Development of an Integrated Knowledge and Technology Management Model for the Higher Education

The present higher educational institutions are vying for excellence and strive to meet the expectations of individuals, organizations and the social institutions in their external environments. Knowledge Management (KM) and Total Quality Management are the most common of the tools which these institutions have adopted based on the success stories in the industrial organizations. Considering these dual paradigms in higher education, this paper focuses on the integrated approach that makes an attempt to combine KM into TQM processes/practices. The paper is oriented towards the perspectives on organizational excellence that can be achieved by incorporating KM concepts into the TQM processes, which forms a cycle of continuous improvement and development. The article identifies the key parameters with suppliers and customers as the external environment acting on input and output of the system linked to organizational excellence. The perspectives on the integrated approach in higher education are also discussed addressing the demand and supply side of higher education.