Empowering Africa's development using ICT in a knowledge management approach

Purpose – The purpose of the paper is to explore the role of information and communication technology (ICT) using a knowledge management (KM) approach. The knowledge in the context of this paper refers to indigenous knowledge.Design/methodology/approach – The paper is based on a literature review.Findings – The discussion suggests that, in spite of various infrastructural limitations in Africa, KM applications can still play a vital role in indigenous knowledge management and consequently empowering Africa's development.Research limitations/implications – The major hindrance is the fact that Africa has thus far achieved little on its own; rather it has been emulating the progress made in the developed world. Because of this, there is a scarcity of in‐depth knowledge related to an African context. In truth, some areas in which ICT has the potential to change, pertaining to the economy and society, have not been observed in any way. More research is required to identify specific needs of a country.Practical...

[1]  Ravi Arora,et al.  Implementing KM - a balanced score card approach , 2002, J. Knowl. Manag..

[2]  Peter Meso,et al.  A resource-based view of organizational knowledge management systems , 2000, J. Knowl. Manag..

[3]  Salleh Yahya,et al.  Managing human resources toward achieving knowledge management , 2002, J. Knowl. Manag..

[4]  D. Leonard,et al.  The Role of Tacit Knowledge in Group Innovation , 1998 .

[5]  Ganesh D. Bhatt,et al.  Knowledge management in organizations: examining the interaction between technologies, techniques, and people , 2001, J. Knowl. Manag..

[6]  Jain Pritti IT INDUSTRY IN BOTSWANA: CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES , 2002 .

[7]  Nitesh Tripathi,et al.  Integrating Indigenous Knowledge and GIS for Participatory Natural Resource Management: State‐of‐the‐Practice , 2004, Electron. J. Inf. Syst. Dev. Ctries..

[8]  James A. O'Brien,et al.  Management Information Systems: A Managerial End User Perspective , 1990 .

[9]  Josephine Chinying Lang,et al.  Managerial concerns in knowledge management , 2001, J. Knowl. Manag..

[10]  David Raitt,et al.  The impact of IT on indigenous peoples , 2003, Electron. Libr..

[11]  Carol V. Brown,et al.  Re-assessing the Enabling Role of Information Technology in KM , 1997, J. Knowl. Manag..

[12]  Alan D. Smith,et al.  Communication and loyalty among knowledge workers: a resource of the firm theory view , 2002, J. Knowl. Manag..

[13]  L. Grenier Working with Indigenous Knowledge: A Guide for Researchers , 1998 .

[14]  I. Nonaka,et al.  The Knowledge Creating Company , 2008 .