The economic well-being of any organisation in the world today significantly depends on the intellectual capital possessed by these institutions. However, with its richness in intellectual capital, some higher learning institutions in Tanzania are facing financial hardships.
To establish methods used by Tanzania’s higher learning institutions in managing the intellectual capital in their possession, with the focus of establishing a link between such practices and the financial performance of such institutions.
This study was conducted using a multiple case study design, employing a purely qualitative research approach. Purposive sampling technique was used to involve respondents in this study. Collected data were analysed using thematic content analysis.
The visited institutions had a wide range of intellectual capital such as human, relational and structural capital. The intellectual capital found was managed using various methods, including careful recruitment of staff and knowledge-sharing strategies. Although the practices of managing some aspects of such capital were at a very basic level at the registry points, the practice was found to be very important for the economic well-being of the institution.
Tanzania’s higher learning institutions possess a wide range of intellectual capital, and its management methods vary depending on the aspect of such capital. More importantly, the intellectual capital had a significant link with the financial performance of the institutions. However, the process of managing intellectual capital faced some challenges, including improper succession planning and the lack of a sharing culture.
The prerequisite for the functioning and development of any institution, including higher learning institutions, is its resources (human, physical and financial). However, in an economy where the only certainty is uncertainty, the one reliable source and resource for lasting competitive advantage is an organisation’s intellectual capital (IC) (Nonaka
Therefore, management that entails creating, shaping and updating the stock of IC requires the formulation of a strategic vision, which blends together all three dimensions of IC within the organisational context through exploration, exploitation, measurement and disclosure. Roos et al. (
It is a fact that the economic status of an organisation is measured by considering both the intangible and tangible assets of the organisation. However, Leaniz and Bosque (
Zschockelt (
Management of IC informs the patterns of IC flow within institutions, making it easy to prioritise the vital ones and related crucial issues. These include catalysing and accelerating learning patterns, identifying best practices and disseminating these throughout the institution (Antosova & Csikosova
Zschockelt (
It is from such a context that one would expect that regardless of the situation, higher learning institutions should not suffer from economic hardship because of the IC in their possession. Such institutions are in a good position to create future wealth and competitive advantage over other organisations. Hence, it was the assumption in this study that higher learning institutions, as knowledge-creating organisations, would continue striving, endeavouring even when other organisations experience economic hardship, because higher learning institutions possess a rich stock of the available IC. Therefore, the higher learning institutions will keep generating new knowledge and commodities and increasing continuous innovation from the accumulated IC (Zschockelt
As stated earlier, in today’s economy, IC has been considered as a key factor for innovation and the new foundation for competition, as well as the primary driver of sustainable competitive advantage (Hamzah & Ismail
However, for so long, higher learning institutions in Tanzania have been dependent on government budgets for their economic well-being (Abeli
Experience shows that the worth of any institution is assessed by the amount of IC it possesses. Therefore, IC in any institution needs a proper management for the sound and sustainable development of the institution. Otherwise, such institutions will experience financial hardship and high staff attrition rate on an annual basis (Abeli
… at Sokoine University of Agriculture, over the past 20 years, the institution lost over 90 senior staff to other institutions whilst at the University of Dar es Salaam (UDSM), over 50 senior staff are on leave without pay. (p. 18)
This is also the situation at other universities in the country (including Moshi Co-operative University [MoCU] and Tumaini University Makumira [TUMA]). Leaniz and Bosque (
According to Abeli (
There is scant literature on this subject in Tanzania, particularly on the management of IC in higher learning institutions. Therefore, the current study adds to this gap by investigating the management of IC in Tanzania’s higher learning institutions, with the aim of revealing ways to improve the financial performance of such institutions, of which most of them still face financial hardship instead of enjoying the financial performance accrued from the IC in their possessions. Also, this study aimed to reveal the ways in which the IC marketing strategies are managed by Tanzania’s higher learning institutions.
