The New Economy is defined by properties that include globalisation, intangibility, and networks. Higher education institutions (HEI) must thus seek to address these new realities, particularly regarding changing ideas pursuant to the greater dynamism and intricacy this creates with respect to the prerequisites of schooling as traditionally implemented by various organisations. One of the current ways of thinking in helping organisations to foster essential capacity with respect to managing vulnerability in this era is KM which, through the managed procurement, creation, sharing, and utilisation of information, allows organisations to create, restore, and leverage a range of insight-based assets, permitting them to be more proactive and versatile in response to outside changes and to achieve more challenging goals. This chapter gives readers and educators specific support in understanding the idea of problematic, disruptive advancement and what such development means for training and instructional designs.
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In the era of data-driven technological advancement, every sector is compelled to accelerate transitions to remain relevant in a highly competitive environment. These transitions ultimately result in the disruption of established systems and their replacement with new approaches. The term “innovative disruption” describes this. In businesses, it refers to innovations and technologies that make new or improved products and services accessible, and more widely affordable. Some innovations may completely replace existing products/services or their modes of consumption. In the health sector, disruptive innovation could mean the introduction of new technological innovations to enhance healthcare deliveries, while in the educational sector, it might involve the use of technologies to improve the impact of teaching and learning. In all sectors, disruptive innovation refers to the use of technology. Innovative disruption is usually initiated by technological innovation, and refers to how such innovation can disrupt existing structures - despite being introduced to improve an existing system. It requires enabling technology, an innovation model (the manner of adopting the innovation), and a coherent value network. In HEIs, disruptive innovation can be witnessed in new teaching and learning methods whose adoption has been accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic. This has caused policymakers and regulators to adapt to the changed environment by creating and endorsing new methods of assessment for learning outcomes.
While disruptive innovation is meant to improve systems, it is susceptible to many implementation errors that can make the intended benefits unachievable. Since disruptive innovation entails the inflow and outflow of information that must be effectively managed, it directly relates to knowledge management. More specifically, knowledge resources, and the processes involved in their application to disruptive innovations, are needed to plan, design, and implement the innovations.
Knowledge management as a disruptive innovation can be utilised across a range of different fields, including directing new learning projects, or setting up data sets, that help drive skill-based changes in instruction. KM is the planning, managing, encouraging, and leading of an organisation's employees, and its goal is to enhance knowledge-related support and engagement. Knowledge-related support includes printed records such as patents and manuals, knowledge accumulated in electronic depositories such as a “best-practices” database, employee proficiency, knowledge that is retained by groups working on important problems, and knowledge embedded in the organisation's outputs, processes, and human capital. Wiig (1997) contended that KM can be best described as the orderly, express, and purposeful structure, reestablishment, and utilisation of information to boost an organisation's information-related viability and to develop and access insight resources. Such interaction requires independent ideas and the nurturing of creative minds. Creative minds permit people to see what is both conditional and what is conceivable, what is likely and what is self-evident, as new experiences regularly arise between these states. Leonard-Barton described KM as “fundamental for organisations to determine where they are going and for sustainability over the long term, considering that information creation is central to any organisation” (Klimko, 2001). Evans, et al. (2015) underlined the importance of productive KM interactions to satisfy an organisation’s development needs by implementing an appropriate strategy. Accurate information is needed to develop confidence and success, and forms a part of the cyclical process of information gathering and use. Accurate information resources are a prerequisite for organisations to succeed, and most organisations now recognise these as of major critical significance (Evans & Ali, 2013).
KM is a means of utilising information to accomplish an organisation’s objectives and involves interactions between administrations and individuals. It helps organisations navigate through changing markets, and confers advantage to firms that successfully implement it. While its precise form differs from one organisation to another, KM continuously strengthens current operations and provides insightful support for future development (Shongwe, 2016).