jbm@fe.unpad.ac.id
Strengthening Knowledge Management and Empowerment to Improve Learning Organization
Dian Wulandari
Education Management Post-Graduate Program
Universitas Pakuan
Bogor, Indonesia
dianw.unpak@gmail.com

ABSTRACT 
Continuous learning is a must for optimum execution of the teacher’s role as an educator. Teachers who regularly improve their knowledge and skills, and have a  constructive mental model were predicted to succeed in achieving education’s goals. Unfortunately,  the preliminary survey showed that the activities in a learning organization (LO) among teachers still low, limited activities in managing knowledge and minimum empowerment. The paper deal with the study to find efforts to fostering learning organization among teachers by improving knowledge management and empowerment. This study uses the correlational method and SITOREM analysis to determine priorities and accurate recommendations for improvements that need to be made. This research was carried out at Elementary Public School Teachers, in Bogor, with a total of 230 from 45 schools were randomly sampled to collect data. The questionnaire's reliability was tested by Cronbach's alpha to be 91%, 92.8%  
and 84.2 %. The findings of this research can be summarized that there is a positive and significant correlation (1) between knowledge management with LO (r=0.814, p<0.01), (2) empowerment with LO (r=0.302,p<0.01), and between knowledge management and empowerment simultaneously with LO (r=0,832, p<0.01). It should be noted that the SITOREM analysis result, show that components of LO, knowledge management and empowerment that need to improve are: 1) commitment to lifelong learning, consistency to use personal competencies, positive approach to problem-solving, participation on defining vision, commitment to implement organization vision, using management support to team interaction, collaboration in learning; 2) knowledge acquisition, dissemination, evaluation, and application, using systemic thinking in problem-solving; 3) setting high standards performance, rewarding, and tolerance to failure
 