The specific objectives of this study were to:
determine the IC that is held by Tanzania’s higher learning institutions
determine methods under which the IC held by Tanzania’s higher learning institutions is managed
establish the link between the IC management practices and the economic well-being of the institutions
establish challenges encountered by the higher learning institutions when managing IC.
This study was underpinned by Davenport and Prusak’s (
Moreover, the model advocates for the marketing of knowledge; however, it cautions regarding the observance of knowledge market signals, efficiencies and absence of pathologies. Knowledge market signals are about indicating the presence of knowledge in the organisation and the ways it can be accessed. In this context, this refers to the presence of an institutional knowledge grid. Efficiency of markets entails the timeliness of buyers and sellers readily meeting and exchanging goods (the IC). Additionally, the efficiency of markets depends on three factors, namely, completeness of information, the localness of knowledge and the reduction in asymmetry of knowledge in organisations to allow buyers and sellers to interact or meet (Davenport & Prusak
When the model encourages absence of pathologies, this means that there should be no monopolies of knowledge by one person or group when others need it (Davenport & Prusak
In this era of a knowledge economy, the world is experiencing that the idea of managing IC attracts interest and increasing popularity in academia and in business environments (Mercier-Laurent
Experience shows that this new era of technology, inventions and innovation has had a significant impact on the strategies, objectives and goals of many companies and organisations. The studies of Hamzah and Ismail (
Regarding the approach to manage IC, Hamzah and Ismail (
Looking at the economic status of higher learning institutions in Tanzania, Abeli (
Therefore, from the review of literature, the following has been observed: (1) there are limited studies on the management of IC conducted with the focus of establishing the link of such practices with economic well-being of higher learning institutions in Tanzania and (2) more importantly, few purely qualitative studies in Tanzania that establish the challenges encountered by higher learning institutions when managing IC have been conducted.
This study was conducted by using a multiple case study design from two universities in Tanzania, namely, MoCU and TUMA, whereby a purely qualitative research approach guided the sampling process, data collection and analysis. The two universities involved in this study were purposefully selected. Whilst MoCU was sampled to represent public higher learning institutions, TUMA represented private institutions. As stated earlier, the rationale behind such selection was to establish the influence of ownership (public or private) in managing IC. The sample for the study consisted of three groups of leaders from the visited institutions. Each group of leaders was purposively selected as a result of the leadership positions they occupied within the institutions. The assumption was that because of their positions, they would be able to provide well-thought and evidence-based responses. Thus, the study included directors of human resources management and administration (DHRMAs) because this group of leaders dealt with identifying the shortage of and recruiting the required human capital within the institution. Deputy vice chancellors responsible for administration and finance (DVCAFs) participated as they oversaw all matters related to finances, marketing strategies and management of all the available intangible and tangible capitals within the organisation, and deputy vice chancellors responsible for academic affairs (DVCAAs) were included because they were responsible for overseeing the flow of knowledge within and outside the organisation. More importantly, the DVCAAs are the ones responsible for teaching, consultancy, research and innovation. In total, the study involved six respondents: two DHRMAs, two DVCAFs and two DVCAAs. Data were collected through semi-structured face-to-face interviews with all the mentioned participants. Direct observation was also used in cases where the institution had structural capital. Hence, the available storage places were observed for adequacy of preserving such capital.
The collected qualitative data were analysed using a thematic content analysis approach. This approach enabled the researcher to study collected statements in an indirect way through an analysis of the communication (Fraenkel & Wallen
The findings presented and discussed in this section are based on the face-to-face interviews conducted with selected leaders from MoCU and TUMA supplemented with observation of how the structural capital is managed.
