Unravelling knowledge creation and management in educational organisations: barriers and enablers

Abstract

Knowledge Creation and Management (KCM) is one of the main strategies for fostering improvement in any kind of organisation, including educational organisations, on which this paper is focused. While KCM is being widely studied, little attention has been given to KCM in organisations supplying education, training and/or assessment services to learners (i.e., primary and secondary schools or higher education institutions, among others). From an educational management approach, the aim of this paper is to describe and analyse the factors that foster or inhibit KCM processes conducted within educational organisations. Professionals (n=84), moderators and managers or institutional leaders of four selected cases were surveyed and interviewed. Results show the importance of the main organisational and procedural factors (i.e., organisational values and goals, leadership, structure, culture, dynamics, Information and Communications Technologies, KCM processes and people) to improve KCM results in educational organisations.

Keywords:

• communities of practice
• knowledge communities
• knowledge creation
• innovation
• knowledge management practice

Acknowledgements

The ACCELERA project is a research project funded by the Spanish Ministry of Education National R&D Plan, projects SEC2003-08366 and SEJ2007-67093/EDUC, supervised by Joaquín Gairín.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

David Rodríguez-Gómez

About the authors

David Rodríguez-Gómez is a lecturer in Teaching and Educational Administration at the Applied Pedagogy Department of the Universitat Autónoma de Barcelona, and member of the Organisational Development Research Group (EDO). His research interests include knowledge management, educational administration and leadership, ICT and university drop-out.

Joaquín Gairín

Joaquín Gairín is a Professor of Teaching and Educational Administration, Director of the Organisational Development Research Group (EDO) and international advisor. He is former Director of Educational Sciences Institute, former Dean of the Faculty of Education and, currently Director of the Applied Pedagogy Department at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. His research interests include educational administration and leadership, knowledge management and organisational development.