Ms. Farirai Dube, Assistant Lecturer and Master’s Candidate in the Department of Information Science, presented a poster titled Organisational culture typologies as frameworks to study knowledge sharing practices in tertiary institutions at the iSchool Conference 2022.

The iSchools Organisation is a group of Information Schools dedicated to advancing the information field. The School of Information Technology (SIT) became a member of the iSchool organisation in 2022. The two African members of the iSchool operates as part of the European Region.

Ms. Dube’s abstract reads as follows:

Tertiary institutions, e.g. universities, are knowledge-intensive and multi-faceted organisations with diverse cultures that influence the development and dissemination of knowledge to students, academic staff, industry and the general public. Knowledge management in tertiary institutions is critical to gain a competitive edge, facilitate effective and efficient decision-making, build learning organisations, and stimulate cultures of knowledge sharing, change and innovation. Knowledge sharing is a core knowledge management strategy that increases the power of knowledge. Intellectual capital (knowledge assets) is embedded in individuals. The organisational culture is instrumental in facilitating the sharing of intangible assets by advancing trust, concordance, innovation, individual and group learning, communication, and collaborative work and thus establishing a framework for knowledge sharing.

The role of organisational culture in knowledge sharing is to provide a framework for social interaction by determining how knowledge can be created, shared and applied in different scenarios. Although organisational culture typologies are noted there is limited awareness of such typologies in higher education.

This presentation is part of a study to propose a framework to study knowledge sharing practices in tertiary institutions by mapping organisational culture typologies based on their inherent compatibility with knowledge sharing.