This paper discusses the challenges faced by the new office bearers of university student organizations. A qualitative research approach was adopted, where the data was collected using semi-structured interviews

with participants representing several student organizations.A formal structured knowledge transfer mechanism to equip the new office bearers of the

student organizations was observed to be lacking. This paper presents a knowledge transfer framework that can be adopted by the relevant entities in

preparing the newly elected office bearers of student organizations in executing their roles and responsibilities

Mohamed Shariff, Siti Salbiah

Mohd Drus, Sulfeeza

Othman, Marini

UUM Repository

Proceedings of the 5th International Conference on Computing and Informatics, ICOCI 2015 11-13 August, 2015 Istanbul, Turkey. Universiti Utara Malaysia (http://www.uum.edu.my ) Paper No.  067  519  FORMULATION OF A KNOWLEDGE TRANSFER FRAMEWORK FOR UNIVERSITY STUDENT ORGANIZATIONS Sulfeeza Mohd Drus1, and Mohd Shahimi Mohd Yusoff2 1Universiti Tenaga Nasional (UNITEN), Malaysia, sulfeeza@uniten.edu.my 2Universiti Tenaga Nasional (UNITEN), Malaysia, shemyyff@yahoo.com ABSTRACT. This paper discusses the challenges faced by the new office bearers of university student organizations. A qualitative research approach was adopted, where the data was collected using semi-structured interviews with participants representing several student organizations. A formal struc-tured knowledge transfer mechanism to equip the new office bearers of the student organizations was observed to be lacking. This paper presents a knowledge transfer framework that can be adopted by the relevant entities in preparing the newly elected office bearers of student organizations in exe-cuting their roles and responsibilities.  Keywords: knowledge, knowledge transfer, university INTRODUCTION Collaboration and cooperation among business partners and allies to share, utilize and ex-ploit knowledge are fundamental in the current business environment as it will determine the creation of sustainable competitive advantage and economic wealth (Alavi & Leidner, 2001; Hicks, Dattero & Galup, 2007; Singh, 2007). Effective knowledge transfer among these par-ties will help to serve their customers in a more innovative and efficient way.  According to Goh (2002), “the existence of a strong co-operative and collaborative culture is an important prerequisite for knowledge transfer between individuals and groups”. As such, a mechanism that build the trust and needs for knowledge to be shared and transferred must be present in an organization to stimulate the knowledge transfer process. Knowledge transfer is “the process through which one unit (e.g., group, department, or di-vision) is affected by the experience of another” (Argote & Ingram, 2000).   For an example, in a software development firm, a knowledge transfer occurs when a novice IT staff learns from an experienced staff on how to use some software modeling tool. The process of knowledge being transferred transpires here as the experienced staff assist the less-experienced staff in certain area by sharing his or her skills and knowledge that helps the new staff to execute certain tasks.  This paper focuses on the knowledge transfer that occurs in university student organiza-tions.  In each academic year, new office bearers will be elected to replace the existing mem-bers in planning and managing the activities of the organizations. However, based on the re-view of the literature, it can be observed that there are lack of frameworks for knowledge transfer that acclimatizes to the needs of university students. This paper attempts to discuss on the suitable knowledge transfer framework for university students in handling the organiza-tions that they are entrusted with.   Proceedings of the 5th International Conference on Computing and Informatics, ICOCI 2015 11-13 August, 2015 Istanbul, Turkey. Universiti Utara Malaysia (http://www.uum.edu.my ) Paper No.  067  520  KNOWLEDGE TRANSFER PROCESS  Paulin and Suneson (2012) assert that there are some ambiguity in the distinction between knowledge sharing and knowledge transfer, as these terms are sometimes used interchangea-bly and sometimes are used differently based on the context or domain, by researchers. This paper adopted the notion of knowledge transfer in The Encyclopedia of Knowledge Manage-ment by Schwartz (2006) (in Paulin & Suneson, 2012) where knowledge transfer is “the fo-cused, unidirectional communication of knowledge between individuals, groups, or organiza-tions such that the recipient of knowledge (a) has a cognitive understanding, (b) has the abil-ity to apply the knowledge, or (c) applies the knowledge”.  Goh (2002) identified five (5) factors that affect the development of an effective knowledge transfer, which are leadership style of the organization, problem-solving/seeking behaviors of the knowledge recipient, support structure that facilitates knowledge transfer, absorptive and retentive capacity of the knowledge recipient, and types of knowledge being transferred. Islam et al (2014) in their study investigated the relationship of organizational culture such as trust among knowledge provider and recipient, communication between em-ployees, rewards for sharing knowledge and learning, with knowledge transfer process. Szulanski (1996) identified four (4) phases in transferring knowledge in an organization, which are initiation, implementation, ramp-up, and integration. The initiation phase starts when the requisite of certain knowledge and existence of the required knowledge in the or-ganization coincide, which results in “a search that leads to the discovery of superior knowledge” (Szulanski, 1996). This is where the element of problem-solving/seeking behav-iors of the knowledge recipient as indicated by Goh (2002) plays