The roles of lifelong learning and knowledge management in global higher education

educa-The Roles of Lifelong Learning and Knowledge Management in Global Higher Education Kijpokin Kasemsap Suan Sunandha Rajabhat University, Thailand... The extant literature of lifelo

Lifelong learning is a highly important issue that most of the governments emphasize on their tional programs (Kapusuz & Can, 2014) Current theory, policy, and practice of lifelong learning are strongly influenced by ideas about the transformations that are taking place in contemporary societies (Zhao & Biesta, 2011) In an age of uncertainty, one of the aims of higher education is to establish lifelong learning abilities in students (Su, 2011) With the focus of more and more governments and related organizations, the concept of lifelong learning has been an important strategic target and guid-ing theory of formulating education policy and promoting educational reform (Ding & Yang, 2012) Lifelong learning is recognized as an indicator of competence and professionalism in higher education (Arnold, 2002; Duff, 2002)

educa-The Roles of Lifelong Learning and Knowledge Management

in Global Higher Education

Kijpokin Kasemsap

Suan Sunandha Rajabhat University, Thailand

KM, which has been long established in business, must be established in the educational sector as society moves from the industrial to the information age to improve teaching and learning, and to provide

a strong knowledge base for research-based practices and strategies (Ramachandran, Chong, & Ismail, 2009) There is as much need for KM in education as there is in industries (Sallis & Jones, 2002) HEIs are suitable places to apply KM practices to support their functional and operational processes (Kidwell, Vander Linde, & Johnson, 2000) HEIs are posited to profit greatly from the development and applica-tion of certain KM mechanisms that assist in identifying not only what is known, but also what must be known, similar to business organizations (Tippins, 2003)

The strength of this chapter is on the thorough literature consolidation of lifelong learning and KM The extant literature of lifelong learning and KM provides a contribution to practitioners and research-ers by describing a comprehensive view of the functional applications of lifelong learning and KM to appeal to different segments of lifelong learning and KM in order to maximize the business impact of lifelong learning and KM in global higher education

BACKGROUND

Lifelong learning has become an emphasized topic in the field of education (Can & Yüksel, 2012) Lifelong learning is accepted, in policy terms, by all Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries and many other countries (Bengtsson, 2013) In the 1970s, some in-ternational organizations (i.e., OECD and UNESCO) applied lifelong learning for humanistic purposes (Hake, 1999), which was accepted as a popularized slogan in the educational policies of European Union (EU) (Dehmel, 2006)

In 1973, lifelong learning was used for education by UNESCO (Demirel, 2009a; Friesen & son, 2004; Kang, 2007), which developed life skills programs for adults (Viswanathan, Gajendiran, & Venkatesan, 2008) Since the emergence in the 1970s of the notion of the learning organization, KM and lifelong learning have progressively entered into the debates (Casey, 2012) Humans are able to acquire and maintain knowledge during their complete lifetime (Kirstein, Wersing, Gross, & Korner, 2012) This outstanding ability is called lifelong learning (Bagnall, 1990)

Ander-KM is a process where HEIs formulate ways in an attempt to recognize and archive assets from within that are derived from the employees of various departments or faculties in HEIs (Joseph, 2001) HEIs are knowledge-intensive organizations where they are recognized to be in the knowledge business (Goddard, 1998) since knowledge production, distribution and application are ingrained in the institu-tion (Ho, Cheng, & Lau, 2008) Knowledge is both an HEI’s main production factor as well as its final product (Goddard, 1998)

LIFELONG LEARNING AND KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT

IN GLOBAL HIGHER EDUCATION

This section explains the theoretical and practical concepts of lifelong learning and KM; the application

of KM; and the significance of lifelong learning and KM in global higher education

Concept of Lifelong Learning

Globalization and growth of fast-changing knowledge economy mean that people need to upgrade their skills throughout their adult lives (Laal, 2011) Lifelong learning concepts are needed to fulfill learning needs and educational needs in human life (Eliasa, 2012) The perspective of lifelong learning policy

is essential in satisfying the rapidly changing societal needs (Wang, 2008), and following information and technology (Bryce, 2004) Lifelong learning has a new association in the context of man-society networking (Dandara, 2014)

Lifelong learning refers to the activities people carry out during their life to improve their knowledge, skills and competence in a specific field (Aspin & Chapman, 2000; Field, 2001) Educational policies for an effective lifelong learning process consist of the increases in pre-school attendance, continuous learning after compulsory education, and varied upper secondary education, thus shaping higher educa-tion and strengthening adult education by modernization (Uzunboylu & Hürsen, 2011)

