Corporate Strategy and Policy

Knowledge management is more than a mere accessory to business strategy; it occupies a pivotal position in organizations that operate in the knowledge-based economy. In order to realize an effective knowledge management system it is imperative to ensure an environment of ethical coherence, which is impossible until the dilemmas regarding knowledge ownership and sharing are resolved. This essay approaches the ethical resolution on the basis of a constructivist and humanistic epistemology wherein the invariable tacit dimension of knowledge and the resultant dualistic dialogic discourse are acknowledged. It  proposes the achievement of ethical harmony, insofar as holistic knowledge management is concerned, through the channel of seven organizational dimensions, which through the realization of organizational commitment and trust are deemed to generate an ethically paradigmatic harmony across all cultural strands of the organization, viz., starting from the visionary attitude of its leadership, through the organizational norms, values, and beliefs, down to the perception of every individual knowledge worker.

The concept of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) has found wide acceptance in the past decade, particularly with the proliferation of technology that aids teaching and learning. This paper investigates the 'Introduction to People Management' / 'People Management' (edX course code: HR101x) MOOCs course created and run on the edX platform by IIM, Bangalore, with the aim of understanding the Online Learning Experience from the perspective of learner's satisfaction, engagement and interaction. Our study is based on analysing three kinds of extracts distilled from the course runs: (1) participation analysis and learner engagement data derived from the edX servers, (2) detailed participant surveys captured during the course runs, and (3) transcripts of interaction between learners as well as between faculty and learners in the various online discussion forums of the course. In-depth analysis of the above data points would enable us to investigate three key indicators of an effective online learning experience, namely, (1) achievement of learner satisfaction as gleaned from the learner post-course survey; (2) achievement of active learner engagement as observed from the various LMS indicators, and (3) achievement of interactivity through facilitating community building process. Furthermore, based on the above findings, the paper suggests policy, pedagogy and technology-based recommendations for running online courses that the authors feel would facilitate enhanced online learning experience.