Replying to LO26855 --
Roderick --
Knowledge Management and Organizational Learning
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There has been a lot of interest in Knowledge Management among my
organizational learning friends and in the Society for Organizational
Learning during the past couple of years.
Here is one thought question from Peter Senge that I have found very
helpful in thinking about the question you raise:
. What is knowledge, that we think it can be managed?
Senge goes on to propose that we use the word knowledge to mean two
different things:
#1. knowing _about_ something
#2. know-how, i.e. knowledge as the capacity for effective action,
which is the prevalent definition of knowledge in the org learning
community
Try this as a starting point for thinking about knowledge
management... If we are interested in managing #1, then we want
technology for storing, indexing, finding, delivering information
about things.
If we are interested in #2... Well, I think then we want the
organizational learning tools, and the technologies above are
relevant only indirectly.
During the past two years, I have been delighted to find a solid
thread of discourse in knowledge management that sounds very, very
much like the discourse in organizational learning.
My summary answer: If we are interested in #2, then KM = OL.
Systems Thinking and Organizational Learning
----------
Senge has a very clear answer in _The Fifth Discipline_:
Organizational Learning requires understanding of current reality.
Systems Thinking is a tool (and a point of view) for understanding
current reality.
Hope this helps.
-=- Rick Karash
>Q: Can someone explain to me how Organizational Learning, Systems Thinking
>and Knowledge Management interrelate with each other?
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