Learning Organisations, Knowledge Management And HRD

Script for
Chapter 14. Learning Organisations, Knowledge Management And HRD

Let us first note down the objectives of this session

OBJECTIVES
● Understanding the concept of Learning
● Examine the concept of learning organisations (LO)
● To understand knowledge management (KM)
● To understand the relationship between HRD and Knowledge management
● To understand the similarities between Knowledge management & Learning
Organisations

INTRODUCTION
Knowledge Management and Learning Organisation are phenomena that “are understood
to have arisen as a response to the new socio-economic exigencies of the post-war to
Millennium era” (CLMS, M2C, U5: 6). On the one hand, LO aims to create, improve and
maximise the learning of the organisation while on the other hand, KM is focused on how the
knowledge is created, distributed and transferred or shared within the organisation. Both LO
and KM deal with learning, knowledge and skills.

Learning and Learning Organisations

Learning is a term that is used to describe a human function. Some authors argued that there
are contradiction and ambiguity between the terms learning and organisation (Weick and
Westley, 1996; Prange, 1999). The organisation cannot have any memory, or cannot learn or
can have emotions like a human. So, how an organisation can be named as a learning one?
By the same way, is it learning an individual function or can be seen as an organisational
one?

The definition of Learning Organisation refers that the learning is connected with the
members of organisation (individuals) hence it can be argued that it has a human substance.
“Organisation can be seen as more than the sum of their individual or collective parts”
(Vince, 2001: 1330).

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The phrase “learning organization” has gained popularity nowadays in many different
enterprises. It is because most enterprises have shifted from traditional operations to complex
and flexible ones. Marsick and Watkines(1994) indicated that "learning organization" learns
continuously and can transform itself. It empowers the people,encourages collaboration and
team learning , promotes open dialogue, and acknowledges the interdependence of
individuals,the organization ,and the community.

Individual learning obtains skills and knowledge via the support of communication and the
formation of learning opportunities (Senge, 2003). However, the learning became also a
social, collaborative and organisational process (Slotte et al., 2004). According to Edmondson
and Moinggeon (1998), organisational learning is the procedure by which the members of an
organisation vigorously use data in order to change the behaviour of the employees as to
promote the alteration of the company. Workplace learning is a set of procedures which take
place in specific work environment and targets to the integration of skills, values and
knowledge of individuals and teams, by modifying their behaviour (Garavan et al., 2002).

McCutchan(1997) noted that the fundamental source of competitive advantage in today's

organizations was shifting from resources to knowledge and from relatively stable sources of
technological and market advantage to the capacity to create such advantages. Sphr (1999)
further explained that “Learning organizations are firms that recognize the critical importance
of continuous performance-related training and development and take appropriate action to
provide them”. Therefore, the key characteristic for the success of an organization is its
ability to learn. A learning organization is one that has accepted that nothing stays the same
forever (Pedler; Burgoyne; Boydell; 1991).

According to Fedler’s theory, a learning organization knows where it has to go, but is not
clearly aware of the path leading to its anticipated destination. "Learning organization" was
invented in the 1980s to describe organizations that experimented with new ways of
conducting business in order to survive in turbulent, highly competitive markets
(Senge,1990). According to the core theory of the “Learning organization” proposed by Peter
M.Senge in 1990,there are five disciplines ,”Personal mastery”, ”Mental models”, “Building
shared vision”, “Team learning” and “System thinking”.

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Personal Abilities: Peter Senge describes personal ability as one of the main components
required for creating a learning organization. Personal abilities have individual learning in
their trail, and organizations simply cannot learn unless their members commence learning.
To start with, organizations must clearly define what individuals are attempting to achieve
(Defining the organization’s mission).
After individual goal setting, people develop their abilities towards achieving those goals. In
other words, personal abilities are a system where an individual continuously clarifies and
deepens his personal viewpoints focuses his energy and power to make organizational goals.
According to Cutchan’s (1997) opinion, individual learning creates a common insight
between the mutual commitment of individuals and the organization rich in tendency to learn.

Mental models: a mind model is a way of looking at the world (Kine; Sunders, 1993); a
framework which determines cognitive processes of our mind. In other words a cognitive
model determines how we think and act. Mind models are very deep assumptions or
sometimes images and shapes affecting our understanding and action towards the world
around us (Senge; 1990). In many cases we are not aware of our mind’s models and their
effect on our performance. Many useful ideas are never carried out, simply because they are
in contrast with deep mind models. Therefore, in a learning environment, individuals must
seek to brush-off dust from their mind models and expose it to extensive searches, while
these searches must cover informative and learning results.

