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8 J. Mgmt. & Sustainability 156 (2018)
Knowledge Sharing in Ontario Colleges: The Way to Sustainable Education

handle is hein.journals/jms8 and id is 156 raw text is: Journal of Management and Sustainability; Vol. 8, No. 1; 2018 ISSN 1925-4725 E-ISSN 1925-4733 Published by Canadian Center of Science and Education Knowledge Sharing in Ontario Colleges: The Way to Sustainable Education Rania Mohy EL Din Nafea1 & Esra Kilicarslan Toplu1 1 School of International Business and Management, Seneca College, Toronto, ON, Canada Correspondence: Rania Mohy EL Din Nafea, Seneca College of Applied Arts and Technology, Toronto, ON, Canada. Tel: 1-416-491-5050. Received: February 10, 2018 Accepted: February 25, 2018 Online Published: February 27, 2018 doi: 10.5539/jms.v8nlp156 URL: https://doi.org/10.5539/jms.v8nlp156 Abstract This paper puts forward several principles that the authors believe are essential for quality education in Canadian colleges. The relationship between establishing communities of practice, creating knowledge repositories, encouraging top management commitment to knowledge sharing and establishing a comprehensive reward system are examined in relation to innovation in education. Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) #4 of the UN postulates quality education among its top initiatives. The question that arises is how do we ensure that SDG #4 is implemented in higher education institutions? Accordingly, data was collected through observation of faculty and staff from the 2017 Ontario Colleges strike. Although a strong corporate culture exists in Ontario colleges, the system continues to struggle with explicit top management principles that support knowledge sharing across different disciplines. Inter and intra departmental forums including students are non-existent. Knowledge repositories, that staff, faculty and students can tap into are lacking. A greater conversation with stakeholders is imperative to weave all the threads of organizational behavior practices together to nurture future global citizens. Only then can we achieve sustainable quality education. Keywords: innovation, education, knowledge sharing, communities of practice, reward system, top management, sustainability 1. Introduction Education is considered a vital prerequisite and a foundation to reform in any country. It is one of the most powerful and proven vehicles for achieving all the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of UN Global Compact. United Nations members also positioned education at the heart of the strategy to promote sustainable development (Annan-Diab & Molinari, 2017). Besides this, it is known that innovation is crucial for the new world of sustainability, and sustainability depends on fundamental, disruptive and system-wide innovation. As a report issued by the World Business Council for Sustainable Development puts out, Innovation is at the core of creating a sustainable human society. As a society, we will not succeed in creating a sustainable world if we focus merely on doing more efficiently what we currently do. (Gobble, 2012) Over the past two decades there have been many case studies that point out the significance of creating a knowledge-sharing environment in the workplace and its impact on sustainable innovation. Fortune 500 companies like GE, Xerox and Google have thrived on creating an organizational culture that is conducive to knowledge transfer between employees. Not only did that entail creating information repositories and forming communities of practice, but also ensuring that top management support and job autonomy were part of the equation. Ontario Colleges in Canada have been calling for a reform for some time now as evidenced by the five-week strike that was called for by the union in October 2017. Some of the major issues on the table included remuneration, job autonomy and academic freedom. Faculty felt they were not treated on an equal footing to their university counterparts in terms of pay, and moreover were not always permitted to deliver their courses in the manner they deemed fit. After some analysis of this situation and careful observation of faculty and staff from different Ontario Colleges and across different disciplines, the authors deduced that the Ontario College