Coakes E, Sugden G

[Westminster Business School]

Learning organisations, according to Senge 1992, are those organisations in which people can continually expand their ability to create positive organisational outcomes, where innovation is nurtured, and where learning is a continuous, collaborative, supportive and supported process.

The research described below forms part of a larger research programme into Knowledge Management and the Learning Organisation which began in the autumn of 1998.

Preliminary thoughts on the research project were presented at BIT98 (Coakes and Sugden 1998). The reception to this paper encouraged us to concentrate our pilot study on the university sector as it would seem that there might be specific issues relating to knowledge management and dissemination in such an area. It is also our perception that the majority of universities are insufficiently funded to fully explore the newer technologies that might be used to disseminate and support knowledge management in an organisation - such as a fully implemented Groupware product, knowledge forums and discussion groups..

It is our contention that since universities are organisations that are dedicated to the imparting of knowledge and the teaching of the art of learning, they should, in themselves, be learning organisations that manage their knowledge to the benefit of the organisation. We are interested to pursue the questions of whether organisations can learn, or whether they simply repeat the mistakes they make. If organisations do learn, does this affect structure and involve the creation of the right environment and culture? What therefore, does this mean for universities and the way they structure themselves?

In the authors' experiences this contention that universities are learning organisations, seems not to be put into practice in very many cases. It would seem that universities are good at teaching the practice but less good at effecting the theory.

The study described in this research in progress paper, aims to discover whether the authors' experiences are general and a valid supposition. Preliminary analysis of results so far would indicate this to be a valid supposition. Of those universities responding to the survey only 1 has a Chief Knowledge Officer or equivalent and only 2 have knowledge or expertise centres. Over half the universities claimed that there were cultural issues that prevented knowledge sharing including such things as the organisational size and complexity, the ‘not invented here’ syndrome and the desire to ‘hold onto own data’. In addition the majority of universities felt that their university was not a learning organisation and that there was a lack of understanding about knowledge management issues from both staff and management.

We are concerned to see whether results from our survey indicate that, where members of an organisation see themselves as working in a learning environment with the ability to manage knowledge, they also see themselves working in situations where strategies emerge as a result of the knowledge gained on a regular basis. This will mean that these organisations are able to translate signals received from their environment and thus change their behaviour. The divisions between their environment and the organisation itself will disappear. ( Bahlmann 1990)

We hope that at the end of the research study we are able to provide some measures of an organisation’s information capability through its knowledge management systems, and enable some classifications of organisations according to learning capability, including identification of an organisation’s understanding of its own learning capacity.

Senge PM the 5^th Discipline: The Art and Practise of the Learning Organisation Random House Sydney 1992

Coakes E and Sugden G The Learning Organisation and Knowledge Management BIT conference 4/5^th November 1998 Manchester

Bahlmann T The Learning Organisation in a Turbulent Environment in Human Systems Management Vol 9 pp249-256 1990

EC/GS