The function of lifelong learning is to give motivational strength toward learners so that they are able

to learn based on the motivation inside of them with their own thinking ways (Eliasa, 2012) als enhance the educational capacity to respond organizational requirements through lifelong learning (Laal, Laal, & Aliramaei, 2014) Lifelong learning plays an important role in the integration of people into both new life conditions and new environmental conditions (Baris & Tosun, 2011)

Individu-Lifelong learning is an active process in which students search for knowledge, understand it, and ply it to meet their personal and professional goals throughout the life span (Aggarwal & Bates, 2000; Nayda & Rankin, 2008) Lifelong learning means the achievement of all kinds of knowledge, skill and quality in the process from birth to death (Can & Yüksel, 2012) Lifelong learning, which goes beyond the borders of formal education and includes all kinds of informal education, enables people’s adapta-tion to information society by creating opportunity for the development of knowledge and efficiency (Candy, 2002)

ap-Lifelong learning process consists of three learning perspectives in which the learning activities are recognized (Uzunboylu & Hürsen, 2011) These learning perspectives are formal education, informal education, and non-formal education (Eneroth, 2008; Fahr, 2005) The informal and experiential learning acquired in various settings can be converted to the recognized learning, thereby helping to systematize the various learning experiences into knowledge formation, knowledge building, and knowledge creation (Lee, 2014)

Regarding lifelong learning, encouraging legal regulations should be made in order to supply tribution like building new schools, providing scholarships and supporting the publishing activities by industrial organizations, foundations or other enterprises to culture and education of the country (Uslu

con-& Cekic, 2014) Knowledge and skills gained by individuals through lifelong learning activities are strengthening elements for participation to this kind of social structures by means of affecting their at-titudes toward lifelong learning activities (Antikainen, 2001)

Lifelong learning, which aims at influencing the inexperienced people in changing career fields and focusing on the demands of individuals taking self-responsibility in their learning procedure, assist their educational advancements by helping them create their potentials (Demirel, 2009b), and increase the social welfare by supporting their establishment of learning skills (Bath & Smith, 2009; Cansever, 2009).Technology plays a major role in the lifelong learning process (Uzunboylu & Hürsen, 2011) Lifelong learning process is practically correlated with technological development (Sharples, 2000)

The requirements for lifelong learning architectures are also dependent on the targeted recognition task (Kirstein et al., 2012) For identification tasks, where the target is the separation of a specific instance (i.e., one particular physical object) from all other instances, the combination of incremental learning with stability considerations of consolidated network parts are typically sufficient (Kirstein, Wersing,

& Korner, 2008) Distance learning applications appreciate lifelong learners’ requirement by removing the limitations in the educational process (Barratt, 2006; Muller, Swanepoel, & De Beer, 2010).The importance of theoretical knowledge, oral and written communication skills, economic perspec-tives, time and budget control, teamwork abilities, learning-by-project, and learning-by-doing are the parameters evaluated in the survey of lifelong learning (Kapusuz & Can, 2014) Discussions of lifelong learning appear to support the reaching out of disciplinary practices into the workplace where theoreti-cal knowledge is combined with knowledge derived from work experience, as a new form of knowledge that has use value (Nicoll & Fejes, 2011)

Concept of Knowledge Management

KM is being rapidly disseminated in both academic circles and the business world (Park, Jang, Lee, Ahn, & Yoon, 2013) Globalization has resulted in increasing use of knowledge as competitive weapon

in many organizations (Chu, Kumar, Kumar, & Khosla, 2014) The application of emerging knowledge

is crucial for innovation by firms competing in science and technology-intensive industries (Hohberger, 2014) KM should be coherent and based on the firm’s strategy (Bagnoli & Vedovato, 2014)

