The Structural Model of Knowledge Management in Higher Education Institutions

The higher education system has caused a great deal of changes in social, economic and political fields. In addition, universities are social systems which have been known as the center of knowledge and information as well as thinking bases for leading societies. In today's complex, competitive world, knowledge management is considered as a competitive advantage for organizations. The purpose of the present study was to provide a structural model of knowledge management in higher education institutions based on managers' entrepreneurship and organizational climate. The population of the research included all employees of Islamic Azad University (IAU). 530 managers and three employees under their supervision (totally 1590 employees) were selected using stratified and cluster random sampling method. The research instruments were three questionnaires which were administered in 78 IAU branches and education centers: Sallis and Jones's (2002) Knowledge Management Questionnaire (alpha = 0.97); a researcher-made questionnaire for Managers' Entrepreneurship (alpha = 0.90); and Latwin & Stringer's (1968) Organizational Climate Questionnaire (alpha = 0.83). The results of path analysis using LISREL software indicated that dimensions of managers' entrepreneurship and organizational climate had a direct effect on knowledge management with the indices of 0.24 for the former variable and 0.64 for the latter one. The model also showed that the factor of being energetic in managers' entrepreneurship and the factor of structure in organizational climate had the highest direct effect on the knowledge management.