During data collection, the first question of the interview sought respondents’ awareness of the range of IC owned by their institutions. Results show that the visited higher learning institutions had a wide range of IC with multidisciplinary specialisation ranging from ‘human capital, relational capital to structural capital’. This response created a need for respondents’ knowledge regarding the availability of each of the mentioned capitals. Thus, respondents were asked to clearly state the availability of each aspect of capital and discuss how each has contributed to the institutional development. The results indicated that respondents were of the view that in terms of ‘human capital’, their institutions had personnel with adequate skills and competences in the diversified fields of specialisation as per the institution’s focus and value characteristics. According to these respondents, the available human capital has been performing all the core activities of their institutions, including conducting training and teaching sessions, researching and provision of professional advice to needy individuals or organisations. Whilst one respondent had this to state:
‘This uses various strategies to acquire and retain IC for the future development of the university. Although retaining staff has been very challenging, but as for now the University has many people with diversified areas of expertise as per the university vision and objectives. Thus, we haven’t stopped to perform our core activities, such as teaching, researching and conducting consultancy services.’ (Participant 1, DVCAA, 13 January 2017)
Another respondent stated that:
‘Our university achievement and development (in terms of the buildings and the increased number of students enrolment) that you see today as compared to five years back is because we have enough human capital to perform all the university’s core functions. This provides an evidence that our university has invested much in human capital through education and training aiming at improving levels of quality of teachers and pedagogical tools, and the quality of the university products (graduates).’ (Participant 3, DHRMA, 13 January 2017)
In terms of ‘relational capital’, the respondents were proud of having a good relationship with the community, students and possible employers, including financial companies, co-operative societies and schools. As one of the respondents stated:
‘In terms of the relational capital we have good relational capital, maybe [
This was also supported by a respondent from another university who affirmed that:
‘Our university has a very good relationship[
Also, ‘structural capital’ respondents from all of the visited institutions were of the view that very little was in their possession. Under this aspect, the respondents frequently mentioned availability of websites, policies and books authored by the employees of the institutions as the only structural capital available. When another respondent was asked to state whether his institution had patents or any IP rights of all innovative works by the employees of the institution, which include text about the techniques, procedures and programmes, diagrams, software, information systems, data and databases that enhance the delivery of goods and services, the following response was obtained:
‘To be honest, maybe we are behind on that understanding. We haven’t succeeded that much on that area, only that a very few as I have mentioned the websites, institutional policies and books written by our staff are in our possession.’ (Participant 3, DHRMA, 13 January 2017)
Another respondent stated that:
‘Our university does not own copyright or patent of innovation made by the university staff. However, the university implements the policy that any staff [
Providing experiences at his university, one respondent stated that:
‘This is new understanding, our university has no policy on the management of structural capital, only the common understanding that university policy documents and guidelines bear the copyright to the university. I had no knowledge before this interview that infrastructure, processes, databases, methods, procedures and methodologies are invented by staff during his or her term of employment to enable human resources to function. Now I am aware that any innovation in a form of patents, copyrights and trademarks are embedded and owned by the institutions owning the employee who come out with a particular innovation, and that such capital should remain with an institution even when the employee leave the job.’ (Participant 5, DVCAF, 17 January 2017)
The findings indicate that the visited institutions had a wide range of IC and that respondents were aware and very certain about the availability of the human and relational capitals than the structural capital. The results show that all respondents were very sure about the contribution of human and relational capital to the development and continued existence of the institution. However, for the structural capital, only copies of books and policies authored by the institutional employees were shown. Considering the state of insufficient utilisation of the structural capital, respondents requested training on awareness creation on the ways institutions can track and capture such capital and utilise it for the economic well-being of the institution. Whilst one of the senior respondents observed that:
‘This interview has been very educative and interesting to me. I really see the need of having workshop on this topic (the IC and its management) to create awareness to all departments on how the IC can be beneficial to both of the parties (individual owners and the institution). I think that a series of training workshops and seminars will enable the university realise the benefits of properly managing all forms of IC in their possession.’ (Participant 2, DVCAF, 11 January 2017)
The observation was also supported by another respondent who stated that:
‘This conversation has been an eye opener to me. It is high time now our university should start to organise regular training on IC management to enable employees understand the value and benefits of the available IC at our university. Adequate and formal training on the management of IC would help the university to come out with the proper mechanism to capture and take advantage of the available IC in the development and operation of the university.’ (Participant 6, DHRMA, 17 January 2017)
Therefore, whilst IC was found to be available within the visited institutions, the findings also established the need for institutions to have proper mechanism for capturing the structural capital. This is because the structural capital is a special and critical element of IC, and hence it needs to be captured and institutionalised in an organisation.