Effective KM frequently leads to creative value-added innovations and consequently raises tiveness of its products and services (Kim, 2014) KM and organizational learning positively influence organizational innovation (Noruzy, Dalfard, Azhdari, Nazari-Shirkouhi, & Rezazadeh, 2013) The evaluation of KM has become increasingly significant (Liu & Abdalla, 2013) Managing knowledge constitutes one of the major strategic advantages of an organization (Lunnan & Zhao, 2014) Firms in-creasingly use open competitions to extend their innovation process and access new diverse knowledge (Villarroel, Taylor, & Tucci, 2013)

competi-KM is a diffuse and controversial term, which has been used by a large number of research disciplines (Ackerman, Dachtera, Pipek, & Wulf, 2013) Knowledge is bound to individual or collective actions (Ozel, 2012) KM processes are the activities or initiatives an organization puts in place to enable and facilitate the creation, sharing and use of knowledge for organizational benefit (Chen, 2012) Knowledge-based approaches to the organization offer the valuable insights into some of the central issues of governance and organizational design (Grant, 2013) The three key factors affecting the conduct of business include human, knowledge, and the environment (Intezari & Pauleen, 2014) Knowledge infrastructure and process capabilities are highly correlated (Cho & Korte, 2014) Knowledge culture is recognized as a favorable antecedent of KM (Mueller, 2012)

Kasemsap (2013a) indicated that the effective training programs are necessary to help executives and managers develop their strategic skills for promoting employees’ knowledge-sharing behavior Organizational learning, organizational innovation, and organizational performance help organizations gain sustainable competitive advantage in modern organizations (Kasemsap, 2013b) Kasemsap (2013c) described that organizations should acknowledge the importance of KM in sustaining knowledge creation and knowledge-sharing behavior to improve employees’ performance Learning motivation is related

to better learning transfer (Kasemsap, 2013d) Organizational learning, KM, and knowledge-sharing behavior are potentially correlated with organizational performance (Kasemsap, 2013e)

Knowledge is recognized as a sustainable basis of competitive advantage that many organizations possess (Kim, Song, Sambamurthy, & Lee, 2012) Knowledge is the preeminent resource of firms that wish to remain globally competitive (Kedia, Gaffney, & Clampit, 2012) There is a positive relationship between KM capabilities and organizational performance (Cho & Corte, 2014) Knowledge transfer is more likely to succeed if the recipient organization has absorptive capability (Schulze, Brojerdi, & von Krogh, 2014).

Knowledge must be integrated throughout organization to facilitate strategic process (Lionzo & signoli, 2013) Organizational learning positively affects KM in the manufacturing firms (Noruzy et al., 2013) Knowledge growth measurement and elicitation are the active researches spanning from the concepts that include the stages of knowledge growth (Al-Omari, Al-Shaki, Ahmad, & Ahmed, 2014) There is an increasing need for usable tools to support knowledge elicitation, knowledge formalization, and KM (Catenazzi & Sommaruga, 2013)

Ros-Knowledge sharing is the behavior of disseminating acquired knowledge to other members of an organization (Tsai, Chang, Cheng, & Lien, 2013) Knowledge sharing has become a rising concern

in global education (Ramayah, Yeap, & Ignatius, 2013) Knowledge sharing mediates the relationship between team identification and research and development (R&D) team members’ creativity (Tang, Shang, Naumann, & von Zedtwitz, 2014)

Collaboration and education are the major concepts of knowledge sharing (Meese & McMahon, 2012) Collaboration, communication, and dissemination of knowledge are the meaningful management features (Angelstam, Elbakidze, Axelsson, Dixelius, & Törnblom, 2013) Cooperation with a diverse set of partners leads to learning opportunities with regard to both cooperation and innovation skills and hence is expected to enhance the firm’s innovation performance (van Beers & Zand, 2014)

KM encompasses not only the related notions of knowledge transfer and knowledge sharing (externally from other organizations to the small organizations and internally among organizational members), but the entire knowledge acquisition and utilization process, beginning with locating and capturing knowledge (including tacit knowledge which is difficult to codify), and followed by the enabling of that knowledge within organizations (Choo & Bontis, 2002; Takeuchi & Nonaka, 2004) External information acquisi-tion has a positive effect on service innovation performance (Kang & Kang, 2014)

Organizational learning is an underlying condition which is expressed by teacher perceptions of chological safety, experimentation, and leadership in order to reinforce the learning (Higgins, Ishimaru, Holcombe, & Fowler, 2012) Participation in knowledge-building communities is organized through learning the moves of such games (Bielaczyc & Ow, 2014) Learning ability has been proven to increase when organizations knowingly employ dynamic processes that help nurture, leverage and motivate people

psy-to improve and share their capacity psy-to act (Tzortzaki & Mihiotis, 2014) Organizational learning ates the relationship between managerial ties and opportunity capture (Li, Chen, Liu, & Peng, 2014).Organizational learning partially mediates the relationship between entrepreneurial orientation and performance and fully mediates the link between learning orientation and performance (Real, Roldán,

moder-& Leal, 2014) Learning and sharing through discussion forms is the most used practices among all respondents of organizations (Singh, Singh, & Sharma, 2014)