Building shared vision: shared vision starts with a personal vision. Personal visions are
things that an individual believes in his own mind. Systemic thought which is mainly based
on long- term goals can act as lights for the guidance of personal visions (Garvin; 1993).

Nevertheless, creating a common vision is very difficult, because it is almost impossible for
all individuals in an organization to have similar goals; they interpret the goals differently,
but a common vision perceived by most individuals can be created. Senge states that when a
real vision exists, individuals strive to learn, not because it is something wanted from them,
but because they want to. But many leaders have personal visions never to be converted into
a group vision including the organization. What we lack is a discipline converting personal
vision into group vision, principals which are capable of unifying efforts.

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Team learning: Team learning starts with “dialogue”. A capacity which enables team
members to collaborate their opinions and implement the right thoughts together (Wang,
2006). Team learning is of great importance, because not individuals, but teams form the
learning foundation in modern organizations. The organization will have the ability to learn,
provided that teams are learning (Senge, 1990).

System thinking: Humans can successfully develop their knowledge based on an analytical
model called systemic thought. Based on this model, individuals form a problem within a
shape. The problem is broken down to its components and each section is separated and then
obtained results are designed as a whole (Wang, 2006).

System thinking specifies the most delicate aspect of a learning organization (Senge;
Kofman; 2000), a new way individuals perceive the world in them. A change in mentality
rests in the heart of each learning organization. A change in which we relate ourselves to the
world on not separated from it. We perceive how our actions create our issues and problems,
and why we should not relate occurrences to other things and other people. A learning
organization is a place where individuals continuously perceive how they are creator of
reality and how they can change it.

Role of human resources development in learning organizations

The scope of human resources development has overcome a chaotic path. In many sources,
“human resources development” and “teaching and development” are considered synonyms.
In addition, in different parts of various books, developing human resources is only related to
personnel teaching and development, and this relation is accompanied by special focus on
teaching (Walton, 1999). In Britain, one of the first notations on human resources
development as an independent field was given by Patty Gerio et al. In their studies, they
assumed difference between human resources development and Retraining. Stewart states
that human resources development is the organized and incorporated application of “teaching
and development”, “organizational development, and “development of career improvement
paths” for the individual, group,and organization (Stewart, 2002).
One of the past few years’ genetic topics is that in these years the term “learning” has been
considerably emphasized on both in organizational terms and individual terms. In 1998, the

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British government published a green paper titled “The Learning Age” and a number of
organizations have mentioned learning organizations in their notes and guide
Human resources development greatly influences organizational culture. Based on the
learning organization’s theory the terms “teaching and development” in human resources
development having given their place to “learning and development”.

Is a process comprising of: teaching, career development, abilities development in the

direction individual and team performance growth
books. Together with these changes, directional change has been witnessed in human
resources development terms from “teaching and development” to “learning and
development”. Moving towards learning has have grabbed attention to knowledge, and
knowledge in the volatile industrial and information age is considered a tool for developing
human and intellectual assets as a source of constant competitive advantage.
Therefore, in order to create a successful learning organization, not only do organizations
have to create space for employee training, but have to change the system of human resources
development in a way that supports the learning process (Black, 1997). Adherence to the
unpredictable and challenging environment of businesses is essential for organizational
success.

Learning organizations exist because they make human powers more strong to deal with
challenges. Therefore, HRD must play a new role in order to help the organizations shift from
their old shells to new ones. The Figure on your screens, provides some ideas about Human
Resource Development to be part of learning organizations.

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HRD is able to provide various ways to help people within the organizations to achieve five
disciplines (Personal mastery, Mental models, Building shared vision, Team learning and
System thinking).

1. Personal mastery: Human Resource Management department is responsible for

hiring employees in the department and Human Resource Development professionals
must find out whether the new employees are truly in love with their jobs and are
willing to learn things from their jobs. Recruiting people who have a positive working
attitude will benefit the organization to create a better culture. In addition, for the
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purpose of employees knowing better about themselves. HRD can give personality,
interest & self-analysis lists. By doing these, people will be able to more easily face
their limitations and difficulties, and be able to deal with the change.