This study sought to obtain institutional leaders’ views on the strategies and methods used by higher learning institutions in managing the IC in their possessions. The results show that respondents held the view that there are various methods and strategies used in managing IC. The varied methods and strategies are based on the aspect of the IC (i.e. human, relational and structural capitals) itself. The focal management processes included the acquisition, organisation and storage and transfer.
Respondents were asked to identify the means through which their institution acquired the IC in their possession. The responses showed that various strategies and methods related to the acquisition and retention of quality and experienced human capital (employees) were used. The strategies included careful recruitment of new staff with expertise and required experiences in some areas of professionalism. Whilst one respondent stated that:
‘As a public institution, our IC are acquired through public procurement procedures. Then the human capital, particularly the employed personnel, are required to enrich their know-how through career development programmes [
Another respondent made this statement:
‘Our university uses various strategies to retain its employees. The strategies include having various programmes to keep employees motivated and focused on the university’s and own goals so that they choose to remain employed and fully productive for the benefit of the institution.’ (Participant 5, DVCAF, 17 January 2017)
Based on Abeli’s (
‘For the case of retirement, our institution has a system of providing contract employment to the experienced retired officers in request to the government permission; and that for the purposes of retaining their know-how to the institution, these officers are allocated with junior staff for mentorship programmes and are encouraged to conduct a series of seminars in the areas of their specialisation.’ (Participant 1, DVCAA, 13 January 2017)
Another respondent stated that:
‘… this university has a culture of running departmental academic meetings where employees exchange their know-how on various matters.’ (Participant 1, DVCAA, 13 January 2017)
Stressing on the importance of departmental knowledge-sharing sessions, another participant opined that:
‘For sure, departmental or inter-departmental sharing of IC is very important; therefore, departments are urged to facilitate IC-sharing sessions and activities within the organisation through meetings, training, conferences and workshops. Although that has not been the practice in our institution, I really urge our departments to conduct the informal sessions where employees can share, refine and adopt ideas. Thus, once adopted, the ideas become institutional IC because employees act on it for the benefit of the organisation.’ (Participant 6, DHRMA, 17 January 2017)
Another participant had these views:
‘Our institution appreciates the role of knowledge-sharing in the management of the available institution’s IC. Hence, as part of the university’s top management; we have been encouraging our academic community to share what they know by holding meetings, training sessions and the use of technology.’ (Participant 4, DVCAA, 17 January 2017)
The findings of this study indicate that most of the respondents were of the view that their institutions had their own mechanism to retain their staff and their know-how. The results show that the human capital in the visited institutions was acquired through employing new experts and training them by providing contracts after their retirement. To retain, the know-how employees’ culture of sharing knowledge amongst themselves was used as a strategy. This simply means that the know-how was sometimes generated and shared through seminar sessions, meetings, workshops and conferences.