An increasing number of organizations are focusing on communities of practice (CoPs) orientated

KM studies and the links between KM and organizational business strategy (Chu et al., 2014) CoPs are accepted as the best educational practice and distinct from organizational structures while implementing

KM (Chu, Khosla, & Nishida, 2012) CoPs are considered as the major parts of health care, education, and business (McKellar, Pitzul, Yi, & Cole, 2014) CoPs aim to bring various professionals into a working

relationship around their common interests (Harris, 2014) CoPs in KM are the formalized procedures coupled with technological artifacts to build the groups of people who effectively share knowledge across boundaries (Su, Wilensky, & Redmiles, 2012).

KM is a critical antecedent of new product development (NPD) (Yu, Chen, & Nguyen, 2014) With increasing pressure to sustain competitive advantage and growth, NPD activities remain the focus of close interest from top management in many organizations (Felekoglu & Moultrie, 2014) Being able to internationally launch new products is critical for technology-based ventures to recoup the high costs of R&D and to fully exploit their innovations (Patel, Fernhaber, McDougall-Covin, & van der Have, 2014)

KM of a NPD project team is critical for a firm’s competitive advantage, and incentive mechanism is one of the most effective KM drives (Zhang & Zhang, 2014) Factors influencing inter-project knowledge sharing include trustworthiness, organizational culture, and knowledge-sharing mechanisms (Wiewiora, Murphy, Trigunarsyah, & Brown, 2014)

Application of Knowledge Management

The modern business environment is characterized by intense competition (Papadimitriou & Kargas, 2012) Managing knowledge is effectively critical to the competitive power of an organization (Park, Lee, Lee, Jiayi, & Yu, 2013) KM has attracted an increasing number of researchers since the concept was born (Li, Guo, Zhi, Han, & Liu, 2013) Knowledge is the most important asset for an organization

to create value and sustainable competitive advantage (Chen, 2012)

KM becomes a key organizational capability for creating competitive advantage (Kale & Karaman, 2012) One of the most important aspects of KM is to create a system that is capable of providing mecha-nisms and methodologies allowing the right knowledge to be at the right place and at the right person

as well as at the right time within an enterprise (Oztemel & Arslankaya, 2012)

Within the new business environment, an organization’s profitability depends on its ability to learn and adapt (Tzortzaki & Mihiotis, 2014) In order to sustain competitive advantage in the global economy, organizations must shift their focus to knowledge-based economic activities (Audretsch & Thurik, 2000) Knowledge is gained through the experiences and associated learning of the specific individuals (Carson

& Gilmore, 2000; Wong & Radcliffe, 2000)

Knowledge-intensive firms need to leverage their individual knowledge assets through knowledge sharing to create collective knowledge resources (Swart, Kinnie, van Rossenberg, & Yalabik, 2014) Knowledge can be transferred by organizational individuals through the acquisition of a new worker who brings in knowledge and experience into the organization and by the exchange of information between existing employees and external contacts For example, knowledge transfer is a critical factor in ensuring the success of offshore outsourcing software development projects (Betz, Oberweis, & Stephan, 2014)

KM, organizational culture, and organizational climate lead to increased job performance in modern organizations (Kasemsap, 2014a) Social media typically allows technological access to the data and video information for potential consumers in the knowledge-based organizations (Kasemsap, 2014b) Kasemsap (2014c) indicated that KM, strategic orientation, and organizational innovation are practically related to improved organizational performance

Knowledge-sharing behavior positively mediates the relationships between organizational learning and organizational innovation and between KM and organizational innovation in modern organizations (Kasemsap, 2014d) Leaders of global businesses should organize information and communication technol-ogy skills for organizational employees to enlarge their knowledge in the digital age (Kasemsap, 2014e)

Academic efforts to promote social networks should be routinely executed to minimize the lack of knowledge (Kasemsap, 2014f) Organizational culture, organizational learning, and KM are effectively correlated with job satisfaction (Kasemsap, 2014g) Firms should recognize the importance of percep-tion of learning and need to put more efforts in building up the perception of learning mechanisms to promote their perceived training transfer and achieve business goals (Kasemsap, 2014h).