2. Mental Models : For the purpose of training employees minds, HRD can provide
people with EQ classes. In addition, fair rewarding systems are necessary for
encouraging employees to be more open and positive about things and with
colleagues and willing to adopt new challenges.

3. Building shared vision : For the purpose of building shared vision, HRD needs to
provide two-ways communication flow and issue company newsletters so that people
will be able to hold shared vision with commitments and mutual understandings.

4. Team learning: For the purpose of team learning , HRD needs to provide on-the job
training and consider carrying out group activities, the teams will be easier to build
their self-awareness, and will be able to help and encourage others, in learning and to
enhance their creativity.

5. System Thinking: For the purpose of helping people think more systematically, HRD
needs to create guidelines of general problem-solving procedures to employees. In
addition, establishing a well mentoring system will be necessary for guiding new
joinees to adopt organizational culture.

Therefore, human resources development in all five components of an organization

possesses effective roles and has a principal role in the organization’s movement
towards learning.

In the current of accelerated change, and the time of uncertainty towards the future
and lack of sufficient accessible information to management for the decision-making.
If the organization does not adapt to the changes, then it may lead to a halt of the
organization’s movement.
Therefore, organization must have a continuous change movement and adaptation,
which is the principal informant of learning organizations. In order to create a

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learning environment and a learning organization capable of responding to the ever

competitive business environment, a learning organization can be considered a system
comprising of four sub-systems (Serrat, 2009) which include technology, knowledge,
individuals, and organization.

According to figure on your screens a learning organization is a house which requires

four columns(pillars) for its structure. Without these, the house cannot be built.

The success of learning organizations is purely dependent on their ability in rapidly accepting
and giving suitable response towards environmental changes. This suitable reaction results
from the foundations of learning organizations.

Following, we will further discuss these sub-systems:

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1. Organization: Creating a suitable structure in establishing a learning organization is

essential. Therefore, in order to encourage learning, organizations must move away from
mechanist structures and adopt a live and flexible structure. It seems that advocates of the
learning organization emphasizes on characteristics such as the flat organization, local
privileges, trust and unit collaborations.

Moreover, it is clear that in learning organizations, the role of management is not traditional
or hierarchical. In these organizations leaders/managers are organizational planners, teachers,
agents and coordinators of professional groups. Performing these roles requires modern
skills, knowledge, experience, ability and constructive power with common points of view in
the organization. Managers in learning organizations must be capable of playing the role of
architect for knowledge effectively.

In addition, in a learning organization, the principal task of a manager is to create

organizational behavior and form its change. The manager can encourage freedom of speech
and facilitate communications. The leaders of learning organizations know that the answers
to problems are in the hand of employees. Therefore, paying attention to organizational
structure and managing the creation of learning organizations is effective.

2. Knowledge: In the 80s and 90s, organizations were encountering tremendous

environmental changes where it was concluded that in order to counter those conditions,
moving towards learning is inevitable. It should be noted that the learning rate of the
organization must be faster than environmental changes. A learning organization strives to
overcome environmental evolution and emphasizes on continuous knowledge learning. In a
learning organization, knowledge must flow in all levels of the organization, and based on
these changes, the organization learns how to overcome market changes and competitor
strategies.

Places where knowledge exists include:

I. Inside individuals like (embodied),(embrained)
II. Outside individuals like (dialogue), (routine tasks), (symbols, words and
documentation)

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What is effective in creating a learning organization is if the knowledge is recorded inside the
organization’s memory (e.g. via routine tasks, regulations and procedures, documentation
and culture). Therefore, individually obtained knowledge is transferred to the organization’s
memory. We also know that, in an organization, individuals possess nature of learning.
Although team learning is mentioned, yet knowledge is attached to individuals, and transfer
of knowledge occurs between individuals (Ortenblad, 1998).
Therefore, paying attention to knowledge is important in creating a learning organization.

3. Technology: Considering evolutions, success is an achievement for any organization

which has a clear vision regarding what they do, and who possess powerful management and
organizational systems. In this path, managers do not neglect utilizing required tools and take
advantage of these tools and technologies using latest methods of application to guide the
organization towards value making and learning. Information systems is one of the tools that
aid managers in decision-making, planning, and action.