Questions for this section aimed at obtaining respondents’ views on the ways in which institutions facilitated access to and retrieval of the IC (specifically the human and structural capitals) in their possession by the persons requiring the IC. Respondents were asked to state the ways in which their institution’s IC was organised. Thus, prior to the main questions for this section, the researchers wanted to know whether the institutions had a knowledge grid (a map showing concentration and asymmetry of the available IC). The results showed that most of the respondents had the view that their institutions had nothing like a knowledge grid, whereas only one respondent stated that his institution had it. Respondents who indicated that they did not have a knowledge grid in their institutions were further asked to state how their institutional IC was organised. Responses showed that it was difficult for their institution to map the human capital in their possessions, but the structural capital such as books and policies was stored in the institution’s library and some at the registry. One of the respondents stated that:
‘It is a good idea to organise all aspects of IC in a grid of knowledge. The current practice is organising copies of books and journals produced by university academic community in the library, and their educational certificates at the registry point.’ (Participant 2, DVCAF, 11 January 2017)
Another respondent stated that:
‘Our university does not have a knowledge grid, but as for this understanding, it is high time now for the university to introduce mechanism to manage all aspects of the IC including intellectual property as the means to getting prepared for staff attrition. The institution must be prepared to lose talent especially if they have the opportunity to move into their dream job or for greener pastures. To us this has been very challenging for the development of our university.’ (Participant 5, DVCAF, 17 January 2017)
Although most respondents affirmed that their institutions had not done much to keep such capital safe, still they urged their institution to come up with proper mechanisms to collect and protect structural capital, including IP rights of all works by employees of the institutions.
The follow-up question to the respondent who responded that his institution had a knowledge grid was how much cost was incurred in establishing the grid. The response was that it did not cost anything. He stated that:
‘… it costed us nothing [
This prompted the researcher to conclude that nothing was in place as an institutional knowledge map because even when he asked to see it, the respondent failed to provide such help.
Irrespective of the responses on the availability of knowledge grid, the researcher posed another question to know the value respondents attached to the knowledge grid. Results show that all respondents indicated that a knowledge grid (specifically the structural and human capitals) would be of great importance for the economic well-being of the institution and as a tool for marketing and coordinating the institution’s IC. One of the respondents specifically had this view:
‘Although in our institution we don’t have such a thing, but I think having it in place is very important. I see it as very useful, especially in our institution where the IC is scattered. I think the grid of IC would help in coordinating utilisation and sharing of IC through various projects and programmes including providing solutions to the existing problems.’ (Participant 3, DHRMA, 13 January 2017)
Another respondent stated that:
‘I see the availability of the knowledge grid provides a platform whereby the University and prospective users (customers) of the University products can effectively capture, publish, share and manage the IC.’ (Participant 1, DVCAA, 13 January 2017)
On the management of the relational capital, respondents had the view that their institutions had for a while now maintained a good relationship with the students and other education stakeholders by ensuring the institution provides a quality competence-based education. To supplement this, one of the respondents stated that:
‘We are now in the process of conducting a tracer study to assessing and documenting about what the consumers of our products say about the strengths and weaknesses of our products (graduates) for improvement.’ (Participant 2, DVCAF, 11 January 2017)
Another respondent suggested that:
‘Keeping and maintain this good relationship with our stakeholders in this competitive era our institutions need to develop policies for creating and maintaining good communication and relationships with the identified stakeholders.’ (Participant 6, DHRMA, 17 January 2017)
Moreover, after having recognised that amongst the visited institutions, there were no proper systems for managing IC, the researcher wanted the respondents to state the alternative methods and means by which their institution organised the available IC. The responses revealed that the visited institutions organised their IC resources mostly through ordinary filing systems at a very basic level at the registry points using basic organisational techniques such as folders. One of the respondents stated that:
‘Everything is organised in our databases at the registry office. Also, computers in a form of folders are used for storing the institution’s IC. Each employee has its personal file where information related to his or her competencies are stored. The registry professionals know how they classify and arrange files because there is where the IC is stored.’ (Participant 3, DHRMA, 13 January 2017)
In the same institution, another respondent was of the view that:
