Knowledge Management and Information Technology Competency of Public Universities in Rivers State.

International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science (IJRISS) | Volume VI, Issue I, January 2022 | ISSN 2454–6186

Knowledge Management and Information Technology Competency of Public Universities in Rivers State.

Ikegwuru, Mac-Kingsley (PhD)¹, Elekwachi, Happiness Nwanyi^2
1Department of Marketing, Rivers State University, Port Harcourt, Nigeria
²Department of Office and Information Management, Rivers State University, Port Harcourt, Nigeria

ABSTRACT

The implementation of effective and efficient knowledge management practices stands as one of the most important dynamics for improving information technology competency. This dynamic has significant role in increasing information technology competence in public universities. Hence, implementation of appropriate knowledge management practices will influence information technology competency. This study therefore, investigates the influence of knowledge management on information technology competency of public universities in Rivers State of Nigeria. The target population for the study comprised all teaching staff from three universities within Rivers State. The total population of academic staff of the three universities combined as at December, 2017, was 2,517. The sample size of teaching staff studied was determined by the use of the formula developed by Taro Yamane (1967) and Krecjie and Morgan (1970). The study used simple random sampling and stratified sampling to decide on respondents from each of the universities, and a total of 365 respondents were obtained from the public universities studied. Primary data were processed using simple regression analysis, and the findings of the study revealed that, knowledge generation, knowledge transfer and knowledge codification and storage have a very strong, positive and significant influence on information technology competency. The study therefore concludes that, knowledge management significantly influence information technology competency, and recommends that university management should sensitize their teaching staff on knowledge generation, knowledge transfer and knowledge codification and storage standard being applied in their relevant institutions and channel them all the way through their profession conduit to attract an efficacious information technology competency process.

Key Words: Information technology competency, knowledge codification and storage knowledge generation, knowledge transfer.

INTRODUCTION

Knowledge management has materialized as a distinctive area in the study of business and is recurrently alluded to as a precursor of performance in establishments. The implementation knowledge management practices fruitfully will enable establishments to perform shrewdly to uphold their competitive advantage by budding their knowledge assets (Wigg, 1999). It is crucial to be acquainted with knowledge generation, method of dissemination in a business and what dynamics smooth the progress of these processes (Stewart, 1997; Davenport &Prusak, 1998), especially the role of information technology in these processes.

Information technology (IT) is widely documented as the building block for establishments to survive and compete favourably with others. Hence, education managers are motivated to adopt information technology in their operations in order to achieve efficient and effective performance in their establishments. Establishments, especially those in the education sector operate in complex and competitive environment, characterized by altering circumstances and extremely capricious economic environment.

Information technology has been an innermost theme in the knowledge management text (Constant et al., 1996; Hayes & Walsham, 2003) Information and communication technologies have been intimately associated with the development of the immense preponderance of knowledge management inventiveness. The influence of IT competency on knowledge

management may materialize as direct influence of information systems on knowledge management procedures; or they may indirectly influence information systems on knowledge management by affecting appropriate dynamics such as structure, which, subsequently, influence knowledge management

Information technologies are pigeonholed by their ability to power the traditional ways of appreciating assured structural sensations and behaviors and affect how firms wrestle with the trials flung up by the knowledge society. Information technology has been a fundamental theme in the knowledge management literature (Constant et al., 1996; Hayes & Walsham, 2003). Information and communication technologies have been meticulously linked with the development of the great majority of knowledge management initiatives. Franco and Mariano (2007) predicted that virtually 70% of publications on knowledge management emphasis on the design of IT systems. The influence of IT competency on knowledge management can be well-thought-out to be twofold: direct and indirect. Information systems can directly influence the knowledge management processes. They can also indirectly influence knowledge management by affecting contextual factors such as structure, which, in turn, influence knowledge management.

In recent years, several scholarly endeavours have associated knowledge management with the development of information and communication technologies, for instance Awara, Udoh and Anyadighob (2018) examined the impact of information technology (IT) tools on supply chain performance of online retailers in Calabar Metropolis, Cross River State., Ming-Llang, Kuo-Jui and Nguyen (2011) investigated the impact of information technology (IT) in supply chain management (SCM), and Attar and Sweiss, (2010) studied the relationship between IT adoption and job satisfaction within the Jordanian construction industry. None of the above-mentioned studies investigated the influence of knowledge management on information technology competency in the educational sector. Therefore, to fill this gap in literature, this current study investigates the influence of knowledge management (knowledge generation, knowledge transfer and knowledge codification and storage) on information competency of public universities in Rivers State.

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