A few days ago Bjoerg Kaspersen commented on distinguishing among the
terms knowledge management, learning organization, and intellectual
capital (LO19638).
First, the distinction between the learning organization and
organizational learning is clear. The former being an ideal state as
espoused by many practitioners while the latter being a description of
behaviours and processes as espoused by academics.
The term organizational learning is often used interchangeably with
knowledge management and intellectual capital which are closely related.
Since this leads to confusion, it is important that distinctions are made
up front. Intellectual capital represents both the stock of knowledge that
resides in organizational members minds as well as the stock of knowledge
that has been institutionalized in products, systems and structures (see
Bontis, 1996; Stewart, 1997; and Roos et al., 1997). Knowledge
management is the process by which these stocks of knowledge are managed
(i.e., transferred, acquired and so forth) or flow from one to another
(see Nonaka & Takeuchi 1995; Boisot, 1995). Organizational learning
broadens the discussion to incorporate behaviours as well as knowledge and
provides a means to understand how the stocks and flows interact in a
system (Senge, 1990; Crossan et al., 1995, Crossan & Bontis, 1998).
In sum, your question as to the umbrella conceptualization falls nicely
within the organizational learning literature. Since organizational
learning encompasses behaviours of both stocks and flows of knowledge in a
system it encompasses both knowledge management and intellectual capital.
Nick Bontis <nbontis@mcmaster.ca>
Director, Institute for Intellectual Capital Research
Assistant Professor of Strategic Management, McMaster University
--Nick Bontis <nbontis@mcmaster.ca>
Learning-org -- Hosted by Rick Karash <rkarash@karash.com> Public Dialog on Learning Organizations -- <http://www.learning-org.com>