Although, information systems have various architectures and based on environment and
field of utilization, have certain importance and levels of application. Today by creating IT-
based systems such as CRM, Supply chain management and organizational intelligence,
decision-making has become a much easier task for managers. Hence, based on the provided
facts, IT-based information systems are utilized to provide access to information within the
organization. Such system save incoming information and retrieve it, and by means of
computer systems, it facilitates information access and transfer in the organization. Therefore,
knowledge and information flows within the organization and employees can access required
knowledge and in this way, learning expands within the organization. Therefore, paying
attention to technology plays an important role in creating learning organizations.

4. Individuals: Employees are one of the main foundations in implementing learning

organization. The organization’s ability to learn is hidden in its employees. Therefore,
employee learning is a prerequisite for organizational learning. In every organization, human
resources development plays a principal role in employee learning and creating a learning
organization is dependent on individual (employee) learning.

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In fact, organization employees are the elements that provide the basis for characterizing
learning in an organization based on the following reasons:
I. Obtaining or creating new knowledge (e.g. by means of daily work experiences,
studying new technological breakthroughs or by means of learning work procedures
of other organizations).
II. Publishing this new knowledge inside the organization
III. Implementing new knowledge in improving and renovating operation procedures,
production, and services

Honlod describes a learning organization as: “A learning organization is an organization in

which members are always learning new things and are applying what they learn in order to
improve the quality of production and services, production processes, service providing and
employee workplace and their performance (Honlod, 1991).
Therefore, the main part of human resources development is creating suitable grounds for
employee learning in the direction of moving towards a learning organization.

As seen in figure too, management science influences the organization, human resources
development influences individuals, cognition philosophy influences knowledge, computer
science influences technology and results in the creation of a learning organization
surrounded by a very competitive environment.

Knowledge and Knowledge Management

Knowledge is a very complicated term and therefore very difficult to determine. Knowledge
exists in the human mind, which can sometimes neither be communicated nor be not easily
understood by others, as knowledge is highly contextualized and personalized. Therefore,
Nonaka and Takeuchi (1995) argued that a successful KM program needs to not only convert
internalized tacit (subjective) knowledge into explicit codified knowledge (systematic or
technical) to share it but also for individuals and groups to internalize and make personally
meaningful codified knowledge once it is retrieved from the KM system.

According to McDermott (1999), the majority of people have difficulties in describing with
words what they already know. Nobody can see knowledge and usually it only comes to mind
when people need to give a solution to a problem or answer a question. Knowledge is an

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element that helps the organisations to differentiate themselves from their competitors.
Davenport and Klahr (1998), Stewart (1997), Swan and Newell (2000) pointed out that
knowledge is necessary for an organisation in order to gain competitive advantage in the
global business area.

The first given definition of knowledge, originates from Plato (1953), who supported that
knowledge is “justified belief”, an opinion supported also by Nonaka and Takeuchi (1995). A
recent popular definition of knowledge is given by Davenport and Prusak (1998) who argued
that knowledge comprises of a wide blend of contextual qualities and experiences which set
the basis for interesting and analysing new relevant (experiential) data, that is born and
processed by the knowers; it is broadly applied in organisation’s texts and practices.

A recent and popular phenomenon in business is the idea of Knowledge Management, in

other words the management of knowledge. There are many advocators who support that the
success of the organisation is linked to KM (Bollinger and Smith 2001; Gurteen 1998;
Davenport and Prusak, 1998; Nonaka and Takeuchi, 1995). KM includes organisational
learning, strategic management, information systems and innovation (Alvesson and
Karreman, 2001). There are overlapping and competing definitions about the term of KM
(Lopez et al., 2004).

KM is defined as a tool in managing the transfer of knowledge within an organisation” (Nor,

2004: 4). Offsey (1997) denes KM as a general procedure of detecting, transferring and more
capably using information and skills within an organisation. The authors tends to agree with
the definition of KM as given by O’ Dell and Jackson: “KM is a conscious strategy of getting
the right knowledge to the right people at the right time and helping people share and put
information into action in ways that strive to improve organisational performance” (1998: 4).
Also, Researchers have supported the use of financial and non-financial rewards in
facilitating and encouraging knowledge behavior in people (e.g. Huang et al., 2008;O’Dell
and Hubert, 2011).

Researchers have argued that organizations are interested in managing knowledge for several
reasons. And the reasons are:

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• the increasing awareness that wealth is created from knowledge and intangible assets;
• the rediscovery that human resource is the reservoir of organizational knowledge;
• the swift change in markets, competition and technology, which demand continuous
learning to remain competitive;
• the identification that innovation stems from knowledge creation and application;
• the growing importance of cross-boundary knowledge transaction resulting from the
globalization process; and
• the technology’s limitations to unearth certain types of knowledge such as tacit knowledge
(Baker and Baker, 2001;Quintas, 2002).

