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Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 62 (2012) 739 – 743

WC-BEM 2012

Best practices to increase progress in knowledge management

Monica Butnariua *, Ioan Milosanb
a
Aradului no.
119, Timis, Romania
b
Faculty of Materials Science and Engineering, Transilvania University of Brasov, Colina Universitatii no. 1, 500068, Brasov, Romania

Abstract

Purpose This paper outlines and discusses the professional abilities, skills, training and competences necessary in order to
implement best practices and to push forward the progress in knowledge management within Higher
Education.Design/methodology/approach The most effective knowledge management in Higher Education allows access to
information from differ
of the skills and knowledge learned in universities. Explicit knowledge management is objective and relational knowledge that
can be expressed through a formal and systematic language with words, numbers, formulas, etc. The authors elaborate on the
educational, managerial and quantity aspects of knowledge management in a university setting.Findings The organizational
knowledge management model, driven by pre-specified plans and goals, aimed to ensure optimization and efficiencies is based
primarily on building consensus, convergence and compliance.Practical implications The quality of knowledge can be
estimated by its ability to assure a progress for the knowledge management. Also the knowledge will produce solutions faster and
more effectively in universities. The authors encourage knowledge claims, having a degree of utility, as well as a degree of
satisfaction.Originality/value This paper draws on our experience in implementing knowledge management in Higher
Education, in order to support scientists to discuss their best practices. Typically, teachers were expected to work to support,
initiate and maintain the processes of knowledge management in Higher Education.
©
© 2012
2012Published
Publishedbyby
Elsevier Ltd.Ltd.
Elsevier Selection and/orand/or
Selection peer review under responsibility
peer review of Prof. Dr.ofHuseyin
under responsibility Arasli
Prof. Dr. Hüseyin Arasli
Keywords: support knowledge; initiative knowledge; maintain knowledge;

1. Introduction

Today there are almost no universities, functions or entities that share information that are not affected by the
qualitative changes in the conditions of the informational society.
The pivot of this society is knowledge, learning, intellectual capital and innovation.
A new specific initiative meant to encourage innovative practices represents a new vision on the way in which
good practices can determine the growth and restructuring of knowledge management (Ozkan, 2008, Chen, &
McQueen, 2010, Hendry, Hyde, & Davy, 2005).
New ways of learning and of social organization require the adopting and assimilation of new management
standards, but also of instruments and technologies capable to capitalize the opportunities brought about by the
knowledge-based economy (Craig, Wozniak, Hyde, & Burn, 2009, Nikolaidou, Sofianopoulou, & Giannopoulos,

* Corresponding Monica Butnariu. Tel.: +400256277464

E-mail address: monica_butnariu@usab-tm.ro

1877-0428 © 2012 Published by Elsevier Ltd. Selection and/or peer review under responsibility of Prof. Dr. Hüseyin Arasli
doi:10.1016/j.sbspro.2012.09.125
740 Monica Butnariu and Ioan Milosan / Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 62 (2012) 739 – 743

2010). The university is somewhere on this path of generating new sources of values, but its precise place is not well
defined yet (Hoban, & Herrington, 2005), which allows for its intervention in a multiple and diffuse way.
As a development tool and/or means of legitimation, it can generate profit (like any other service activity) and it
can be tied to the formation of elites and/or of the mass of human resources (Rowe, Marciniak, & Clergeau, 2011,
Bora, 2006).
The university has a rapport with the truth, the good and knowledge, on a practical level, with the intellectual and
moral progress of society. It occupies a metasystemic position, because, through the knowledge developed within it,
it provides the criteria and the principles to build and evaluate all other societal entities.
Universities produce knowledge and it is here that through analytical criticism scientific theories are evaluated
and changed. Societal ethics transforms with time, and under the influence of ideas shaped in universities, laws can
become less repressive, more stimulative and more formative (Kathryn, Stam, & Stanton, 2010, Ginsburg, &
Gorostiaga, 2001).
Thus, the values that universities come to stand for are freedom, justice, dignity, but also professionalism,
innovation, creativity and reinterpretation (Panteli, Yan, & Chamakiotis, 2011).
The objective of this paper is to combine theory and practice in order to offer a context to understanding the
concept of knowledge management oriented towards the multitude of activities in which this change management
tool can be applied. Our intention is to motivate and stir imagination towards participating to the creation of a new
form of cooperative education.

2. Design/Methodology/Approach

This paper is a descriptive study that uses three methods: focus groups, interviews and surveys.
Educational research is the basis of this study and is a systematic investigation on subjects related to quality
management in university education, correlated to the knowledge needs of the labor market and society in general.
This type of research is used in order to describe the present state and the options for the future of the target
groups. The numerical values obtained through this research serve to describe the subjects and their behaviours.
A certain degree of quantification is necessary in all evaluation studies in order to appreciate the success of the
interventions and the extent of the adverse effects. Qualitative methods are more useful in refining the research tools
and in deeper explorations of the collected information.

