Knowledge Management
Mohr, N. And Dichter, A. Building a Learning Organization. Phi Delta Kappan. Vol. 82, Issue 10, p. 744, June 2001. This article discusses the stages that a school or other teaching organization goes through as they change from a static facilitative teaching center to a learning organization. There is necessarily a change in dynamic paradigm as the change process occurs, and the authors identify the steps which the organization can expect to encounter.
The honeymooner stage: high expectations, high degree of cooperation
The conflict stage: high expectations, but the cooperation is dwindling
The confusion stage: where are we going?
The messy stage: things are getting worse as new lines of communication are developed, but not functioning.
Scary stage: who is in charge?
Mature group stage: out of the confusion comes a new order as the group begins to function in new roles and facilitate a new group culture liked this article as it demonstrated that the change process is one which must necessarily encounter disorder on its way to a new order. The group does not progress from one successful high point to another without traveling through a reorganization valley.
Barchan, M. Capturing Knowledge for Business Growth. Knowledge Management Review. Vol. 1 Issue 4. p 12. 1998, September - October. Capturing knowledge is not like counting widgets which a business produces. The organization must develop a new system for capturing and utilizing knowledge. The Swedish-based Celemi created a system which they call Tango for capturing and using knowledge within an organization. Organizations must:
Identify what to monitor
Understand the scope of their knowledge management task
Link the knowledge management to strategic planning and individual decisions.
This article helps the business find the important link between knowledge management, and empowering the individual worker to use the knowledge in their everyday decisions.
Davies, H. And Nutley, S. Developing learning organizations in the NHS. British Medical Journal. Vol 320, Issue 7240, p998. 2000, 8 April. The British National Health Service is recognizing that improving health care means improving the extent to which it is a learning organization. Its national quality strategy includes:
Identifying that becoming a learning organization is a path to more successful healthcare delivery
Learning is achieved by individuals, and at different levels
Learning organizations are maximized by utilizing double loop and meta-learning frameworks
Learning organizations can learn from each other the common facets of a successful learning organization model.
A like this article because is digs into the people aspects of becoming a learning organization. The organization must address existing culture, and unlearning the current structure in order to change.
Ritchie, K. Corporate Card Games. Business Date. Vol. 8, Issue 3, p. 1. 2000, July. An innovative approach to changing learning concepts is discussed in this article. The managers of a retail chain spend time sorting groups of cards in order to facilitate changes in: reaction to problems, learning new thinking procedures, behavior, and positive results focused work.
This article demonstrated that changing a learn gin paradigm can be facilitated by a fun activity that challenges leaders to think differently so that they can work and communicate differently.
Hill, I. The use of Assessment in organizational learning. Assessment Update. Vol. 11, No. 6. 1999, Nov-Dec. In order for a higher learning institution to become a learning organization, they must structure themselves to learn, to collect and retain knowledge, and to review that knowledge on a regular basis. By doing so, the organization establishes patterns which can enable it to continue to grow, interact with tier environment, in order to maintain their reputation, relationship and effectiveness.
This article demonstrated that becoming a learning organization means not a change in structure which again becomes fixed, but a change in the processes of the organization which enable it to continue to change and learn.
Hebard, C. A Story of Real Change. Training and Development. 1998, July. This case study of a bank in Utica NY changed itself into a learning organization which empowered it's employees to solve problems in the daily course of their work on their own. Their program, Working to Achieve Visions of Excellence (WAVE), brought employees into creative sessions to teach them to learn beyond their daily tasks.
Teaching employees to change their thinking processes was brought about by breaking down traditional thought paradigms. By using tasks such as marketing pantyhose to men, and making whirly birds for competition, the groups were trained to think differently so they could learn to learn, and act differently
Collins, K. Penetrating Barriers: Communicating Clearly in the International Organization. Communication World. Vol. 20, Issue 4. p 26. 2003....
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