Editorial

Citation

Walczak, S. (2006), "Editorial", The Learning Organization, Vol. 13 No. 1. https://doi.org/10.1108/tlo.2006.11913aaa.001

Editorial

It is with pleasure that I assume the role of Editor for The Learning Organization. The previous two Editors, Steven Cavaleri and Colin Coulson-Thomas, have established high quality processes for the development and production of the learning organization field’s leading publication which I will endeavor to maintain and expand. Learning organizations, organizational learning and knowledge management (KM) are tightly interconnected and future issues will strive to demonstrate this interconnectedness.

Learning organizations may be viewed as organizations where intellectual capital is dynamically growing and employees of these organizations are encouraged to create new knowledge, processes, structures etc. Learning organizations are about how business is done and are part of the business strategy and culture. Similarly, knowledge management, while suffering from a vast array of definitions is also centrally about a better way to do business with the acquisition, sharing, creation, and utilization of intellectual capital producing a strategic advantage.

Various approaches exist for how to transform an organization into a learning organization, or a knowledge-based organization, including: the information technology (IT) approach, the managerial approach, and the strategic approach. The IT approach is characterized by investing in telecommunications and information network infrastructure and databases (or data warehouses). While IT certainly enhances most KM and organizational learning initiatives, it is not a guarantee of success. The managerial approach is characterized by a focus on organizational structures and processes including incentives for participation. Numerous cases have been put forth in the literature that claim that without management support, KM and organizational learning objectives will not achieve their desired benefits to the organization.

Lastly is what I have labeled the strategic approach. Although this may be a misnomer, the strategic approach focuses primarily on the business culture and on integrating organizational learning or KM into every aspect of the business. This may be seen as being most closely aligned of the three business transformation approaches with the concept of a learning organization. Having a supportive knowledge sharing and learning business culture is also a critical factor in developing a learning organization or knowledge intensive organization. KM and organizational learning initiatives must be aligned with business goals and become a part of the corporate strategy.

Each approach has strengths and weaknesses when used in isolation. The ideal approach to any KM initiative or learning organization transformation is in the combination of these approaches to uniquely identify the existing organizational capabilities with respect to KM or learning organizations and on how to increase and develop those learning and knowledge areas that produce strategic advantage.

The articles in this issue of The Learning Organization focus primarily on different aspects of organizational culture or socialization and how it interacts with and affects organizational learning and knowledge management. Lucas and Ogilvie begin this issue with an examination of how knowledge transfer is impacted by culture and reputation. An interesting and counterintuitive finding reported by Lucas and Ogilvie is that incentives do not seem to strongly impact knowledge transfer.

Next, the article by Curado examines the link between organizational learning and organizational design, which helps to tie together the managerial and strategic approaches mentioned above. Curado’s article also serves as an overview of some of the existing organizational learning literature.

Cegarra-Navarro and Dewhurst then provide an article that explores prerequisites to effective organizational learning in the Spanish optometry business sector. They find that social context is a prerequisite and that if supported by management unlearning may increase learning effectiveness. Unlearning is not necessarily about forgetting outdated knowledge, but is more concerned with the ability of an organization to challenge its existing paradigms.

The next two articles are both centered in the construction industry in the UK and in Australia. Raidén and Dainty look at strategic human resource practices and the evolution of chaordic learning systems. Maqsood et al. examine the use or lack of use of project histories in Australian construction firms. The lack of management support and the requirement to tie the capture and utilization of project histories to corporate strategy are provided as explanations for the lack of project history utilization and fulfillment.

Finally, Kumar and Idris link organizational learning dimensions and corporate culture to knowledge performance in Malaysia academic institutions. Overall, the articles in this issue take various looks at how different business cultures impact organizational learning and KM.

Steven Walczak