Keywords—learning organization; knowledge management; empowerment; SITOREM

 
INTRODUCTION
 
Strengthening Knowledge Management and Empowerment to Improve Learning Organization
To achieve education goals, teachers need to continuously improve their learning competencies. An excellent educator will show a strong commitment to master their skills, open mind, and have a positive attitude to learning itself. School that transform into learning organization will facilitate all staff to enhance personal capacity, defining and internalize learning activities, continuous effort to achieve perfection, and they love to make regular schedule to learn from each other [1],[2],[3],[4],[5],[6],[7]. 
In this organization, all member has the discipline to highlight the more clear and deep vision of the organization, has perseverance and full energy to improve themselves [2]. They develop inquiry skills that focused on improving awareness on self-perception and attitude, or people around them, they practice more clearly about reality[1].  Learning organizations initiate to translate learning into the strategy.[3]  The leader of a learning organization thinks strategically about how to use learning to produce opportunity and to move the organization to the new market and direction [4]. Learning organization has conceptual framework, think and act globally to relate organization into internal and wider external environment, understand complexity, thinking about process, activity, function and organization interaction with environment as part of the systemic interdependency and changes environment, so all member can handle their action consequences more effectively [1],[4],[8]. Nowadays learning organization is one of an effective strategy for the organization to survive, compete and leading in its sector.  
A school that implements learning organization principles, will show extra efforts significantly to implement their best practices based on their experiences, the successes, and failures. They dynamically move into a positive learning institution where everybody loves to learn.  Unfortunately, based on a preliminary survey on 45 teachers at elementary public school in Bogor, it was found that learning organization activities among teachers were not as expected. The consistency to use their competencies still low, they don’t have strong habit to develop constructive mental model in problem-solving, the teacher does not show full participation to implement school vision, the management support to establish interaction, collaboration, and communication among them was not fully occupied, and the habit to use systemic thinking to understand and solve problem was not build up yet.     Based on the theoretical review, it can be synthesized that learning organization is activities that teachers do to positively contribute to creating a learning atmosphere and continuous learning to improve problem-solving abilities. The indicators are: a) the commitment to lifelong learning, b) consistency to use personal competencies, c) constructive perspective to understand the phenomena, d) positive approach to problem-solving, e) participation in formulating shared vision, f) commitments to implement the organization vision and mission, g) using management support for team interaction, h) collaboration in the learning and i) using systemic thinking in solving problems.
A prior study by Chen and Chen, find that LO can be improved by knowledge management. It found that there is a positive and significant relationship between knowledge management with LO (r=0.41, Ï<0.01) [9]. Knowledge management is creating new knowledge from several processes such as; innovation, elaborative research, finding a new relationship, combining existing elements by complex inductive reasoning [2],[10],[11]. KM is gathering data and personal information continuously, identifying organizational knowledge assets, the organization's weakness, and strength [2], [11], [12], [13]. The organization that implements knowledge management effectively, access valuable knowledge from a competitor, experts, and other resources outside to get expertise (Amrit Tiwana, Quintas [10],[13]. The other activities of knowledge management are evaluating knowledge and how effective that knowledge to fulfill organization needs [2], [11], and then formulating how the knowledge process can make a better organization.   Knowledge management includes sharing knowledge, learning, review, analyzing gap and propose effective intervention [11],[14]. It can conclude that knowledge management is the activities that teachers manage and add value to the school through increased knowledge of the school, and are actively acquiring, repairing, storing, evaluating, distributing, and using the knowledge and experience inside and outside the organization. The indicators are: 1) knowledge acquisition, 2) knowledge refinement, 3) knowledge storing, 4 ) knowledge evaluation, 5) knowledge distribution, and 6) knowledge application.
Empowerment is giving power, task enrichment, clear authority, and responsibility as much as they need and allowed by management with consideration experience, education and task difficulties to improve their responsibilities and accountability. Empowerment is trust to self- competencies to work effectively and having the capacity to improve with new challenges, is feeling proud to themselves, and expert to accomplish the job [15]. When the staff feels empowered, they have the belief that their tasks contribute to the bigger goals [16], the achievement was acknowledged [17]. Empowerment means celebrating every success, even if they fail, it will be a good lesson learned [18]. By reviewing all the theoretical base, it can synthesize that empowerment is organization activities which perceived as more optimizing human resources potential, power, skill or energy with adding up authority, setting high standard performance, strengthen self-determination and competencies, rewarding, tolerance to failure and strengthening impact, to enhance performance and contribution to self development or organization.   The study on 338 employees at universities was conducted by Azhari, Taleghani and Fard [19], (2013) at Guilan Province, Iran, showed that  employees' empowerment and its dimensions (sense of competence, sense of independence, sense of trust, and sense of being effective) have positive and significant relationship with being a learning organization. The sense of trust (Beta=0.368) has the greatest role in the prediction of being a learning organization. This paper gives valuable information about the relationship between empowerment and LO
Effective habit to manage their knowledge, then their tacit knowledge won’t be shared with each other, the opportunity to learn will decline. Teachers need to compile new and relevant information regularly, otherwise they expertise probably decrease and they can optimize their role as an educator. Limitations in sharing knowledge among teachers will minimize the opportunity to collaborate in implementation school vision, mission, and organization goals. On the other hand, the teacher needs to be empowered by the principal to optimize their capability to learn and master their competencies. It’s difficult for the principal to show commitment to lifelong learning, if they didn’t know how to be a good model as a learner, if they weren't capable to motivate teachers effectively to love to learn, how to facilitate properly situation that grows passion to learn. Principal need to practice their leadership so teachers feel that they have a big opportunity to accomplished challenge tasks. The positive learning atmosphere will be developed if principal tolerance to teachers’ failure and take an effective action to fix the problem, to coach team members.
This dynamic situation drives concern to study the learning organization in relation to teachers’ knowledge management and empowerment. Based on the literature review and evidence from prior researches above mentioned, it can be stated research hypotheses as follows:
ï‚§	There is a positive relationship between knowledge management with  learning organization.
ï‚§	There is a positive relationship between empowerment with learning organization.
ï‚§	There is a positive relationship between knowledge management and empowerment simultaneously with learning organization.
The purpose of this study is to find efforts to improve learning organization by developing variable of knowledge management and empowerment by identifying the relationship between knowledge management and empowerment with learning organization on elementary school teachers and identify the priority actions to improve learning organization effectively

METHOD
The prior findings of the learning organization among teachers are very interesting to study.  When the teacher doesn’t develop a This study uses a quantitative method, while the data was collected by questionnaires of the learning organization, knowledge management, and empowerment. Descriptive statistics and correlational analysis are used for finding an initial solution to the problem encountered. The population of this study was1079 public teachers from 45 (forty-five) elementary school (with an “Aâ€ Accreditation) in Bogor, Indonesia. By using proportional random sampling, and Slovin formula, 230 teachers were taken as sampling units. The questionnaire's validity was tested by Pearson Product moment (rtabel=0,361, α=0,05) and the reliability was tested by Cronbach's Alpha as described in Tabel 1:

Tabel 1. Validity and Reliability Test Results
Instrument	Sum of item	Validity
(r Pearson Product Moment)	Coefficient of Reliability
(Cronbach)
LO	33	> 0.361	0.91
Knowledge Management	36	> 0.361	0.928
Empowerment	33	> 0.361	0.842

The analysis is conducted with multiple linear regression and hypothesis testing is performed at a significance level of 0.05 using the  Product-Moment Coefficient of Correlation.  After the score of correlation was found, the SITOREM (Scientific Identification Theory of Operational Research in Education Management) [20] analysis was a sequential process that researchers determining the priority actions to be held in order to improve learning organization. The first criteria are a coefficient correlation, the higher the score, the stronger the level of leverage its variable to improve learning organization. The second consideration is doing by the expert judgment by weighing every indicator of all variables with 4 criteria, which are: 1) cost, 2) benefit, 3) urgent, and 4) important, with the score range between 1-5 for each component. The weight of indicators was stated in percentages. The last aspect that considerate to decide the priority is the average score of indicators (1-5), which score below 4 indicates that the indicator needs to be improved, score above 4 is quite good and needs to be maintained. Based on this mechanism, the empirical data will be a help to decide accurately which action should be taken immediately as an effort to improve LO. 
 
