Knowledge management in higher education: the business-side performance

As a unique case of knowledge production, higher education institutions typically deal with knowledge offering, but seem to lack in using the advantages of knowledge management (KM). The target of this work was to identify KM presence and processes in Higher Education Institutions (HEI) in Brazil. Our research was circumscribed to the five best higher learning institutions, all of which are universities, according to the Student Guide 2001. Results indicated that KM, in the research and the understanding of KM, is still restricted to knowledge production (fundamental research and intellectual publication). There are little, or rare, organizational mechanisms, such as work design, or formal organizational structures, supportive of KM. Our conclusions indicate that the universities researched are still trying to break ground in finding mechanisms and ideas to appropriate tacit, into explicit knowledge, to their best interest.