KM is a bottom-up and an ongoing process within the organizational boundaries (Bonner,

2000). So when knowledge within the organization is shared, it becomes progressive in
nature. It becomes embedded within the organization’s processes, products and services
(Demarest, 1997).

KM needs to be supported by the right kind of strategy, structure, system, culture and people
management policies and practices to codify tacit knowledge and utilize tacit and explicit
knowledge to enhance organizational effectiveness. According to Nonaka (1991), there exists
four patterns in a knowledge-creating company, viz From explicit to explicit, from tacit to
explicit, from explicit to tacit and from tacit to tacit, in a spiral of knowledge, which means
the tacit knowledge which is very personal needs to be translated into explicit knowledge via
communication by which organisation’s knowledge base grows even broader. Articulation
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(converting tacit knowledge into explicit knowledge) and using internalisation (using that
explicit knowledge to expand one’s own tacit knowledge base) are the critical steps every
organisation should follow. The reason being both require active involvement of the self -
that is, personal commitment.

Therefore, organizations need to develop a culture of learning to tap into the knowledge base
of employees to preserve and expand their core competencies. Evidence shows KM practices
can be measured on ve major dimensions – leadership, culture, technology, measurement and
process – and all the major KM activities and enablers can help in benchmarking with other
organizations (Knowledge Management Assessment Tool, 1997;de Jager, 1999).

Relationship between Organisational Learning and Knowledge Management

OL literature provides a bridge between the cultivation of knowledge and the organization’s
effectiveness. Some researchers have defined OL as a dynamic process of creation,
acquisition and integration of knowledge aimed at the development of resources and
capabilities that contribute to a better organizational performance (Lopez et al., 2004). A
single instance of OL may be relatively easy for other organizations to imitate; however, the
continuous OL has cumulative effects that are much more difficult to imitate (DeNisi et al.,
2003). So, it can be argued that OL process should be used to develop knowledge resources
and capabilities that can help business rms to achieve sustainable competitive advantage (e.g.
Njuguna, 2009). OL encompasses both cognitive processes and individual behaviors that add
new knowledge to organisations and allow managers to act based on that knowledge. Some
theorists have linked individual learning with OL (e.g. Kim, 1993). In a study, Jain and
Jeppesen (2013) identified the impact of cognitive styles of leaders on KM practices in a
public sector organization in the Indian context. They found that the adaptor style was
significantly, in contrast to innovator style, related to KM practices. As argued by Jain and
Jeppesen (2013), obedience and conformity to rules and regulations are important aspects of
the organizational structure and culture in a public sector organization.

Moreover, Rai (2011), in a conceptual paper, has modified the competing values framework,
and proposed that the nature of organizational culture (clan, market, hierarchy and
adhocracy) may determine the knowledge creating and conversion processes in
organizations. Thus, OL culture can facilitate in creating, sharing and exploiting knowledge.

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Furthermore, the culture of learning organization recognizes that people need to be

encouraged to foster knowledge creation, sharing and exploitation. Companies which are able
to effectively manage this process can achieve competitive advantages. Thus, an OL cycle
needs to be continuously revised to create knowledge (Dixon, 1994). These processes are
closely related to the notion of “continuous improvement” through which an organization
continuously identities, implements and institutionalizes improvements. The improvements
are embedded in the organization through regular activities that may be written policies,
prescribed machine settings, quality control limits or “best practices” for dealing with
frequently occurring circumstances. Thus, OL can help in the renement and in the renewal of
organizational knowledge (Swart and Kinnie, 2010).

A review of literature showed that OL and KM have also been great interest for Indian
researchers, especially in the post-liberalization era after 1990 (Rastogi, 1998;Shukla and
Srinivasan, 2002). Shukla and Srinivasan (2002) stated that in the fast changing, knowledge-
intensive and volatile environment, Indian organizations should adopt strategies that would
simultaneously address the concerns of internal efficiency,
external competitiveness and leading the innovation.
In a study of nine organizations from a strategic human resource perspective, Khandekar and
Sharma (2005) found that there is a positive relationship between OL, strategic human
resource management and sustainable competitive advantage.

