SYSTEMATIC APPROACHES FOR ORGANISATIONAL LEARNING - A LITERATURE REVIEW

The activity of developing high-quality information systems (IS) is a highly volatile and knowledge- intensive process. Nonetheless, only few IS developing companies seem to be advanced in evaluating and processing their knowledge. Despite a variety of existing approaches, there is no systematic overview of these and how far they support organisational learning. We conduct a systematic literature review of highly ranked journals and relevant textbooks to provide such an overview. We provide a list of eight systematic learning approaches and analyse how they contribute to the activities of knowledge creation, retention and transfer. Thereby, we aim to improve the current situation of organisational learning in IS developing companies. Whereas organisations need to become more open to systematic organisational learning approaches, research is in need to evaluate existing approaches and develop holistic strategies for building learning organisations

The role of information technology in bridging the knowing-doing gap: an exploratory case study on knowledge application

Purpose Organisations that systematically manage their knowledge based on processes of creating, storing, transferring and applying knowledge are likely to achieve both performance improvements and competitive advantages. However, companies often succeed in the first three processes only, while neglecting knowledge application. The phenomenon of employees not relying on existing knowledge when solving specific problems is referred to as knowing-doing gap. While the existence of this gap is well acknowledged, the purpose of this study is to advance the understanding how respective barriers of knowledge application can be overcome, in particular concerning the role of information technology (IT). Design/methodology/approach This study applies a case study design, thereby relying on various data sources, such as interviews, documents, field notes, observations and demonstrations. The analysis follows established guidelines for thematic analysis. Findings An understanding of knowledge application as a three-step process is derived. The set of knowledge application barriers, identified practices to overcome the barriers and yielded themes that explain the role of IT in bridging the knowing-doing gap are complemented. Research limitations/implications The role of IT in bridging the knowing-doing gap and contributing to the general understanding of the knowing-doing gap by also considering practices concerning the people and process dimensions is illuminated. While IT plays a central role in applying knowledge, successfully overcoming the knowing-doing gap requires organisational practices at the people and processes dimensions that are aligned with the IT. The set of barriers of knowledge application at the individual, group and organisational levels is complemented. Practical implications The practices to bridge the knowing-doing gap at the intersection of the people, processes and technology dimensions are identified. Specifically, the role of IT in overcoming barriers to knowledge application is explored. Originality/value This thematic analysis yields a theoretical explanation for knowledge application as a three-step process and suggests practices to bridge the knowing-doing gap for each step. Furthermore, four major themes that explain the role of IT for this process in depth are derived

Approaches for Organizational Learning: A Literature Review

Organizational learning (OL) enables organizations to transform individual knowledge into organizational knowledge. Organizations struggle to implement practical approaches due to the lack of concrete prescriptions. We performed a literature review to identify OL approaches and linked these approaches to OL theories. We synthesized 18 OL approaches across three domains: people (seven approaches), processes (nine), and technologies (two). Furthermore, we suggest two directions for future research: referring to the evaluation of our results and addressing the contingencies of OL effectiveness. Our mapping guides organizations in the design of learning processes to improve long-term performance. Although relying on a single approach is unlikely to comprehensively enable OL, our mapping facilitates the combination of several approaches aligned with organizational culture and processes