Performance management practices positively mediate the relationships between leadership style and organizational performance and between organizational culture and organizational performance (Kasemsap, 2014i) Human resource management, organizational learning, and KM capability lead to improved organizational performance in global business (Kasemsap, 2015a) Using data mining meth-ods for business intelligence makes it easier for the users to promote its overall contribution to the KM process (Kasemsap, 2015b) Organizations aiming to improve business performance within enterprise architecture should create and develop information technology (IT), technical alignment, and informa-tion system (IS) capabilities, and IS effectiveness (Kasemsap, 2015c)

Social capital allows entrepreneurial firms to capitalize on learning advantages of newness and gain access to knowledge as the foundation for improved performance (Hughes, Morgan, Ireland, & Hughes, 2014) The explicit knowledge and tacit knowledge effectively influence supply chain performance (Schoenherr, Griffith, & Chandra, 2014) Exploiting external sources of knowledge is a key practice concerning their resource constraints (Desouze & Awazu, 2006) Knowledge creation influences new product performance through creativity, which includes novelty and appropriateness (Chang, Hung,

& Lin, 2014) Knowledge-sharing processes play as mediators in the effect of trust, collaboration, and learning on KM effectiveness (Moon & Lee, 2014)

Organizations of different kinds, from structured companies up to social networks or virtual munities, are becoming increasingly aware of the need to collect, organize, mobilize, and increase the expertise and knowledge which characterize their ability to adapt and evolve in a turbulent context (Sim-one, Ackerman, & Wulf, 2012) The integration of business process management (BPM) and KM helps organizations improve temporal, qualitative and cost aspects of the provision of goods and services and

com-to increase their innovative capacities (Schmid & Kern, 2014) The combinations of the right type of

KM strategy with the right form of intellectual capital practically enhance organizational performance (Ling, 2013)

Organizations need to put more tangible effort to improve their organizational knowledge mentation level such as establishing systematic measurement system and assigning more organizational resources including people, time, and money (Kim, 2014) The structure of knowledge system is a cru-cial component to make knowledge system effective and acceptable to organizational users (Turchetti

imple-& Geisler, 2013) Human resources and knowledge are valuable assets for enterprises (Zhang, Wang, Cao, Wang, & Zhao, 2012) While human resource management systems have been a research topic for more than two decades, KM systems applied to human resource management are relatively new to both academia and industry (Zhang et al., 2012)

Organizational KM systems should support informal knowledge seeking activities and tion among the knowledge sharers (Spence & Reddy, 2012) Knowledge sharing is a major challenge for collaborative networks and is essential to improve the productivity and quality of decisions taken

collabora-by both collaborative networks and their member organizations (Swarnkar, Choudhary, Harding, Das,

& Young, 2012) KM strategy and intellectual capital effectively enhance organizational performance

(Ling, 2013) Certain studies have found a significant link between KM and firm performance (Chuang, Liao, & Lin, 2013) There is a critical need to design learning environments that foster creative thinking

in students, particularly in the area of collaborative creativity (West, 2014) It is crucial to negotiate a legitimate knowledge system, which should include both expert and local knowledge (Giordano, Preziosi,

& Romano, 2013)

In modern organizations, the transformation of knowledge is an important issue (Tsai, Chen, & Chien, 2012) Modern agricultural business will profit in many aspects from information sharing and knowl-edge exchange, in particular involving public-private collaboration (Bernardi, 2013) Indigenous and local knowledge systems as well as practitioners’ knowledge can provide valid and useful knowledge to enhance the understanding of governance of biodiversity and ecosystems for human well-being (Tengo, Brondizio, Elmqvist, Malmer, & Spierenburg, 2014) Human resource slack generally decreases a firm’s performance but that holding excess numbers of employees who possess important tacit knowledge that

is specific to firms may benefit the firms (Lecuona & Reitzig, 2014)

Strategic and long term needs such as organizational learning and employees’ competence are better managed through projects (Breunig & Hydle, 2013) Organizations specializing in project manage-ment may manage a project for the benefits of third party, using the client’s technical knowledge and principles of work (Stoshikj, Kryvinska, & Strauss, 2014) The applications of individual learning and computer-supported knowledge building are important in global education (Zhao & Chan, 2014) There

is a need to investigate alternative paradigms for knowledge and information capture (Sung, Ritchie, Lim, & Kosmadoudi, 2012)