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
The result showed all the hypothesis testing confirmed that there is a positive correlation between knowledge management and LO, between empowerment and LO, and there is a positive significant relationship between knowledge management and empowerment simultaneously to the learning organization, as describes in Table 2 below.

Table 2. Coefficient Correlation between independent and dependent variable (LO)

Deendent 
Variable	Coefficient of determination	Coefficient of correlation 	Sign.
Level
Knowledge Management	0,662	0.814	0.01
Empowerment	0,091	0.302	0.01
KM and Empowerment	0,693	0.832	0.01

This finding is related to Jamalzadeh [21] research which concludes that knowledge management has positive significant with LO in 5 indicators (acquisition, application, sharing, evaluation, confirmation). The recent research adds up 2 indicators: knowledge storing and knowledge refinement. This result reported that knowledge management contribution to learning organization was high (66.2%), therefore teachers should seriously take an action to compile relevant and important information, refining, and storing the data, evaluating, sharing and apply the knowledge that they have. All the activities actually had a strong relation to learning. As Marquardt [2] said that when an organization member actively doing something related to knowledge, they are learning. 







































For teachers, knowledge acquisition can be obtained by a discussion about new information, training, reading new books, journal or research findings, producing novelty in teaching aids or methods. Whenever teachers try to acquire knowledge, their personal mastery will improve and then they can develop constructive mental models more easily. 









































Teachers who continuing gathering relevant information, tend to eager to collaborate (team learning) with their peers to produce learning innovation. These findings are sticking up to Hawley [22] which states that knowledge management related to any efforts that provide the learning process in an organization, so better decision making could be decided, improving innovation, and effective operational can execute.
Picture 1. shows that the average score of all indicators of knowledge management still below 4. Teachers need to improve all knowledge management activities regularly to strengthen learning organization.  Several actions that can suggest improving knowledge management are: 1) teachers should embrace to learn at any level of organization, management should facilitate them appropriately (give more access to information, tools, technique, budget, methods) to think and learn. Participation in problem-solving and try a new approach will enhance knowledge management.  Teachers should be focus on students and the quality of tasks that they give to a student, using new technology to do the project, design challenging tasks and projects for a student so they feel so they can feel studying something that really impactful for them.
The coefficient correlation of empowerment with LO was low (ry2=0.302), but even if the contribution is low, this relationship is positive and significant (α=0.01), therefore strengthening several aspects of empowerment can improve LO. The result shows that the principals didn’t show a full effort to empower teachers. On the other hand, Schermerhron et al [24] said that empowerment will be impactful for the team member if all components of empowerment applied thoroughly. In this study, the principals motivate the teacher to achieve the goals, but they don’t make the high standard to challenge teachers to do their best.  The principals try to foster teachers to try something new, but they didn’t decide that having a novelty is a must, so the innovation will improve. The principals show enough tolerance to failure, but they didn’t give an explicit example to fix that, while teacher needs effective feedback to improve their performance. 
The probability to improve LO will be greater when school combining efforts to strengthen knowledge management activities with empowerment (R=69.3%). As its note before that empowerment should be implemented thoroughly. Base on these findings, to enhance the impact of empowerment to LO, the activities bring together with knowledge management. Regular training programs as principals’ commitment to improving teachers’ competencies, need to follow by effective monitoring on the implementation of their new knowledge and skills, so the impact of learning significantly effective to enhance learning quality. Job enrichment by giving new or challenging tasks that accompany by sharing knowledge among teachers will give more impact to transfer knowledge between them that can develop their personal mastery. Setting high standard performance with knowledge acquisition activity will also enhance personal mastery, and the improvement will continue if teachers regularly do knowledge refinement. This finding was related to Debowski [14] which describe that implementation of knowledge management needs knowledgable leader which characterize by competencies to endorse interdependency among members, trust atmosphere, giving feedback constructively, getting more participation from member to more strategic activity, and giving valuable reward to the member that achieve excellent performance. And the most important is leaders have credibility to demonstrate their competencies in their area of work.            
Learning organizations among teachers can improve by finding accurate priority efforts to develop knowledge management and empowerment aspects. This study is concern about how to help the organization to make a more realistic action plan to improve LO, especially by knowing the indicators that have a big leveraging impact. This research will give more comprehensive information if supporting an explorative method.

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