‘… this institution had no specific system to organise the available IC.’ (Participant 1, DVCAA, 13 January 2017)
However, the respondent acknowledged that the institution should rectify the situation to ensure that there are specific personnel and a place or office responsible for organising, storing, utilising and adding new information to the available IC. This also was affirmed by one of the respondents who stated that:
‘… this institution is supposed to have a proper system to organise the available institutional IC, but it is unfortunate that we do not have it.’ (Participant 2, DVCAF, 11 January 2017)
All these responses indicate that in the two visited institutions, IC was not well organised to simplify its access, retrieval and marketing. Furthermore, it was observed that the practices of managing IC in these institutions were done at a very basic level at the registry points. A question was asked for respondents to substantiate if there was a specific person responsible for the management of IC at each of the visited institutions. The responses showed that none had such a position for IC management (i.e. no one was employed as the IC manager). Whilst one of the respondents from MoCU stated that:
‘In our university’s scheme of work, we do not have a position of such officer. Thus, we do not have a specific person specifically responsible for managing the IC. However, I think we should have one, whose responsibilities are to ensure that the available IC from all departments is well managed.’ (Participant 1, DVCAA, 13 January 2017)
A respondent from one of the visited universities made this observation:
‘… this university don’t have that person; however, the activity to oversee all academic and knowledge-related matters is under the office of Deputy Vice-Chancellor responsible for Academic Affairs (DVCAA).’ (Participant 1, DVCAA, 13 January 2017)
This is an important observation as it shows that although there was no individual employed to the position of Chief IC Management Officer, it does not mean that IC is not managed or there is no one responsible for the management of IC. However, this does not remove the truth that there were some failures in managing the IC amongst the visited institutions.
Respondents were asked to state whether there were any strategies that each institution had implemented to facilitate marketing of its IC. The responses showed that participation and collaboration at local and international conferences, seminars and exhibitions were the main strategies for marketing and promoting institutional IC, specifically the human and structural capitals. This means that whilst members of the institution in such forums were amongst the facilitators or participants but also through book exhibitions their works were available to other people. One respondent had this observation:
‘As a growing university with strategies to market and promote our IC in various specialisations, we are now signing various memoranda of understandings with several institutions from within and outside the country as the means to market and promote our institutional IC.’ (Participant 1, DVCAA, 13 January 2017)
Another respondent had this view:
‘It is true that our University needs a proper marketing strategy to market the available IC. Such strategy should consider marketing as a tool to manage and retain the available resources while attracting prospective customers and/or motivating the current ones. Thus, our University has been using TCU exhibition and other academia fora as platforms to market the available IC. I also see the need to start using technology including the social media, mass media and media sessions, and write-ups as an effective and proper strategy for marketing the institutional IC.’ (Participant 2, DVCAF, 11 January 2017)
To establish a link between the IC management practices and the economic well-being of the institutions, the respondents were asked to state the benefits accrued from managing the IC. The responses revealed that the well-managed IC had a positive influence on the economic well-being of the institution. Furthermore, the findings of this study revealed that IC (specifically the human and relational capitals) has been the main source of the financial performance of the visited institutions, as one of the respondents stated that ‘the increased number of students that this institution has is because of the available human and relational capitals’. The findings serve as evidence to the conclusion that IC had impact on the financial performance of the institution because they attracted communities and students who pay for services (teaching and consultancy). A follow-up question to establish respondents’ perceptions on the prime beneficiaries of a well-managed IC was asked. The responses showed that the prime beneficiaries included institutions and the community at large and individuals in the institution who owned such IC. One of the respondents had this view:
‘The well-managed IC is beneficial first to the person owning such capital, and to the institution possessing the IC as well. This is because the individual owners normally use such capital for their day-to-day developments while the institution uses such knowledge for both social and economic benefit of their organisations.’ (Participant 6, DHRMA, 17 January 2017)
The same respondent further stated that:
‘On the other hand, for the community outside the institutions, the well-managed IC as resource is diffused to them through research, innovation and consultancies. Thus, the well-managed IC is very beneficial, as they influence social changes and practices for development.’ (Participant 6, DHRMA, 17 January 2017)
Another respondent provided the view that:
