From Knowledge To Competence: Preparing Future Leaders For Knowledge Management In Multicultural And Digital Corporations

As corporations operated increasingly across borders and within digital ecosystems, the ability to transform knowledge into actionable competencies became central to organizational success. This study examined how business education prepared future leaders to manage knowledge flows in multicultural and digitally driven corporations. It emphasized the transition from abstract knowledge acquisition to the practical development of knowledge management (KM) competencies that support leadership, collaboration, and innovation. The research drew on pedagogical experiences with master’s students who engaged in both case building and simulation-based learning. Through these sequential approaches, students were challenged to navigate complex, multicultural contexts while leveraging digital tools for knowledge sharing and decision-making. Findings indicated that experiential learning fostered essential competencies such as cultural intelligence, collaborative problem-solving, digital fluency, and the capacity to align knowledge processes with strategic organizational goals. By framing KM competence development as a bridge between theory and practice, the study contributed to current debates on the role of higher education in equipping leaders for a geopolitically uncertain and digitally interconnected future. The proposed framework demonstrated how curricula could be designed to foster not only individual skills but also collective resilience and adaptability in knowledge-intensive environments. In doing so, the paper positioned KM as a cornerstone of leadership formation in multicultural corporations, offering insights relevant to educators, corporate trainers, and policymakers.