its role. The actual knowledge transfer happens in the second phase, which is the implementation phase. In this phase, the knowledge “flows” or transfers between the seeker and provider. According to Szulanski (1996), for a successful knowledge transfer, some kind of social connections must exist between the knowledge source (provider) and knowledge recipient (seeker) and “is often adapted to suit the anticipated needs of the recipient, to preempt problems experienced in a previous transfer of the same practice, or to help make the introduction of new knowledge less threatening to the recipient”. The element of trust as investigated in study by Islam et al (2014)  is crucial in this phase as it “determines the extent to which an individual is willing to associate and interact with others” (Kumar, Rose and Muien, 2009) (in Islam et al, 2014). In the third phase of knowledge transfer, or known as the ramp-up phase, is where the actual utilization of knowledge by the knowledge recipient (seeker), whereby the recipients may be not be effectively utilizing the knowledge, but able to “..ramping up toward a satisfactory level” over the time (Szulanski, 1996). The final phase, which is the integration phase, occurs when the knowledge recipient has achieved satisfactory results in utilizing the transferred knowledge and the utilization has become routinized. The third and the final phase of Szulan-ski (1996) knowledge transfer process incorporate the element of absorptive and retentive capacity of the knowledge recipient by Goh (2002) that influence the effective of the knowledge transfer process. METHODOLOGY AND ANALYSIS This research was conducted as an undergraduate research project, which span over two (2) academic semesters. The research adopted the qualitative approach, where the data collec-tion was performed using semi-structured interview. Three (3) research questions, which aimed at answering the main research problem were raised in this research. Figure 1 illus-trates the mapping of the problem statement and the research questions. These research ques-tions were later expanded into a number of interview questions.   Proceedings of the 5th International Conference on Computing and Informatics, ICOCI 2015 11-13 August, 2015 Istanbul, Turkey. Universiti Utara Malaysia (http://www.uum.edu.my ) Paper No.  067  521         Figure 1. Mapping of research problem with research questions and interview ques-tions  The empirical data was collected using semi-structured interviews with 20 participants, representing four (4) student organizations of a private university in Malaysia. Although the researcher had attempted to include more participants in this research, nevertheless some of the potential participants approached were not able to partake in this research due to time constraints and unwillingness of participation. Due to this, only 20 participants were success-fully interviewed, as depicted in Table 1. The empirical data was analyzed using a thematic analysis approach.  Table 1. Details of Interview Participants Students’ Organization/ Club description Role in the Students’ Organizations/ Club On-Campus Accommodation Committee Participant 1 – President Participant 2 – Vice President Participant 3 – Secretary Participant 4 – Committee Member Participant 5 – Committee Member Religious Club Participant 6 – President Participant 7 – Vice President Participant 8 – Secretary Participant 9 – Committee Member Participant 10 – Committee Member Language and Cultural Club Participant 11 – President Participant 12 – Secretary Participant 13 – Committee Member Participant 14 – Committee Member Participant 15 – Committee Member Technical Club Participant 16 – President Participant 17 – Vice President Participant 18 – Committee Member Participant 19 – Committee Member Participant 20 – Committee Member  The interview participants indicated that no formal training were provided to the new of-fice bearers of the student organizations upon their initial appointments. This response cor-roborates with the notion that the new office bearers are given “on-the-job training”, whereby they learn the tasks assigned to them by actually doing the tasks. Most of the participants Problem Statement The knowledge transfer methods adopted by students’ organizations are inefficient and unable to enhance the skills and knowledge of the committee members in managing the organizations    Research Question 1 What are the methods used in knowledge transfer in the stu-dents’ organizations? Research Question 2 What knowledge is being current-ly shared in the students’ organi-zation? Research Question 3 What is the most suitable method for transferring knowledge among the members of students’ organiza-tion? Proceedings of the 5th International Conference on Computing and Informatics, ICOCI 2015 11-13 August, 2015 Istanbul, Turkey. Universiti Utara Malaysia (http://www.uum.edu.my ) Paper No.  067  522  highlighted that this kind of training may not be effective to new elected office bearers, espe-cially for executing tasks that they have no prior skills and knowledge. They suggested that some of the experienced office bearers act as the advisors to the newly elected office bearers during the “on-the-job training”, and thus would be able to teach or impart some of their skills and knowledge to the new office. The interview participants also indicated that the Student Affairs Centre of the university provide some basic trainings such as leadership skills and communication skills. However, the participants felt that the trainings provided are too basic as they were not able to apply the knowledge from these trainings into executing their tasks and roles as the office bearers of the organizations. The respondents also suggested to have a documented manual or guideline which can help them to adjust to their new appointments as well as help them to improve themselves in executing their roles.  