3. Results

The approach we propose is based on a holistic and strategic vision of universities (see figure 1).

Focus group

Conditions Knowledge assimilation

Method Interview Results
Techniques Good practices
Contexts Innovaitons
Survey

Figure 1. Requirements of a methodology for change in knowledge, attitudes and/or behaviours

 Monica Butnariu and Ioan Milosan / Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 62 (2012) 739 – 743 741

The identification of diverse information management practices is not the right approach towards true knowledge
management.
Our approach presents the main concepts, such as strategy/vision, management, measurement and analysis,
resources and infrastructure, structure and processes, stating what is wished for in each of these fields.
The focus group is a method of collecting data through the interaction between the members of group, regarding
the importance of knowledge and the information obtained by applying the method.
By coding, information was condensed, systematized and normalized.
Content and duration differed between opinion and documentary interviews, and between extensive (applied to a
large number of persons, but inefficient in proving deeper structures) and intensive interviews; interviews were also
ranging from a directive to a non-directive style.

curriculum, and whether they can acquire all the knowledge necessary in order to become competitive on the labor
market, as well as whether the departments that should support and guide them provide the necessary assistance.
An aspect is that of the perception of students on the academic environment, the self-evaluation of their own
activity, in contrast with the perception of the students, the teaching assistants or the representatives of the socio-
economic environment with regards to the communication/collaboration between the two groups.
Identifying the various existing good practices in information management and their implementation is not the
right way towards knowledge.
We wanted to identify conditions, methods and contexts that can facilitate changes at the level of knowledge,
attitudes and behaviours, with the purpose of assimilating of new knowledge, good practices and innovations,
creatining partnerships based on a common vision over knowledge, so as to ensure that new knowledge lies at the
foundation of our experience, but also of other universities.
We will continue implementing and initiating various dialogues through academic circles, vocational universities
and other higher education entities.

4. Discussion/Findings

The difference between qualitative and quantitative is done both at general epistemological level, and with regard
to certain aspects, such as: the role of the researcher, the relationship with the subject, the relationship between the
theoretical and the empirical, the main methods visited and the nature of the obtained data.
But knowledge management and levying information is not the result of the activity of a person/group.
These can emit opinions, can write about these notions, but cannot make decisions in the name of the university
and the academic community; however, when the question is asked on what the universty represents and how it
should look like, the first and only asked to answer are the professors and the students.

day.
Professors answer synthetically and in an explicit manner, to the question on what the university should be, and
at the same time they take care of it.
They both look for an answer and are responsible for the answer they have come up with. Both students and
professors are responsible towards the university as the university is also responsible towards them.

It is not by chance that the knowledge management methods, the creation and transfer of good practices are not
amonf the most discussed subjects in international conferences, receiving appreciation from both universities and
students (Kukreti, & Sundriyal, 2009).
The creation of new forms of learning and social organization requires the adoptation and assimilation of new
management standards, but also of tools and technologies capable to capitalize the learning opportunities offered by
knowledge management (Nazari, Hasbullah, Parhizkar, Shirazi, & Marioriad, 2009).
Motivation is a decisive factor in this process and determines:
action, dynamising and activating the subject;
742 Monica Butnariu and Ioan Milosan / Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 62 (2012) 739 – 743

the focusing of bahaviour towards a precise goal;

focuses attention; and
super-tension.
Among the challenges the academic community needs to respond to we can mention: the optimal way in which
the balance between the four types of knowledge transfer can reach equilibrium:
identifying the current disfunctionalities in the knowledge production and dissemination
infrastructure;
identifying and implementing the best practices in the field;
anticipating the expectations of the economic environment and a strategic positioning of universities
vis a vis these expectations in research and curriculum;
identifying the potential of relationing with the economic environment and of the ways through
which universities can access funding for research;
harmonizing incentives towards a better transfer between the private sector and the universities;
motivating universities to own, develop and market IP rights portfolios;
adapting institutional architectures, universitary practices and organizational cultures to the
requirements of the new performance paradigms in the field (http://www.edu 2025.ro/, 2011).
All these reveal the importance of setting a motivational context.

5. Conclusions/Practical Implications

University is a great enterprise of spirit, which in the end helps us understand the different horizons of different
individuals. The university must generate skills and competences through information and formation, and
synchronize these with the necessities of the moment.
The strategy of the university should be based on the concept of change helped by durable development, centred
on intellectual creativity. We must be aware of the fact that the teaching activity involves an intellectual analysis and
a creative component, which should respect the requirements if a society based on information and intensive culture.
The strategy of building and improving the quality of the teaching activity constitutes a benchmark of
modernization, and has as objective education per se and the involvement of all the essential factors in the education
process.

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