Institutionalization Of Knowledge Management Strategies In Agricultural Research Organizations In East Africa

Abstract

Knowledge Management (KM) has remained an area of research interest in the Information Systems (IS) domain, and researchers and practitioners have recognized the contribution of KM strategies to organizations. Despite this interest and significance, in practice, Agricultural Research Organizations (AROs) in East Africa (EA) have not effectively institutionalized their KM strategies, implying that the envisioned benefits have not been fully realized. Although studies have shown that agricultural research knowledge can reduce the number of poor people in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) by 2.3 million (0.8%) annually, in the East African context, AROs are facing persistent and pressing challenges in institutionalizing KM strategies in practice. As a result, constraints in the management of the research knowledge remain. Some of the constraints include fragmented processes, unbalanced interests, and fewer studies that focus on practical aspects. The purpose of this research study was to improve understanding and explanation of how KM strategies are institutionalized in AROs in East Africa. It also offers a more in-depth insight to practitioners and understand better what takes place in practice. Answering the research questions enabled the study to consistently: conceptualizes the key characteristics of KM strategies, including the critical gaps; describes and explains the causal factors influencing institutionalization of KM strategies; explains the processes involved in institutionalization of KM strategies; and provides insight on essential considerations for institutionalization of KM strategies from a practical context. The guiding philosophy for this study is pragmatism. The study used explanatory design since the institutionalization of KM strategies is not well researched. Also, to generate a better-researched model for understanding it. This study used concurrent mixed methods, involving mainly qualitative through semi-structured Key Informant Interviews (KIIs) and a survey questionnaire technique for the quantitative approach for different research questions. Descriptive and inferential data analysis methods were used in analyzing quantitative data and content analysis for qualitative data. From the results, five critical characteristics of KM strategies in AROs in East Africa are revealed and explained namely: well-formulated, technology-focus, alignment, implementation process, and value proposition. The External factors influencing institutionalization of KM strategies in AROs in East Africa are presented under three broad categories: cognitive, normative and regulative pressures. Besides, ICT adoption, management and organizational factors are also shown as internal and contextual factors. Five processes involved in institutionalization of KM strategies in AROs in East Africa are presented. Two of these, namely initiation and end-of-strategy, are newly developed processes. The five-process model also shows the relationship between the processes and their sequential and cyclic nature. Eight critical considerations on how AROs in East Africa should institutionalize their KM strategies emerged from the results. This study has presented a theoretical approach that conceptualizes the characteristics of KM strategies and their respective relationships. The conceptual framework developed in this study can be used for analyzing KM strategy problems experienced by organizations in different contexts and as references for scholars and practitioners. Previously institutionalization has been presented as a sequence of processes, but this study has gone a step further to show that it also has a cyclic character since the end of a strategy life of one version ushers in the initiation of the next. Emerging practical benefits to KM practitioners, policy-makers and development partners interested in the subject are well explained. There is an explicit confirmation that all the indicators of institutional pressures are significant in explaining their influence on the strategic decision-making process of AROs to institutionalize KM strategies. Therefore, strategic decisions are vital in ensuring the successful institutionalization of KM strategies. While researchers and practitioners in the IS domain have recognized the contribution of KM strategies to organizations, the extent of institutionalization of KM strategies in AROs in East Africa needs to improve to ensure that KM strategies' envisioned benefits are fully realized. As this study has shown, the overall extent of adoption, implementation, and entrenchment of KM strategies in AROs in East Africa ranges between 48% to 64%. These values indicate low and moderate levels of institutionalization. With this extent of institutionalization of KM strategies, AROs in East Africa are not benefiting as much as they could from the investments in KM strategies. Unfortunately, scholars have not focused on specific aspects of practice, process and context. Therefore, this study has paid adequate attention to these areas and further explored the subject in great detail