Knowledge management in Russian higher education: faculty perspective

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to analyze the current state and crucial issues of knowledge assessment and measurement in Russian higher education (HE) from the faculty perspective. Knowledge management plays a vital role in HE institutions (HEI) as they are involved in creating and disseminating knowledge. Educators realize that creating a social environment in HEI that encourages faculty to continuously extend their own knowledge and develop effective ways of capturing new knowledge is the key to university prosperity. Design/methodology/approach - Based on extensive literature review, there are identified some issues related to knowledge management (KM) at HEI. The key issues involve: the measurement of teaching and research-based activities (publications, grant applications, scientific-research conferences) in faculty's professional work; the balance of quantitative and qualitative indicators used to assess faculty's performance; challenges of continuous professional development. Primary data were collected through surveys from a sample of HEI faculty and expert interviews. Based on empirical research, the study reveals major problems of managing faculty's knowledge at an individual level. Originality/value - The study makes a valuable contribution, given that there is a lack of empirical studies of this nature focusing on Russian HE institutions. Practical implications - The findings were reported to management of HE institutions and presented at some scientific-research conferences. Some ideas were realized in the system of key performance indicators introduced in 2016 with the aim to stimulate the faculty teaching and research creativity and enhance knowledge management effectiveness in Russian higher education.