‘Out of economic gains, the management of institutional IC is very beneficial as it increases transparency within the institution, decreases capital cost for hiring experts from outside, and make[
The respondents were also asked to state the main sources of the institution’s income. The aim was to see whether the IC owned by the institution was considered as amongst the sources of income. Responses from all the six respondents showed that the main sources of income in higher learning institutions were students’ tuition fees, government funding, international organisations’ funds, consultancy activities and church offerings. One of the respondents at TUMA had the following statement:
‘… apart from students’ fee and church offerings, our university has another source of income which include consultancy fee, funded research and other related international collaborations.’ (Participant 5, DVCAF, 17 January 2017)
Another respondent had this view:
‘Our University’s incomes are mainly from the government budget. Also, students’ tuition fee, research grants and consultancy fee are among the sources of income of our University. On the other hand, the University has not gone far in utilizing the structural capital in a form of innovation and intellectual property rights for the betterment of the University.’ (Participant 2, DVCAF, 11 January 2017)
Therefore, these findings show that the visited universities did not make full utilisation of the IC in their possession for the economic well-being of the university. The income of the visited universities depended on the government budget, if not on the diocese’s offerings, as well as students’ tuition fees, consultancy services and research grants from various funders. None were mentioned from structural capital (innovation and IP rights). This may also be amongst the reasons behind the increased financial hardships amongst higher learning institutions in Tanzania. Hence, the findings of this study provide a clear evidence for the importance of managing IC in higher learning institutions in Tanzania. This is because the IC is considered as a key factor for innovation; it is the new foundation of competition and the primary driver of sustainable competitive advantage (Leaniz & Bosque
Respondents were then asked to explain the challenges associated with managing IC in their institutions. Their responses revealed that improper succession planning because of poor employment planning was one of the challenges. Urging the universities to rethink their IC management strategy, one of the respondents had this view:
‘As a higher learning institution, we have proper ways of identifying and acquiring the IC for the organisation; however, I would rather urge our institutions to map the available intellectual capital, and set up the proper mechanism and criteria to measuring intellectual capital and reporting it in every year.’ (Participant 5, DVCAF, 17 January 2017)
Moreover, the lack of a culture of exchanging, sharing and transferring IC within the institution constrained free flow of such capital within the organisation. This contention is in line with one of the respondents who affirmed that:
‘You know, organisational culture may favour or hinder one or all aspects of managing IC. For example, in our institution we are having a big challenge on the aspects of sharing the available IC. The university has even decided to hire the retired experts on contractual bases, but we do not have formal forums and procedures to make sure the IC we need to retain to our university is well shared.’ (Participant 1, DVCAA, 13 January 2017)
That respondent continued by asserting that:
‘Maybe this is because in our institution, the available IC experience low level of competitiveness for personal and institutional income generation, thus owners and institutions (knowledge officers) have failed to translate their IC into monetary assets.’ (Participant 1, DVCAA, 13 January 2017)
Another respondent stated that ‘[
In contrast, the respondents mentioned various perceived challenges in marketing IC, including the lack of personnel to market the available institutional IC, using IT facilities and applications, and competition in the market because of the increased use of science and technology.
This article followed all ethical standards for a research without direct contact with human or animal subjects.
The findings of this study have highlighted three types of IC possessed by the higher learning institutions in Tanzania and some of the methods and strategies used in managing such types of IC. Using a sample of two higher learning institutions in Tanzania (MoCU and TUMA), the study showed that the higher learning institutions possessed a wide range of ICs, specifically the human capital, relational capital and structural capital. Also, the findings of this study showed that the higher learning institutions applied various methods and strategies in managing the IC in their possessions. The varied methods and strategies depended on the variation of the management processes. For acquisition and retention purposes, strategies such as careful recruitment of new staff with expertise and the required experiences, extension of the employment contract for retired officers, the use of academic meetings, facilitation of employees’ culture of sharing knowledge through seminars sessions, workshops and conferences were used. Although there were no proper mechanisms to collect, organise and store the IC, the ordinary filing systems at the registry points were used. Moreover, the activity to oversee all academic and knowledge-related matters was under the office of DVCAA. This means that the institutions had various means of managing IC in their possessions.
