■ Research Article Knowledge Management Practices in the Nigerian Telecommunications Industry Olunifesi Adekunle Suraj 1 * and Isola Ajiferuke 2 1 School of Communication, Lagos State University, Lagos, Nigeria 2 Faculty of Information and Media Studies, University of Western Ontario, London, Canada The main objective of the study was to examine how Nigerian telecommunications organizations leverage knowledge in achieving organizational performance and competitive advantage. Forty organizations were selected by using stratified random sampling from the 150 organizations in the Nigerian telecommunications industry. Twenty-nine of the selected organizations agreed to participate in the study, and questionnaires were then distributed to 14 senior executives in each of these organizations. Four hundred and six questionnaires were returned, but only 329 complete ones were used for analysis. The results from the study showed the following: that there is poor management of human capital in the Nigerian telecommunications industry; that lack of effective communication appears to be the bane of structural capital management in the industry; that most of the telecommunications companies in Nigeria have had a long-term relationship with their customers; and that Nigerian telecommunications organizations are familiar with knowledge management as a concept. The results also showed slight differences among the six groups of organizations in their management of intellectual capital with the Local Exchange operators and National Carrier as the best and worst performers, respectively. In conclusion, it is suggested that Nigerian telecommunications organizations should strive to provide a conducive and an enabling working environment, where people can share ideas about work without being shut down by bosses and bureaucrats, and that they should try harder to implement their customers’ suggestions, especially when such suggestions have to do with meeting the customers’ needs. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. INTRODUCTION The Nigerian telecommunications industry has witnessed, within the last 5 years, the emergence of more profitable and highly successful telecommuni- cations organizations whose values are increasingly based on their intangible resources (i.e., people and their expertise, business processes and market assets such as customer loyalty, repeat businesses and organizational reputation). As a result, key business elements such as right-timing, speed to mar- ket, flexibility of operations, strategic partnerships, network market, innovations, new management principles and flexible relocation of operations have become critical success factors. Therefore, to stay ahead of competition, it is suggested that Nigerian telecommunications organizations will have to lever- age the knowledge acquired from their business processes, their skilled employees, their customers and their competitors to create distinctive compe- tencies, unique market positioning and sustainable business growth to survive in today’s knowledge economy. Although this appears critical for today’s organizational survival, it is doubtful if most Nigerian telecommunications organizations actually possess these required managerial and organizational com- petencies. Nigerian telecommunications managers today appear faced with fundamental job chal- lenges that are defying known solutions such as the following: convergence of technologies that are extending business activities beyond their core businesses scope; the effects of globalization and international competition leading to bankruptcy of many indigenous telecommunications organizations; unstable business environment characterized by high uncertainty, risk and constant regulatory changes; high staff-turnover; lack of competent and skilled professionals; and the difficulty in retaining custo- mers. These aforementioned challenges and many others reinforce the need for knowledge compe- tencies and new managerial skills in the Nigerian telecommunications industry. Therefore, Nigerian telecommunications companies must devise new ways to leverage their intellectual and innovative capacity. Hence, this study is designed with the following objectives: *Correspondence to: Olunifesi Adekunle Suraj, School of Commu- nication, Lagos State University, Lagos, Nigeria. E-mail: sjamiu2002@yahoo.com Knowledge and Process Management Volume 20 Number 1 pp 30–39 (2013) Published online in Wiley Online Library (www.wileyonlinelibrary.com) DOI: 10.1002/kpm.1399 Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.