The Practices and Prospects of Knowledge Management in Ethiopian Knowledge-Intensive Organizations: The Case of Ethiopian Civil Service College and Ethiopian Management Institute
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Date
2011-05
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
This comparative evaluation study has been planned to assess the practices and prospects of KM
in Ethiopian knowledge-intensive organizations at specific research area of ECSC and EM!
Both primary and secondary sources of data were gathered through questionnaire, interview,
document analysis, and observation. 80 EMf and 194 ECSC knowledge workers were selected
through stratified sampling technique to jill the questionnaire while 4 EMf's and 6 ECSC's
higher officials were purposejiilly chosen as interviewees. Percentage distribution, standard
deviation and mean score descriptive, and one sample t-test, independent sample t-test and
regression analysis inferential statistics were used to deal with quantitative data. Qualitative
information were also narrated and thematically presented through the three step analysis
process to triangulate the overall result. Officials and majority of respondents, i. e. 64.8% agreed
that the two organizations have no integrated KM practices though there are little initiatives for
different reasons. Meanwhile, participants (77.2% of ECSC and 80% of EMf) have a~pired to
have a KM system in the future. The two organizations have no significantly different practice in
KMP, KMM, KMTD and KMD KM perspectives. Comparatively better KMC and KMS are found
in EMf while KML and KMT are being well practiced in ECSC. Both organizations have no
written KM policy and strategy though EMf has KM work unit and a planned knowledge bank
system. Regarding their KM maturity as per the G-KMMM, ECSC is at the second, awareness
stage both in people/organization and management system/process dimension, while at the
fourth, managed level, in the technology perspective. On the other hand, EMf is in the third,
dejined stage both in people/organization and technology dimensions while it 's at the second,
awareness stage in management process/strategy aspect. The total picture of the two entities is
manifested by the second, awareness stage of KM maturity. Besides, the eight KM dimensions
have significant positive relations with the current maturity levels as per their related key
maturity areas in G-KMM model. Regarding the knowledge sharing practices, EMf and ECSC
have been using different interventions procuring both pull and push strategies. Majority of the
respondents (47.8% of ECSC and 47.5% of EMf) are not agreed with the existence of resistance
for KM initiative in both institutions, however problems related with culture, leadership,
capacity development, absence of motivational tools, employees ' attitudinal problem and
inconsistency of KM tasks are raised as a major impediments. Generally one can conclude that
KMP, KML, KMM, KMTD and KMD areas are developmental and needs improvement in the
future while the rest can be taken as strong KM perspectives. Exploitation KM strategies of
explicit intellects has characterized the current practices with realistic implication for other
similar organizations. Thus the organizations need to plan long, intermediate and short term
interventions to improve their KM practices. Maintaining strong and developing weak areas
towards solving challenging situations can give a bright prospect for the next KM activities
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Keywords
Knowledge Management in Ethiopian Knowledge-Intensive Organizations: