A knowledge management technology architecture for educational research organisations: Scaffolding research projects and workflow processing

There is growing recognition that the economic climate of the world is shifting towards a knowledge-based economy where knowledge will be cherished as the most prized asset. In this regard, technology can be leveraged as a useful tool in effectually managing the knowledge capital of an organisation. Although several research studies have advanced knowledge management frameworks catering to the requirements of organisations specialising in diverse fields of expertise, no comprehensive knowledge-management architecture has been found that is technology mediated and orientated towards the emergent needs of an educational research organisation. In this paper, we review a knowledge management technology approach modeled as a web portal that was developed to create a repository and to facilitate shared resources in a research organisation. This technology-based framework encapsulates the knowledge management processes that capture and augment the explicit knowledge resources of the research organisation. The framework also supports social networks that enable the sharing and encoding of tacit knowledge by facilitating online exchanges and feedback.