Abstract
South African academic libraries are facing radical changes due to a paradigm shift in their parent universities associated with the digital age linked to the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR). The rationale for this study was to enable library management, employees and change leaders of libraries to understand that knowledge management (KM) is a potential solution for managing change in academic libraries in this digital age. Previous research shows that academic libraries have to change in order to continuously meet the changing needs of the university community, but some of the change initiatives tend to fail or have a low success rate because of lack of KM activities being practised and implemented (Chew & Gottschalk, 2009; Jain, 2014). The central argument of this research is that KM as a management discipline is a solution to manage change in the academic libraries in the digital age. The present research gap is the role of KM as a change enabler linked to change intelligence. Users of academic libraries are technologically smart and use smart devices for teaching and learning. For example, students use these devices to access learning materials through Learning Management Systems linked to library electronic resources and interactive media. The changes in library users’ expectations, scholarly communication, information resources subscription models, and rapid technological advancements have influenced academic libraries worldwide to constantly change. The problem is academic libraries tend to be reactive rather than proactive to change. In the 4IR, the Library 4.0 paradigm puts pressure on the library to innovate, be visible and globally competitive in their services in order to survive and remain relevant. Innovation is one of the attributes of KM that ensures that academic libraries overcome their strategic challenges in the knowledge economy (Ugwu & Ekere, 2017). The purpose of this study was to explore the potential of KM as a change enabler in the academic libraries in the digital age. The main research question of the study was: How can knowledge management be used as a change enabler in an academic library in the digital age? The research process was guided by pragmatism through incorporating the mixed methods research approach where both qualitative and quantitative methods were applied to ensure that the research questions were addressed, and research objectives were achieved. The research strategy of this study was case study research; the study collected empirical data on cases of four campus libraries. The research findings were generalised to a theoretical vi proposition and guided the development of a conceptual framework into a new KM model for change intelligence that may be of potential benefit to academic libraries. This study applied the exploratory method to gather more empirical evidence on KM as a potential solution in managing change in the library. Interview and questionnaire were used as data collection methods after purposively selecting the respondents from the population in a non-probability way. A purposive sample of the library management team and library employees from a South African higher education institution was carried out. The participants and respondents were purposefully selected to elicit information on KM’s role in relation to managing change associated with the 4IR and Library 4.0 paradigm. The reliability of the questionnaire was tested that showed a high Cronbach’s alpha. The quantitative data was analysed using SPSS, while Atlas.ti was used to analyse qualitative data collected using the interview data collection method. The research results confirmed the statistical significance and relationship between KM and change intelligence. The study addresses the gap found in the literature on KM by integrating KM to be a change enabler in an academic library. The literature showed the role of KM, and additionally, the empirical findings gathered from respondents working in an academic library contributed more insights on the literature. Based on the findings, recommendations to be implemented were made. The main contribution of this study was to propose a KM model of change intelligence for assisting academic libraries to better manage change through the application of KM as a potential solution. Keywords: Knowledge management, academic libraries, change enabler, change intelligence, change management, digital age, paradigm shift, Library 4.0, 4IR.
Ph.D. (Information Management)