Paper Title
The Paradigm of Knowledge Management in Higher Education: A Qualitative Exploration of Organizational Factors Affecting Km Readiness

Abstract
In today’s knowledge society, universities are the main mechanisms of society for the constant pursuit of knowledge. As knowledge creators, higher education institutions need to implement knowledge management systems within the organization under convenient conditions. This study aimed to explore and to qualify organizational factors affecting knowledge management readiness in higher education. The research design of this study was specified as qualitative data collection compromising of the interviews using semi-structured question forms in order to explore and qualify organizational factors affecting knowledge management readiness in higher education through the remarks of academics at university. The study group of this research was 20 academics including lecturers and instructors selected from a state university in Istanbul, Turkey in the 2016-2017 Academic Year. In this study, the semi-structured question forms developed by Agarwal and Marouf (2016) were used in order to measure organizational factors of knowledge management readiness in higher education. In order to analyze the data obtained from the academics, content analysis was used taking specified survey constructs into consideration in the light of the literature of knowledge management (KM). All the data gathered from the study group were analyzed in this qualitative research. The themes were specified as knowledge sharing, knowledge sharing culture, organizational structure, organizational support, Information and Communication Technology (ICT) infrastructure, individual readiness to KM, organizational readiness to KM, and the barriers against KM implementation. Index Terms - Knowledge Management (KM), Higher Education, Qualitative Research, KM Readiness.