Personal Experience
Knowledge Management and Organizational Learning
In my experience Knowledge management efforts typically focus on organizational objectives such as improved performance, competitive advantage, innovation, sharing lessons learned, integration and continuous improvement of the organization. Knowledge Management efforts may overlap with Organizational Learning, and are distinguished from Organizational Learning by a greater focus on the management of knowledge as a strategic asset and a focus on knowledge retention and organizational competence. It is seen as an enabler of Organizational Learning, which encourages sharing knowledge and focuses on organizational effectiveness metrics related to knowledge.
Summary of Knowledge Management and Organizational Learning Processes
| Methodology |
Knowledge Creation |
Knowledge Capture |
Knowledge Storage |
Knowledge Transfer |
Knowledge Application |
| Knowledge Retrieval |
Knowledge Flow |
| Examples |
incident review |
documentation |
repositories |
discussion forums |
workflow procedures |
| Likely to need IT*? |
No |
No |
Yes |
Yes |
No |
| Discipline** |
KM |
CM |
IM |
OL |
KM |
| OL |
*IT - Information Technology support, for KM and OL also referred to as KMS (Knowledge Management Systems) support
**Discipline Key:
KM - Knowledge Management
CM - Content Management
IM - Information Management
OL - Organizational Learning
For continuing education and to remain up to date with new efforts in knowledge management and organizational learning there are several conferences to check out. This list will get you started. It will be updated periodically.