Organizational Learning

l CAN ORGANISATIONS LEARN WHILE SUFFERING CORPORATE MEMORY LOSS ?1
by Colin A. Sharp

Copyright (c) 1996 All rights reserved.

© This is a draft work in progress paper open for comment. No part of this work may be reproduced without the permission of the author. Please direct all correspondence to: Dr Colin Sharp PO Box 378, Stirling, SA, Australia, 5152

1

This paper is based on earlier papers by Sharp & Lewis delivered at the Information Systems as Organizational Processes Conference at the University of Wollongong, October, 1992, and the ANZAM Conference, Deakin University, December 1993. It is part of an ongoing study of organisations made possible by University Research Board grants to Sharp & Lewis, from Flinders University, which has included a Masters project by Apsey (1994).

Corporate Memory

2

ABSTRACT The strategy of "down-sizing" organisations in turbulent economic circumstances has implications for the organisational strategic capacity to learn. These changes in the strategic direction and structure of organisations bring increased pressure on organisation culture, and may inhibit the capacity of the organisation and/or the commitment of the staff to the ideals of the Learning Organisation culture. Particularly relevant are the more intangible human memory or "soft" aspects of the corporate information systems. The term "total corporate memory" is used to describe the formal and informal collective and individual data and knowledge held by employees gained through their experience and positions within an organisation. Issues involved with "corporate soft data", "human capital" and the relationships with organisational learning are elaborated. Suggestions are made as to the role of the strategic human resources planning of organisations as well as for directions in further research. The paper reports two approaches currently being developed to research in this new field. The first is a naturalistic inquiry to scope the issues through... [continues]

Read full essay