Quality in the higher education system
Quality in the higher education system is vital for cultural and economic growth, provided that universities’ role recognizes the achievement of both institutional and social goals. Research provides the foundation for the systematic development of Knowledge and human capital (Di Pietro et al., 2012). Higher education in developing economies like India has grown significantly over the past ten years in terms of the number of universities, students, and faculties that have increased tenfold after freedom to the present. Notwithstanding efforts made to improve training quality, the results are marginal and struggle to reach the teaching-learning success that has existed somewhere else in the world. Teachers are the significant link between the students and academic institutions, and they are the one who possesses knowledge capital i.e., their memories, their way of coping with problems, their difficult circumstances, their various ways of dealing with situations, and many more, are implicitly held in their minds., they strive for helping their institutions through their valuable KnowledgeKnowledge and experience. Still, the main question arises when it’s about managing their knowledge capital. The teachers are the traditional staff of expertise. They participate in various education tasks, including collecting teaching materials, writing teaching plans, gathering teaching resources, teaching in the classroom, assessing student’s learning, and reusing learning outcomes. It includes a series of knowledge generation, development, collection, transition, and uses during the knowledge management process. Knowledge management by teachers means to obtain, store, exchange, apply and innovate the professional KnowledgeKnowledge needed in teaching, encourage the transition between implicit expertise and explicit KnowledgeKnowledge, improve teaching efficiency and promote improved subject development, use of IT and knowledge management resources and platforms, etc.
In many cases, accumulation is also important than creation. In the organizations, individuals gather information from different sources, specifically when it comes to teaching fraternity, who obtain KnowledgeKnowledge from various modes like conferences, workshops, journals, courses, etc. Sharma & Kaur (2016) emphasized that for an institution to become knowledge enabler, the processes must be part of the culture as a cultural system ensures knowledge accumulation, recording, disseminating implicit KnowledgeKnowledge in explicit form. Similarly, Lee & Choi (2003) further suggested that enablers are the most successful factors for improving knowledge management. These enablers are inclusive of organizational culture, people, IT, and these enablers in combination with each other contribute towards improving the organizational performance. Knowledge processes are maintained through knowledge creation and sharing of knowledge. They have found that knowledge processes encourage creativity, which in turn enhances the performance of an organization.
Teaching fraternity has its unique, innovative capability, mostly restricted to classroom teaching, and it is a challenge sometimes to convert that tacit KnowledgeKnowledge in to explicit. This is possible if it is made part of cultural infrastructure. Among many organizations, culture plays a significant role in knowledge saving (Christina Ling-Hsing Chang and Tung-Ching Lin, 2015). So to improve performance in the organization, organizational culture should be modified. There are few elements of Knowledge management: Knowledge Infrastructure Capability, which includes factors such as technological know-how, structural capacities & cultural aspects, and Knowledge Process Capability inclusive of factors such as acquisition, conversion, application, and protection (Gold, Malhotra & Segars, 2001). Thus, these capabilities help in achieving organizational effectiveness, and these also contribute to the organization’s success. Phattharika Chinchang, Phaprukbaramee & Ussahawanitchakit (2015) propose knowledge management capability using two dimensions, i.e., infrastructure capability and process capability and its effect on goal achievement. They found that to achieve an organizational goal, and organizations focus on knowledge management capabilities. Thus, it has a positive impact on goal achievement. Knowledge management is also influenced by learning vision, absorptive capacity, and environmental uncertainty. It is evident that Knowledge management and cultural knowledge management infrastructure together enhances organizational performance. Continuous learning and information sharing inside and between organizations is a crucial strategic need to build and maintain future competitiveness. Pioneers in the field of knowledge management have stated that organizations can reduce their administrative costs and can increase their financial performance by utilizing the intellectual resources of their organization (Almashari et al., 2002; Chen et al., 2010; Craighead et al., 2009). Knowledge management and cultural knowledge management infrastructure also helps in maintaining the positive customer perspective about the organization; In academic institutions, customer satisfaction axis determines the value proposition which they use to satisfy the needs of students, Nowadays students expect quality products and services in the form of Explicit and tacit Knowledge, Explicit Knowledge includes pedagogical support like lesson plans, teaching slides, books, teaching programs, The procedures and administrative practices like Communication structure, Organisational standards, Policies of behavior, Digitalization of environment like an Information system, database, e-portfolio, telemetric teaching, e-learning, e-training.
On the other hand, tacit KnowledgeKnowledge includes Pedagogical practices such as Teaching Style, Learning Style, Course design; Knowledge of the teacher’s activities like Basic Knowledge of the material object, KnowledgeKnowledge of how students learn, Ability to use relevant technologies, Evaluation methods, KnowledgeKnowledge of quality assurance implications and development procedures (Asma and Abdellatif, 2016). In academic institutions, operational excellence indicates how well organization is at doing tasks and how much perfect their educational and curriculum systems are, Asma and Abdellatif (2016) described operational excellence in academic institutions based on different targets such as excellence in teaching, excellence in curriculum, the composition of decision making authorities, quality of assessment policy, quality of infrastructure, national and international promotion of the institution, etc. In the present study, researchers are trying to measure the influence of Knowledge management and cultural knowledge management infrastructure on various indicators of organizational performance, such as financial performance, customer perspective, and operational excellence.