Organizations serve as the knowledge repositories (Holcombe, 2013) Information seeking from digital knowledge repositories is strongly influenced by how much information the digital knowledge source has and whether colleagues with whom they have strong social communication ties are seeking information from the digital source (Su & Contractor, 2011) Executives and managers inform their de-cision making with the streams of information, which they manage and generate to build organizational knowledge and value for practice effectiveness (Stipp & Kapp, 2012)

The development of IT in global organizations relies heavily on the transfer of tacit and complex knowledge from onshore units to offshore subsidiaries (Zimmermann & Ravishankar, 2014) Managers are optimistic about the benefits of information and communication technology (ICT)-based knowledge sharing, whereas the practice of workers is revealed to privilege self-reliance and interpersonal knowledge sharing (Trusson, Doherty, & Hislop, 2014)

There is a positive interaction effect in combining focused, internal and diversifying, alliance-based knowledge development, and a negative interaction effect in combining diversifying, internal and alliance-based knowledge development (Arend, Patel, & Park, 2014) A community university goes through in developing its use of KM practices to improve their students’ outcomes and recommends how other universities can similarly benefit from KM in meeting their educational goals (Hizmetli, 2014)

Strong ties enhance knowledge sharing and that there is a contingent effect of third-party ties (Huang, 2014) Social interaction ties and shared knowledge-sharing vision are the antecedent factors of inter-personal trust, and that uncertainty regarding knowledge sharing is increased by seekers’ absorptive capability perspectives, reciprocity concerns, and fear of losing knowledge power (Hsu & Chang, 2014)

A combination of structural aspects of networks and social ties has the potential to explain how the tions on offer can be successfully implemented (Stadler, Rajwani, & Karaba, 2014)

solu-Significance of Lifelong Learning in Global Higher Education

Lifelong learning competences are widely recognized in European policy (European Commission, 2010; OECD, 2008) as well as in the United States policy (Trilling & Fadel, 2009) The EU member states agreed, for example, that the development and implementation of coherent and comprehensive strategies for lifelong learning is a central educational goal (Commission of the European Communities, 2000).Lifelong learning strategies necessitate reflection on new methods of teacher education toward better educational performance in global higher education (Commission of the European Communities, 2007; Schleicher, 2012) Without knowing what lifelong learning is and what it requires, teachers cannot know what to do, nor can they know whether their teaching is meeting these educational policy demands or not (Finsterwald, Wagner, Schober, Lüftenegger, & Spiel, 2013)

The development of human potential, through a formal or informal learning process is a necessity

in a global world, characterized by a rapid exchange of information, technological development and the interdependence of world economies (Lazar & Lazar, 2012) Higher education has invested in defining the role of generic skills in developing effective, adaptable graduates fit for a changing workplace (Mur-doch-Eaton & Whittle, 2012) Educational leaders and faculties have to define their concepts, practices, and strategies in developing lifelong learning programs at institutional level (Gasparik & Veress, 2014)

In times of ongoing change, where it is estimated that the average people will be involved in several career changes during their lifetimes, where interaction with technology is essential, and where coun-tries make educational goals for their citizens as part of knowledge society, lifelong learning becomes

a major concern (Majhanovich & Napier, 2014) Lifelong learning process takes place in every stage

of an individual’s life and means the liberty to select the educational activities for the acquisition of the desired information and the liberty to select the occasion at which these educational activities indicate the recognition of individual’s advantage to gain the desired purpose (Lazar & Lazar, 2012)

Lifelong learning is relevant to all education fields related to personal, social, and professional needs (Can & Yüksel, 2011) Moving educational institutions toward serving the practical learning needs of all lifelong learners, is the lifelong endeavor that will continue for many years (Henschke, 2014) Informa-tion, access to information and communication technologies leading to rapid and profound changes in economic and social life practically makes the lifelong learning a must for everyone and mostly adults (Kayman, Ilbars, & Artuner, 2012)

