation link between the knowledge and strategy seem to be unique and different and may reflect advantage. The relation between knowledge and strategy is distinct and could show advantage. Thus the strategic knowledge which comprises of these three knowledge forms the construct origin of organisational advantage.
the organization goals and objectives as told by Karadsheh et. al (2009). Drucker feels as long as there are persons working in an organization with knowledge will constitute knowledge management. The various definitions of Knowledge Management with typical examples are listed in Table 2.  Figure 1. Anil and Shubha Muralidhar [10] illustrates the need and benefits of knowledge management in B-Schools. Anil and Shubha Muralidhar [11] have also touched on Entrepreneurship education in B-schools.

NATURE OF KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT AND
ITS PROCESSES As per resource-based view, the resources are personnel based; tangible and intangible happen to be the fundamental units of analyses that create the capabilities of the organizations by working together. Capabilities here refer to be able to integrate use and apply valuable inputs which add on to the knowledge management. The capability of knowledge management can be categorized along three dimensions, namely knowledge processes, knowledge skills and knowledge infrastructures. The knowledge generation processes include works where new knowledge is evolved.
The consolidation of knowledge is gained by transfer of knowledge. Improving the knowledge is done through the available knowledge. In addition to application the measurement of the process takes place that justify and measure the value of business knowledge.
Change in the institutional knowledge is the first sign of knowledge management. They are said to be dual in nature as one side there is the knowledge manipulation process which involves the acquiring of knowledge, convert into useful form, apply the knowledge and protect the knowledge. On the other side, it identifies that both culture and issues of organization play an important role in the deployment of knowledge management systems. The second dimension is knowledge skills, the knowledge management by nature are multi-faceted which involve dimensions human, organizational and technical. Chief Knowledge Officer should be a planner, evaluator and a human resource person. The person is able to facilitate the process of sharing the knowledge and the renewal of knowledge which facilitates the sharing of the information and is able to utilize the technologies available. With the ability to serve the creation of knowledge, sharing and document the knowledge are some of the required skills. The last being the infrastructure which has its technical side having more of information technology related activities like collaboration, discovering knowledge, mapping of knowledge and distributed learning. The structural side refers to the structure of the organization, its system of rewards and incentives. The cultural side has the vision and the organizations system values. [1] OBJECTIVES The primary objective of the study is to explore the intentions of academicians of Indian B-Schools. The next one being is to conduct a qualitative study on Indian B-Schools academicians, processes the data collected and draw conclusion from the study.

III. METHODOLOGY
This study is an exploratory one where questionnaire is framed based on various studies from the literature survey. The questions are designed by dividing into three parts as A, B and C where part A is the demographic information, part B is based on the Knowledge Management practices which are the independent variables and the competitive advantage which is the dependent variable. The practices considered here are five of them with questions framed under each practice and also under competitive advantage. Part C had questions which involved in listing or ticking more than one option. All the questions in part B were framed based on a 5-point Likert scale with value for each of them like 5 means strongly agree to 1 means strongly disagree. The questions are presented in a printed form as a hard copy so that they can fill and give back the same. The responses were collected from 42 respondents while the distribution was done to around 60 respondents. The questions were distributed to 5 colleges in South Bengaluru responses are collected in person from the respondents. The dimensions of the quantitatively collected responses are reduced using Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA). Promax oblique rotation was used to clearly classify a total of 42 variables into factors with least cross-loading variables among them.

IV. RESULTS AND INFERENCES
The methodology is described in detail considering the reliability and validity parameters which is used for the full data. Reliability is determined using SPSS (25.0) using Cronbach's alpha values. It was found to be greater than 0.9 meaning the scales are highly reliable. The results have been shown in Table 3. The closer the Cronbach's value to 1.00, the more reliable the instrument is. Since the measured value is greater than 0.75, the items in the questionnaire are acceptable (Mertens, 2014). [27]  As a general purpose, the mean, standard deviation and variance of every item is determined and shown in Table 4  The Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin (KMO) test was performed under exploratory factor analysis and the values so determined reflected the variance proportion because of the underlying factors. The KMO value having a number near to 1 show that factor analysis is useful. The number has to be at least 0.50 for the factor analysis usefulness, as a rule of thumb. Even though the sample size is 42 the KMO value, 0.519 is more than the expected cut-off value of 0.50 which means to say that factor analysis proves to be of use with value being thrice the number of variables i.e., 3 x 42 = 126. In performing the Bartlett's test the p-value obtained is less than the minimum threshold significance of 0.05 thus we reject the null hypothesis as the correlation matrix being an identity matrix and the factor analysis is useful data as shown in Table 5. As per our study, the significance value i.e., 0.000 happens to be far less than required value. Thus the factor analysis is useful in the study.
As per the null hypothesis, assuming there is no difference seen among the items because of which the initial communalities as shown in Table 6 are all equal, i.e., 1.000. under principal component analysis after running exploratory factor analysis the values are not found to be the same. Thus the null hypothesis is rejected and inferred that proportion of variance and the other variables are not equal. The extraction communalities contribute to the estimates of variance of each variable that are accounted by the factors which also support our decision to reject null hypothesis. The values are large enough to be accounted for in our case.  In concern with the number of factors turned out to be six after rotation as shown in Table 5. The value accounts for little more than 65% (cut off for acceptance) of the variability in the original values. This means to say that six latent influences are connected with knowledge management and knowledge management processes but still there is a lot of variation to be explained i.e. 64.613 -55.812 = 9 (approx.).
The scree plot shown in Figure 2 confirms the factors selected. Thus there is a need for rotation being felt and was attained through promax rotation technique.

V. CONCLUSION
Integration of knowledge management and its processes can build the student findings by also providing the tools required in understanding both. In doing so a stage is set for students so as to incorporate the management principles that are based on evidence into ones who are the decision making professionals. A closer link has to be brought in between the two as it helps our future managers and also provide them the skills they require throughout their life.
In the present scenario and the previous experiences put together the integration of knowledge management and its processes do not take place naturally. There are found to be several elements like work force, characteristics at individual and institutional level, cultures of profession and society which all act as barriers to have an easy exchange of knowledge management and its processes. It is felt that there should be a stronger requirement for change and responses from universities to address them and close the gap. To overcome or reduce the gap it is essential that one understands the factors to close the gap. To attain balance between knowledge management and knowledge management processes the concepts has to be seen individually.
Both complement each other is what the faculty also should know. Institutions can always take feedback and try to revise and implement in the policy which brings in a conducive atmosphere. It might be happening in some and may not in some other but measures have to be taken to reduce or close the gap. For this the faculty has to identify those factors that are affecting the choice of faculty. In doing so the institutions can build the policies, give the required support which brings in a harmony between knowledge management and its processes. It is essential that these two are given equal weightage amongst B-Schools. This is all possible if the future managers understand its value and act in accordance realizing its need.
The contribution to the prevailing study is about applying knowledge management and its practices by academicians of Indian B-Schools. A good ground work can be taken up so as to continue on the quantitative studies and further study their relationships. A model can be proposed based on the determinants that are obtained based on the performance of the individuals and their contributions to the institutions as a whole. If a micro level study on these determinants are continued then the top management may focus on these areas. Thus there could be the knowledge management and its practices contributing to the performance of B-School and overall development of the institution.
Further findings from the study help the university in designing new interventions to enhance knowledge management and its practices. The model proposed which connects the determinants and the performance of B-School can be tested empirically. In doing so it gives clarity about the academician's role which extensively contributes to the performance of the institution. Once this is realized, B-schools can come out with new strategies to promote knowledge management and its practices accordingly.