Abstract
The world is changing at a great pace and acceleration. The role of science, knowledge, and learning has emerged, in developing and adopting appropriate methods to manage and transfer knowledge and experience within an organization and making it available for everyone to share and exchange easily, through knowledge fountains and databases. This chapter introduces the concept of knowledge management to waqf institutions and the potential contribution that can be provided by this in solving many problems and challenges confronting them, in the hope of achieving a qualitative leap in performance and restoring their leading role in societies. There is some evidence that researchers have addressed the issue of knowledge management in the context of waqf institutions. Consequently, this chapter draws attention to the importance of knowledge management for waqf institutions, with the intent of providing a comprehensive understanding of this topic and its association with the organizational performance enhancements, from different angles.
TopThe Concept Of Knowledge
By the beginning of the 21st century, scholars and scientists in the field of management announced the advent of the knowledge-based industries or the knowledge worker age. While machines and heavy equipment remain in factories, knowledge resides within the person and goes with him. This has introduced a contemporary business era for all organizations worldwide, regardless of being public, private, for profit or non-profit, where the consideration is given to employees with knowledge, skills, valuable and renewable intellectual capital or the so called “gold-collar workers”. Yet traditionally, most organizations and businesses focus on the management of tangible assets and resources and ignore the management of knowledge assets. Unlike*physical resources and assets, knowledge cannot be vanished or depleted when being utilized or sold. Indeed, knowledge is expanded and prone to further development and growth when organizations consider investing in it (Frey, 2001).
Key Terms in this Chapter
Knowledge Management Processes: They are referred to as the processes of acquiring, creating, transferring, documenting and applying knowledge.
Knowledge Management Enablers: Are best known as a supporting backbone or influencing factors for the success of knowledge management processes.
Knowledge: Is an outcome of accumulated experience acquired through facts, information, perception and thinking.
Waqf Institutions: Are best understood as NPOs that are responsible for managing waqf funds and properties (endowments) in Muslim countries.
Knowledge Management: Is a wide-ranging concept that emphasizes on three main factors for managing knowledge, namely; KM enablers, KM Processes, and organizational performance. KM is regarded as a strategic tool that assist organizations in managing the resources, they are held responsible for, in the current rapidly changing environment.