Interdisciplinary collaborative teaching is one way to adapt to the needs of twenty-first-century dents, by modeling lifelong learning for students and inviting instructors to be more deliberately reflective about disciplinary assumptions, learning styles, and pedagogies (Blanchard, 2012) Lifelong learning tends to promote both intra- and intergenerational equality in education (Hällsten, 2011) Inside the Eu-ropean single market, EU member states have strong incentives to adopt similar approaches to lifelong learning and recognition of educational attainments in order to foster labor mobility (Kleibrink, 2011).Many universities have set up continuing education centers to provide lifelong learning for the indi-viduals and they have aimed to answer these educational needs (Akçay & Yıldırım, 2014) The need for lifelong education is determined both by the necessity of general knowledge and experience of social integration, but especially by the necessity of continuing professional culture and professional integration competence (Dandara, 2014) Engaging in lifelong learning activities has demonstrated significant personal and social benefits at all ages and promotes the practice of dynamic citizenship (Orte & March, 2012).Universities, which are the highest educational institutions of the communities, should have to pro-vide training services and the existing training programs with their faculties and students in order to

stu-improve their knowledge and skills (Akçay & Yıldırım, 2014) University students, as adult learners, prefer to take charge of their own learning through self direction (Merriam, Cafarella, & Baumgartner, 2007) In order to become the lifelong learners toward better educational performance, the individuals

of information society should possess various skills (Uzunboylu & Hürsen, 2011)

Hürsen et al (2011) indicated that the competencies of lifelong learning, called in the combined trio

of information, skills, and attitudes in the literature, are categorized into eight items (i.e., mother tongue communication skill, communication in foreign language skill, competence in mathematics and science, numerical competencies, learning how to learn, social and citizenship competencies, entrepreneur, and cultural awareness) The eight key competencies provide educational opportunity for keeping up the rapid changes and facilitate success in social life and in career (Uzunboylu & Hürsen, 2011)

Lifelong learning is an approach that encourages the use of information in a current, relevant, modern, contemporary and effective way (Can & Yüksel, 2011) Learning is considered as a panacea for coping with the various challenges brought by the changes (Laal & Laal, 2012) In HEIs, lifelong learning is a continuously supportive process which stimulates and empowers individuals to acquire all the knowl-edge, values, and skills in order to apply them with confidence, creativity, and enjoyment in all roles, circumstances, and environment (Longworth & Davies, 1996)

Lifelong learning involves the development of skills in critical thinking, effective group process, and self-directedness (Chiang, Leung, Chui, Leung, & Mak, 2013) Lifelong learning skills can be achieved through small group interactions (Baptiste, 2003; Neo, 2003; Prince, 2004) Knowledge exchange and discussion are enhanced in small groups through sharing, active listening, and providing and receiving constructive feedback to and from each other in the groups (Chiang et al., 2013)

In small groups, the active learners are further developed with the approach of problem-based ing (Kemp, Stewart, Fung, & Orban, 2002; Prince, 2004; Wilkie & Burns, 2003); the execution of an educational role within the problem-based learning context prepares them for life-long learning in HEIs (Bengtsson & Ohlsson, 2010) Regarding lifelong learning, problem-based learning is the process of students’ learning through active work toward the understanding and resolution of a problem; problem-based learning is done through the small group setting (Barrett, 2005)

learn-Self-directed learning can be effectively achieved through small group interactions as students take responsibility for their own learning (Miflin, 2004) In small groups, students are motivated and able to play an active role in investigating and learning new knowledge collaboratively and cooperatively with the developing broad learning skills, rather than being taught didactically (Baptiste, 2003; Neo, 2003)

Significance of Knowledge Management in Global Higher Education

Academics systematically perform the knowledge-intensive tasks if HEIs have the formal KM programs (Sharimllah Devi, Chong, & Lin, 2008) HEIs align their KM efforts with their institutional vision, mis-sion, and objectives, and communicate their KM strategies to all staffs and faculties (Ramachandran

et al., 2009) This is because strong leadership can provide the necessary direction that allows HEIs to effectively implement and deploy the KM strategies (Gottschalk & Karlsen, 2005; Hansen, Nohria, & Tierney, 1999)

HEIs do not only provide knowledge to students, but are also engaged in managing the existing knowledge for future reference (Yusof & Suhaimi, 2006) An institutional-wide approach to KM is identified to lead to the improvements in sharing knowledge and improve the educational performance

of HEIs (Ramachandran et al., 2009)

Many faculty members in HEIs consider knowledge as proprietary and something that is not freely shared (Ho et al., 2008; Wind & Main, 1999) HEIs are often organized in functional areas (i.e., aca-demic, research and development, marketing, student affairs) that independently operate (Tippins, 2003).