The study also aimed at establishing strategies used by the visited institutions in marketing and promoting the institutional IC. The results showed that amongst the used strategies were the employees’ participation and collaboration at conferences, seminars and exhibitions, use of mass media and media sessions and write-ups. However, some of the marketing challenges experienced by institutions included intensive use of IT facilities and applications and increased competition amongst certain popular staff at the institutions. It is the researchers’ observation that the institutions should utilise the expertise of the popular staff, utilise IT to build marketplaces and create an institutional IC grid (both physical and virtual spaces) dedicated to IC exchange (Davenport & Prusak
The findings of this study revealed that IC (specifically human and relational capitals) has been the main source of the financial performance amongst the visited institutions. Accordingly, it is important that higher learning institutions utilise the cost-effective strategy in marketing and promoting the available IC, both locally and internationally. This requires also the formulation of a strategic vision, which blends together all the three components of organisational IC. The vision should be effectively focusing issues on creating, shaping, updating and marketing of the IC stock, measurement and disclosure. Otherwise, the management of the IC held by higher learning institutions will be difficult. Hence, the financial hardship of the institutions may persist as well as the continued dependence on the government’s budget for the institutions’ operation.
Generally, various factors have been mentioned as the reasons constraining the management of IC. Such reasons included a lack of organisational sharing culture, lack of trust amongst employees in institutions, lack of time and meeting places and rewards going to the IC owners (Davenport & Prusak
This study adds value to the existing knowledge base by investigating the management of IC in Tanzania’s higher learning institutions. The focus was on the link between such practices and the financial performance of such institutions. The findings of the study prompt conclusions that Tanzania’s higher learning institutions possessed a wide range of IC comprising human, relational and structural capitals. Such institutions employed various methods for managing the IC in their possessions, including recruiting new employees with required expertise and sharing of the acquired IC. It was also found that the management of IC had a significant positive impact on the financial performance of both institutions and individuals possessing such capital. Also, the higher learning institutions in Tanzania faced some challenges in managing and translating the IC in their possessions into monetary value for the economic well-being of their institutions. Furthermore, although this study found that there were no persons employed as knowledge managers to oversee and ensure all activities related to managing IC and marketing of such capital, these activities were vested in the office of the DVCAA. Thus, it is from the findings of this study that various recommendations have also been provided to establish grounds upon which higher learning institutions could manage and market the IC in their possession for improving the economic well-being of such institutions. Here are the recommendations:
Higher learning institutions should ensure that the available managers are trained and equipped with effective and formal strategies, skills and methods of managing (including sharing and developing) the available IC. Importantly, the five key steps to be followed by organisations for successfully managing IC as proposed by Marr (
Individuals in the universities should be influenced to develop a sense of willingness to share their knowledge with others and to learn from others on their own initiative. The actions and efforts of knowledge sharing should be measured and rewarded. Also, universities should appoint a specific person to a position of Chief Knowledge Officer to manage the knowledge of the institution; promoting the available IC should be the best strategy to ensure that the available IC is used for economic gains at the institution.
Individuals and institutions should keep in mind that information technology is a proper tool to facilitate the management of knowledge in the world today. Therefore, there is a need to utilise it fully to perform all the management processes, simplify the IC access and retrieval, and marketing. Furthermore, IT should be utilised in order to make the IC easy for the person in need to retrieve or to locate the person possessing the special expertise.
There is a need to conduct a broader study covering almost all the higher learning institutions in Tanzania. Also, there is a need to conduct a study measuring the actual IC management benefits and impacts on the performance of higher learning institutions.
This article reports on the findings of the study conducted at Moshi Co-operative University and Tumaini University Makumira in Tanzania. Data for this study was collected during the Postdoctoral scholarship of the University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa in year 2016–2017.
The authors have declared that no competing interest exists.
All authors contributed equally to this work.
This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors.
Data sharing is not applicable to this article as no new data were created or analysed in this study.
The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the authors.