Knowledge management systems in support of an induction programme: An action research approach

Higher education institutions are in the knowledge business since they are involved in knowledge creation, dissemination and learning. However, not many higher education institutions get the most benefit out of managing their knowledge. Most of these institutions are so busy delivering knowledge that they fail to capture the best practices in their knowledge delivery. The induction programme for new lecturers is therefore very important to improve the quality of teaching. In teaching, lecturers might be the subject matter experts but could lack knowledge related to teaching, such as theories of teaching and learning, classroom organization and management, development of curriculum and course content, and professionalism. This paper examines if knowledge management systems (KMS) can support the induction programmes for new lecturers in an academic setting at the Bina Nusantara University in Indonesia. Action research is used as the underlying methodology. Specifically, a 5-step canonical action research was used to conduct the study. Our findings post intervention suggests that most lecturers understand the importance of the induction programme and the lecturers have positive attitudes towards the implementation of KMS to support the induction programme.