Mark W. McElroy wrote:
>b) The creation of mutually-held knowledge in the minds of groups of
>individuals strikes me as a suitable definition for what we all mean when
>we say "organizational learning";
I would like to suggest a different definition for "organizational
learning" that is different from "creation of mutually-held knowledge". I
realize that acceptance of my reasoning may depend on your definitions of
"learning" and "knowledge". My thinking is as follows:
- Organizational learning can be said to have occurred, when the
organization is able to do something it couldn't do before (e.g. provide a
service).
- "Doing something" may require several people having different
knowledge, i.e. people who have learned different things.
- Therefore, organizational learning does not require the creation of
mutually-held knowledge.
The first point above is actually almost a (proposed) definition of
"organizational learning". I would say that "the creation of mutually-held
knowledge" can be labeled as "shared learning" or "group learning". For
example, if a number of different organizations each send one person to
course, then we have the "creation of mutually-held knowledge in the minds
of a group of individuals", but not necessarily "organizational learning".
>e) The importance of focusing on organizational learning processes in the
>practice of KM is why I continue to claim that what we should all be
>talking about is not knowledge management, but knowledge PROCESS
>management! We can't manage knowledge, but we can manage the process
>conditions by which knowledge is created in the minds of individuals and
>groups of individuals.
I share your apparent discomfort with the term "knowledge management".
However, I think that "knowledge process management" can also convey the
misleading impression that "knowledge management" is all about process, or
beg the question "what other pieces are there in knowledge management, in
addition to process?" I think the phrase "knowledge husbandry" is better,
since "husbandry" has the connotation of "cultivating"; unfortunately, but
it may conjure up images of farming.
Regards,
Patrick Sue
--"Patrick Sue" <psue@inforamp.net>
Learning-org -- Hosted by Rick Karash <rkarash@karash.com> Public Dialog on Learning Organizations -- <http://www.learning-org.com>