The participants also indicated that a structured process in transferring knowledge is nec-essary as they are not able to learn “on-the-job” due to time constraints, as they are also have commitments towards their academic activities as students. One of the participants indicated that a structured knowledge transfer process helps to eliminate “stressful experience for stu-dent and benefit from what they have learn”. As such, it can be concluded that the current trainings provided for the new appointed office bearers of the students’ organizations are not effective, and such the need for a structured knowledge transfer mechanism is pertinent to ensure that the newly elected office bearers are able to execute their roles and tasks in an ef-fective and efficient manner. RECOMMENDATION This research adapted Szulanski (1996) four (4) stages knowledge transfer framework, and extends the original framework to suit the environment of university students. The proposed framework has been validated with an office bearer from each of the four (4) selected student organizations. Figure 2 illustrates the proposed framework, which have taken into considera-tion the comments and feedbacks during the validation sessions.  Figure 2. The Proposed Knowledge Transfer Framework for University Student Or-ganizations The first phase in the proposed knowledge transfer framework is the identification of the required knowledge for executions of tasks by the newly elected office bearers. Upon identification of the re-quired knowledge, then the source or provider of the required knowledge needs to be ascertained. This phase has incorporated the problem-solving/seeking behaviors of the knowledge recipient factor by Goh (2002). Identification Planning Execution Build-Up Institutionalization Documentation Proceedings of the 5th International Conference on Computing and Informatics, ICOCI 2015 11-13 August, 2015 Istanbul, Turkey. Universiti Utara Malaysia (http://www.uum.edu.my ) Paper No.  067  523  After the identification phase, they need to plan on how the knowledge is to be delivered, determin-ing whether do they have the right amount of resource to do it and lastly, engage with the knowledge provider to confirm their willingness to share their knowledge. Trust among knowledge provider and recipient (Islam et al, 2014) and support structure that facilitates knowledge transfer (Goh, 2002) play important influence in this phase. In execution phase, they will conduct the training based on what they have planned. During the training, they have to observe the progress of the training and the recipient is required to document the knowledge that they have gained in that particular training. The absorptive and retentive capacity of the knowledge recipients as highlighted by Goh (2002) is critical in this phase, in determining whether the newly transferred knowledge is understood and absorbed by the recipients. During the build-up phase, the knowledge recipient will start use their newly acquired knowledge (from the previous stage) in executing their roles and tasks. In this phase, they may experience some problems in utilizing the newly acquired knowledge. However, depends on the types of knowledge and frequency of utilizing the knowledge, they will eventually elevate their understanding in the newly acquired knowledge and able to execute their roles and tasks in a more satisfactory level. This will help them to evaluate and approve the knowledge transferred during the training is useful and document the training procedure for future use. In institutionalization phase, the knowledge recipient must have the willingness to share the knowledge among other members in the organization as part of social interaction. In this phase, the knowledge recipient has now become the knowledge provider, and the communication among employ-ees and trust between the provider and recipient need to be factored in. Finally, the learning process has been completed and it must be documented for reference and future use of the students’ organization. CONCLUSION This research attempted to understand the challenges currently faced by university students in man-aging their organizations, and proposed a framework that assists them in transferring knowledge among themselves in a more structured manner. Szulanski (1996) knowledge transfer framework has been used as the reference model for this research. However, the research may be expanded to include par-ticipants from other universities in Malaysia. This will help to generalize the framework to other ter-tiary education environments.  REFERENCES Argote, L. and Ingram, P. (2000). Knowledge transfer: A Basis for Competitive Advantage in Firms. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 82 (1), 150–169 Goh, S. C. (2002), Managing effective knowledge transfer: an integrative framework and some practice implications, Journal of Knowledge Management, 6 (1), 23 – 30 Islam, M. Z., Rahman, M. H., Hassan, I. and Kifle, H. H. (2014), Organizational culture and knowledge transfer: Evidence from the Bruneian public organization employees, Proceedings of the 15th European Conference on Knowledge Management, Portugal, 2, 463 – 470 Paulin D. and Suneson K. (2012), Knowledge Transfer, Knowledge Sharing and Knowledge Barriers – Three Blurry Terms in KM, The Electronic Journal of Knowledge Management, 10 (1), 81-91 Szulanski, G. (1996), Exploring internal stickiness: Impediments to the transfer of best practice within the firm. Strategic Management Journal, 17 (2), 27-43 

Formulation of a knowledge transfer framework for university student organizations

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Formulation of a knowledge transfer framework for university student organizations

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