Knowledge management within the framework of innovation in the faculty of legal sciences of the university of manizales: Knowledge audit

Abstract

The contribution to the optimization of knowledge management in the Law Program of the Faculty of Legal Sciences of the University of Manizales emerges as a primary interest in this study and can be evidenced through the formulation of an action plan designed by the authors, after determining the state of knowledge management of the program through the implementation of a knowledge audit methodology based on the focus of the organization’s key processes. It is developed under an empirical-analytical approach, whose level of analysis was identified in two moments: descriptive and proactive; the last one consisted of the action plan as a contribution to strategic planning. The action plan is composed of improvement actions strategically located according to the processes of knowledge management: acquisition, dissemination, and application, but also framed in educational innovation. The emergence of improvement actions was based on existing and detected knowledge gaps. Its analysis with a proactive intention, allowed with this study, to contribute to the strategic planning of the program to sustain the missional quality standards with which it is identified. Thus, it is concluded that the main factors of success in managing knowledge of the operated program are the alignment between institutional policies and administrative management of the program, together with the existence of scenarios and spaces that promote direct communication and exchange of knowledge among the various actors linked to it. Also, gaps or areas for improvement found in the lack of experience of a group of teachers from the program that still have gaps in training on critical processes, especially in research and limited use of ICT to document and share the knowledge inside and outside the institution.