Organisational Culture as a Knowledge Management Enabler in Selected Private Higher Education Institutions in Botswana: A Question of Fit or Misfit

This paper intended to determine the role corporate culture plays in facilitating or hindering knowledge management (KM) practices, especially knowledge sharing, in selected private higher education institutions in Botswana and whether there is a fit or misfit between organisational culture of these institutions and international KM best practices.
Several key literary KM sources were consulted in which the theoretical underpinnings of the study were firmly grounded. This study used a quantitative method through the questionnaire as a data collection instrument.
A sample comprising 132 respondents was chosen from a total population of 670 comprising academic staff from five selected higher education institutions. The culture of these institutions was found to be negatively impacting on KM practices by, for example, not recognising and rewarding employee effort in promoting KM behaviour, not involving employees in decision-making, and failing to cultivate trust among employees and between employees and management.