<p>Since the beginning of this year, the world has lived in one of the most difficult stages since the Great Depression during the 1930s. All sectors have been affected significantly because of the suspension and other actions that have been taken, such as social distancing and self-isolation that has occurred because of Coronavirus (COVID-19) Pandemic. This has affected the education sector, particularly Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) in the world in general and Yemen in particular. Universities in Yemen as a result, stopped their activities preventively to contain the spread of the novel corona virus among students. Each country reacted in a different way based on their capabilities. Some countries immediately shifted to online education and others faced obstacles however, country like Yemen is under great pressure from different aspects. As a result, this procedure caused many challenges for higher education institutions in Yemen which prevent an easy adaptation to the new situation such as: internet and infrastructure weaknesses, cope with change difficulties, academics career stability, university's financial stability, the complexity of some applied disciplines, student's mental health, and costs of fast transformation. As a result of the mentioned challenges, this study suggested some recommendations to overcome from this situation or any other urgent situations in the future that may shutdown the educational system. Finally, because of the complex and interrelated difficulties in Yemen, the authors suggested an implementation through a 5-year plan under the direct supervision of the Ministry of Higher Education in Yemen.</p><p> </p><p><strong> Article visualizations:</strong></p><p><img src="/-counters-/edu_01/0603/a.php" alt="Hit counter" /></p>

Purpose The reasons behind the project management failure of higher education institutions (HEIs) have been researched for the past few years. One of the reasons is the lack of tools to integrate their knowledge process capabilities (KPC) with their project management (PM) to measure maturity by assessing these capabilities. Various project management maturity (PMM) models exist. Yet, there is a limited number of empirical studies that support the four integrations of KPC and PMM. Therefore, this study aims to propose a new heretical model, namely, KPC-knowledge management (KM) and evaluates a research model that includes the four KPC as an antecedent to PMM. Design/methodology/approach The suggested research model is assessed by using partial least squares structural equation modeling. Furthermore, the study's hypotheses were examined based on a sample of 352 respondents from the project management departments in 10 public universities in Yemen. Findings Analysis revealed that the derived PMM status could be benchmarked with the project management maturity model. Also, the study found that integrating the KPC into PM enables the institutions to perform critical tasks and value chain activities and enhance the PM maturity level as well. In contrast, if one of the capabilities does not positively impact PMM, it affects the maturity level of the entire project. Research limitations/implications The findings are obtained concerning data collected from public universities and represent the Yemeni context, limiting the generalization on a different geographical area. Also, this proposed model can be evaluated in a practical way like conducting a focus group, a set of interviews with specialists, a case study or action research. The qualitative research will help academics to validate our proposal for future research purposes. Practical implications The proposed approach may be adapted to the characteristics of organizations involved in projects as external performers (project-based organizations) and not just the HEIs projects. This study provides managers and policymakers with insights into assessing PMM and improving their organizational effectiveness when deciding which KPCs to focus on in the future. Social implications This study contributes to the current PM awareness in Yemen and facilitates its success using the knowledge processes capabilities in Yemen's HEIs. It encourages organizations to take this opportunity to revive the projects and achieve a maximum level of maturity. Originality/value This study provides new insights into two domains through the link between knowledge management and PM. To the best of the authors' knowledge, this paper is among the first to empirically study the impact of the four KPC toward PMM. It enriches the theoretical perspective of PM. Also, it contributes to the literature on the success factor of KPC, which can be considered to improve organizational performance.

Purpose Knowledge protection (KP) is one of the main knowledge management (KM) processes that aim to protect the organization’s knowledge from any inside and outside force leakage. In higher education institutions (HEIs), KP is rarely being discussed and covered in contrast to knowledge sharing (KS) in terms of its determinants. The purpose of this paper is to provide a deep analysis of previous research articles from 1980 to 2019 and examine the associated institutional factors on KP determinants within HEIs as a research objective. Design/methodology/approach The preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analysis was a well-established approach for analyzing the systematic literature review methodology. Several articles were published over the past decades collected from 5 different databases, but after the screening, 101 articles were reviewed and only 22 articles were relevant to the research objective. Findings The findings indicated that KP is under academic research topic in KM and has received minimal attention in HEIs compared to KS, which has been frequently studied in HEIs. The literature categorized KP determinants into four areas: technological, organizational structure, behavioral and ethics and organizational culture. It will open the door for academics to investigate further into the factors, theories and models of KP in general and HEIs from a particular perspective. Practical implications As evident from the paper finds, with few pieces of literature covered in this topic, HEIs have to protect the knowledge from any illegal usage or any expert’s knowledge loss after leaving the institutions. This study can help university leaders to understand how the different KP determinants can maximize KP without affecting the KS and develop the KP phenomenon for a strategic fit to enhance their institutions’ safe knowledge usage. Originality/value This is the first research of its type which has extensively examined the literature on KP related to HEIs. Also, this paper provides theoretical and practical insights through understanding the determinants that affect KP practices among academic staff.