FUTURE RESEARCH DIRECTIONS

The strength of this chapter is on the thorough literature consolidation of lifelong learning and KM The extant literatures of lifelong learning and KM provide a contribution to practitioners and research-ers by describing a comprehensive view of the functional applications of lifelong learning and KM to appeal to different segments of lifelong learning and KM in order to maximize the business impact of

KM and organizational innovation The classification of the extant literature in the domains of lifelong learning and KM will provide the potential opportunities for future research Future research direction should broaden the perspectives in the implementation of lifelong learning and KM to be utilized in the knowledge-based organizations

Further research is needed into a variety of educational areas, including legal and regulative works, the curriculum, access, resources, budgets, cost, student support, partnerships, and quality assur-ance in global higher education Practitioners and researchers should acknowledge the applicability of

frame-a more multidisciplinframe-ary frame-approframe-ach towframe-ard reseframe-arch frame-activities in implementing KM frame-and orgframe-anizframe-ationframe-al innovation in terms of KM-related variables (i.e., knowledge-sharing behavior, knowledge creation, or-ganizational learning, learning orientation, and motivation to learn) It will be useful to bring additional disciplines together (i.e., strategic management, marketing, finance, and human resources) to support a more holistic examination of lifelong learning and KM in order to combine or transfer existing theories and approaches to inquiry in this area

CONCLUSION

This chapter revealed the roles of lifelong learning and KM in global higher education, thus explaining the theoretical and practical concepts of lifelong learning and KM; the application of KM; and the sig-nificance of lifelong learning and KM in global higher education Organizations utilize lifelong learning and KM as the major assets and organizational resources for creating and developing knowledge in order

to gain sustainable competitive advantage in HEIs

The integration of lifelong learning and KM is important for HEIs to obtain improved educational performance HEIs that embed KM practices across a range of lifelong learning activities effectively establish a boundary spanning culture, which links various organizational disciplines in the knowledge-based economy Competing on a practical capacity to innovate, HEIs continually seek to enlarge the feasible links between forms of knowledge and modes of lifelong learning The ability of educational leaders and faculties to practically exploit knowledge assets is importantly essential in order to gain the capability of lifelong learning and KM in HEIs Lifelong learning and KM become a valuable origin of competitive advantage in the information age

In terms of managerial implications, lifelong learning and KM pose a large number of threats and opportunities for the traditional HEIs Not just program offerings and means of delivery will have to be restructured, but, more fundamentally, universities and colleges will have to rethink and reshape their business concept, that is: their way of creating value and maintaining their competitive edge over other educational providers in global higher education.

Lifelong learning and KM have become a fundamental goal of education policies, both at a national and international level It is often advocated as a way to achieve socio-economic development and as

a tool to promote the knowledge-based society Lifelong learning and KM are practically directed at employment, career opportunities toward continuing professional education for both employed and unemployed people This includes updating or re-training to acquire or extend knowledge and skills or qualifications for new roles in global higher education

The focal point of lifelong learning and KM is on the learner rather than the institution and aims

to help students take more responsibility for their learning This shift from teaching to learning and from supply to demand-led provision is widely recognized in global higher education, and acade-micians and faculties should determine the educational programs and the curricula toward better educational goals The multiple objectives (i.e., economic, social, political, cultural, and individual perspectives) and definitions of lifelong learning and KM policies should be recognized and a debate on their social and educational implications and the prioritization of costs and educational benefits should be encouraged

Educational regulations, systems, and structures provide adequate incentives and guidance for the further development of lifelong learning and KM in global higher education The business concept based on the educational notion of creating value through enhancing differentiation requires higher education providers to move as much as they can to a student-centered provision of education and training This has far-reaching consequences for the curriculum, the concept of research, the interaction with students, and the relationships with other institutions in the education system The application of lifelong learning and KM leads to an education system in which there is room for some universities

to transform themselves into dual-sector institutions, containing both a higher education part and a vocational part

Educational faculties need to clarify policies and funding allocations for lifelong learning and KM Minimum criteria and training needs for a commonly recognized accreditation system should be estab-lished, along with common admissions criteria and regulations to guarantee quality of lifelong learning and KM Lifelong learning and KM policies need to be defined within mission statements and university plans Adequate university roles and structures must be created to ensure these educational policies are successfully implemented

The utilization of lifelong learning and KM is necessary for HEIs that seek to serve students and faculties, increase educational performance, strengthen competitiveness, and achieve continuous suc-cess in global higher education Therefore, it is essential for HEIs to examine their lifelong learning applications, develop a strategic plan to regularly check their practical advancements, and immediately respond to lifelong learning and KM needs of customers in modern HEIs Applying lifelong learning and KM will greatly improve organizational performance and gain sustainable competitive advantage

in global higher education

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