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| Subject |
Knowledge
management and learning in Europe |
| Context |
Analysis
of the European agenda of HRD, based on the evaluation of papers presented
at the conference on HRD research and practice across Europe, Kingston
Business School, London, 15 January 2000 |
| Summary |
There
is a remarkable similarity in the points made in a group of papers dealing
with the fields of knowledge management and of organisational and individual
learning. These points include the following:
-
"questioning
whether organisations can really 'manage' knowledge, unless they accept
the different learning strategies of individual employees, and accept the
socially constructed nature of the learning process;
-
following
from this, the importance of recognising and including all the different
stakeholders in the learning process;
-
the importance
of proactive facilitation that recognises both the dynamic nature of organisational
learning, and power relations;
-
and the
essential importance of equal attention to 'people processes' (especially
culture change, training, education and facilitation) as well as technology
for successful knowledge management."
At methodological
level, the papers share the following features:
-
challenging
the epistemological basis of theories of knowledge management (including
the empiricist, rationalist and situated cognition theories of knowledge)
and the relative implications of these for the role of HRD in promoting
and maintaining knowledge management in organisations;
-
criticising
Nonaka's and Takeuchi's (1995) model for the creation and dissemination
of both explicit and tacit knowledge, as both a simplistic and inaccurate
representation of what happens;
-
arguing
in favour of adopting a model that recognises the socially constructed
nature of knowledge and learning, and hence arguing for the role of HRD
in reinforcing existing learning cultures and processes.
|
| Key
terms |
Knowledge
management; organisational and individual learning |
| Source |
Analysis:
Woodall
et al. 2001a, pp. 346f.; reference to Bonet
2000, Cappetta 2000, Gourlay
2000, MacNeil 2000, Poell
2000a, Shelton 2000, Tomassini
2000 |
|