Are Private Universities Ready for Implementation of Knowledge Management in Iran? A Case study on Islamic Azad University, Neyshabur Branch

Abstract

Nowadays, knowledge is the most fundamental and worthwhile capital for any organization. As a result of instantaneous changes and improvements, organizations have to do their best to access knowledge management. Universities which are considered as the pivotal centers of engendering and disseminating of knowledge can gain great advantage of knowledge management. In the direction of the beneficial performance of knowledge management, rudimentary investigation of its implementation is of vital importance; therefore, this study intends to ascertain the amount of basic infrastructures’ readiness to implement the knowledge management system (Organizational Culture, Organizational Structure, technical infrastructure) and rank these elements based on their importance in Islamic Azad University of Neyshabur. The statistical population of research is the faculty members of Islamic Azad university of Neyshabur. Stratified random sampling has been used and the required data collected through questionnaires. The questions, which have been formed the questionnaire, have been designed on the basis of Hurbert Rampersad questionnaire. The findings of the research indicate that Islamic Azad University of Neyshabur is at an average status of readiness for the application of knowledge management in different dimensions of ‘organizational culture’, ‘information technology infrastructure’ and ‘Organizational Structure’. The results of ranking test, Friedman test, also showed that ‘organizational culture’ is the most and ‘information technology’ is the least important element.

Keywords: knowledge management, technical infrastructure, Organizational Culture, Organizational Structure, Islamic Azad University