The role of quality culture in the establishment of knowledge management in central Payam Nourastan universities

Dissertation for Master Degree (M.A)

Government Management

Abstract

The purpose of this research is to "investigate the role of quality culture in establishing knowledge management". Quality culture, which is a subset of organizational culture, helps the continuous improvement of the organization. The quality culture at the university level is defined as a set of beliefs, attitudes, values ??and norms that university members, managers and presidents participate in and undertake activities to ensure the desired quality. On the other hand, the knowledge management process includes knowledge creation, knowledge evaluation, knowledge presentation, knowledge distribution and knowledge application. Knowledge management is a comprehensive approach to achieve the goals of the organization through the best use of knowledge. In order to establish a high-level educational system in the university that is consistent with the knowledge management approach, a quality-oriented system should be implemented. This research examines the relationship between quality culture and knowledge management. For this purpose, a main hypothesis and three sub-hypotheses have been extracted. To evaluate the sub-hypotheses, a questionnaire was designed based on the Likert scale. A number of 100 questionnaires were distributed among managers, vice-presidents and employees of Payam Noor universities in central province, of which 96 questionnaires were completed and returned. Hypotheses were tested for three sub-hypotheses and after proving these three hypotheses, the final result was the proof of the main hypothesis.

Key words: quality culture; knowledge management; innovation; Tendency to change; Continuous improvement of quality

Introduction

The changes and risks faced in the third millennium are so massive, deep and pervasive that the life of information and knowledge of humans has been shortened. This means that past experiences and solutions are no longer useful for the current and future problems of organizations, and one should think in a different way and look for new organizational solutions with new structures so that goods and services can be adapted to customer needs with minimal cost and superior quality. . Knowledge management is a systematic effort to dynamize the growing process of information in the direction of valuing the organization (Malkipour et al., 2012, 1).

Higher education in a system-oriented structure can play a key role in knowledge transfer, when higher education can be based on national needs and in the direction of expanding modern management culture and knowledge, when a management system is established with a customer-oriented and quality-oriented approach. Total quality management is a customer-focused process and requires continuous improvement of service and customer understanding. In the approach of total quality management, the main attention is on quality. Quality of work and processes. Therefore, total quality management or result-oriented management - which only focuses on the result and more production - is contrasted. In general, the important principles governing this point of view are the commitment of senior management, customer orientation, evaluation and decision-making based on facts, participation and cooperation, training and continuous improvement (Bahrami et al., 2011, 559).

In this research, we intend to investigate the role of quality culture in the establishment of knowledge management in Payam Noor University. Quality can be listed as ethical requirement, professional requirement, competitive requirement, responsibility and accountability requirement. These four requirements remind all educational officials that the customers of educational services (students, families and society) deserve to have the best possible quality services. The Baldrige model is not only considered as a standard, but in fact it causes an intensive competition in the field of quality improvement, this model can also be used to evaluate and measure the quality improvement of universities. At the same time, the components of the Baldrige model can be examined for the acceptance of comprehensive quality management in universities.

This model has several basic criteria such as leadership (it is the moving engine and guide of all activities on the way to the organization's excellence and strives in line with the values ??and performances that are expected from it), strategic planning (they are key components in any quality framework and provide the driver and engine of the transfer process of quality development), focus on the customer (one of the primary missions of an institution is to meet the needs and demands of customers), information and Its analysis (information and analysis of how the organization ensures access to data and information for employees, suppliers, partners and customers, which is used to help management make decisions), human resource management (the organization manages, develops and uses the knowledge and capabilities of its employees at all levels of the organization, and plans these activities to support policies and strategies and the effectiveness of operations, processes and attention to employees) and process management (the organization transforms customer demands and expectations into product design or service, production and delivery, it also has a systematic process). Today, the competition between organizations is getting more intense every day and the rate of innovation is increasing.  Competition between organizations has caused them to reduce human resources in order to reduce costs, and the reduction of human resources has led organizations to clarify the tacit knowledge available to employees. Organizational knowledge management is one of the most important success factors of organizations in competitive conditions and information age.  The importance of this issue is so much that today a number of organizations measure their knowledge and reflect it as the intellectual capital of the organization as well as an index for grading organizations in their reports. So that they can make the best use of knowledge to achieve the goals of the organization. The knowledge management process includes knowledge creation, knowledge evaluation, knowledge presentation, knowledge distribution and knowledge application.  In order to turn knowledge into a capital good, organizations must strive to create a balance between the activities of knowledge management, but there are many obstacles on the way to the creation and application of knowledge in organizations, and the task of knowledge management is to identify these obstacles and resolve them. Samavi et al.  The highest rate of continuous improvement is related to the teaching process and the lowest is related to the learning process. When studying the infrastructure of knowledge management in Isfahan University from the point of view of faculty members, he showed that there is no problem in terms of technical and professional infrastructure for knowledge management in Isfahan University, but in terms of management and organizational culture, there is no suitable atmosphere.   In identifying the key success factors of the knowledge management system in the schools and centers of higher education in Tehran, the guide and the husband showed that the key factors of the success of the knowledge management system in these institutions include the development of human resources, knowledge-based strategic orientation, information systems infrastructure, collaborative culture, modeling, evaluation and transfer of knowledge, and the involvement of individuals. The age of higher education institutions is 11.7 years and the implementation of comprehensive quality management in institutions is 50%.

Rali in a research entitled Is higher education ready to implement knowledge management? showed that the values, structure of organizations and identification of a number of existing facilities, systems or projects that contribute to knowledge management in higher education (libraries and electronic educational collections, online networks for communication and information management system) are also effective in this field (Bahrami et al., 2011, 560-560). The culture of continuous learning and knowledge sharing is strengthened in the organization. Many organizations are looking for access to the benefits of knowledge management by focusing on knowledge management and extensive investment in information technology. The successful implementation of knowledge management requires a comprehensive and comprehensive approach to various organizational factors. The main challenge of organizations is to understand knowledge management and how to implement it (Rahmanood and Mohammadi, 2018, 38).

Organizational culture is a requirement for successful knowledge management. Culture represents the beliefs, values, norms and social customs and supervises the behavior and actions of people in the organization. In general, a culture that supports knowledge management is one that values ??knowledge and encourages its sharing, creation and application.