Furthermore, they revealed that these Indian organizations have upgraded technology and
now compete against global and multinational companies and are considering the need to
develop a highly diverse workforce into well-trained, motivated and efficient employees.
They are organized around learning and on the continuous cultivation and deployment of
knowledge (Sharma and Khandekar, 2004). In a study of three Indian global organizations,
Khandekar and Sharma (2006) supported the link between OL and organizational
performance. In another study on OL capabilities, studies have shown a positive relationship
with organizational commitment of Indian managers and firm’s performance (Bhatnagar,
2006,2007).
Bhatnagar (2006) observed that organizational capability perception for the managers of the
IT sector and of multinational firms was the highest, while it was lowest for the engineering
sector. Furthermore, line and human resources (HR) managers differ significantly in their

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perception of OL capability. Line managers have higher perception for learning capability
(Bhatnagar and Sharma, 2005).

Organizational Learning vs. Learning Organization

From the last two decades, there has been a lot of discussions about OL being related to the
topic of learning organisation(LO), also considered as one of the new approaches in the field
of HRD. Maula (2006: 13) considered the concept of LO broader than the field of OL
because it consists of different forms of learning – (individual, team, organizational). Some
authors, discussed LO as a concept, while they consider OL one of the processes of learning
in the organization (Sunassee and Haumant, 2004, Merx–Chermin and Nijhof, 2005, all in:
Busch, 2008: 22). Busch (2008) underlines few important distinctions between these issues:
the central problem in the OL is creation of knowledge in organization, the main focus of OL
is learning of individuals in organization, OL is retrospective, focused to the ways how
organizations approached to some issues in the past, while concept of LO is oriented toward
the future performance of the organization, and the process of OL can be separated from
other ongoing learning processes in the organization.

According to Senge (1990), OL has adaptive and generative phases. “For a learning
organization, ‘adaptive learning’ must be joined by ‘generative learning’, learning that
enhances our capacity to create” (Senge, 1990: 14)

Reasons for emphasis on KM

The need to focus on managing knowledge within organisation results from

● economic and market-driven conditions created by customer demands and global

competition
● Increase in customer demands for products and services that attain particular needs
more precisely and to a greater advantage
● Loss of knowledge to the organisation due to increased employee turnover
● It helps organisations to be able to repeat the processes followed in past successful
projects.
● Effective knowledge management practices helps organisations avoid repeating
mistakes of past projects, thereby reducing the time span required for completing
current projects.
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● The importance of knowledge is also focused on by Michael Zack, while defining the
‘strategic knowledge gap’, which is the gap between what the organisation needs to
know and what it does now and knowledge management is the process by which
organisations could bridge this gap.

Let us now summarize our session

SUMMARY
1. The concept of learning organizations is vastly used by many companies around the
world. The characteristics of learning organizations is beneficial in solving many
problems of today’s organizations. The most important thought of learning
organizations in Peter Senge’s point of view is “every goal is achieved based on what
we think, what we really want, how we communicate with others and how we learn
from them” (Senge, 1990).
2. Thus, we can infer that Human resources development plays the most important role
in transferring traditional organizations into becoming learning organizations.
3. Based on Peter Senge’s learning organization model, the role of human resources
development was examined in five components of the learning organization and
concluded that human resources development plays an effective role in all five
components of the learning organization and plays a principal role in moving the
organization towards learning.
4. Later, we examined the role of human resources development based on Seraat’s
model and concluded that four foundations are required in order to establish a learning
organization (organization, knowledge, individuals, and technology). Management
science influences the organization, human resources development influences
individuals, cognition philosophy influences knowledge, computer science influences
technology and results in the creation of a learning organization surrounded by a very
competitive environment.
5. Therefore in each organization in the hyper industrial and information era, human
resources development plays a principal role in employee learning and creating a
learning organization is dependent on employee learning.
6. In the current industry scenario of flux and uncertainty, organisations cannot achieve
sustainable competitive advantage, by pursuing just a product-market based strategy
or a resource based strategy.
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7. Organisations need to appreciate the importance of the knowledge existing in the

organisation and harness the knowledge through appropriate knowledge management
strategies and align this strategy with the business strategy.
8. Moreover, they also need to create new knowledge through creative methods and
build new capabilities to achieve sustainable competitive advantage.
9. To be successful, a KM strategy must do more than just outline high-level goals such
as 'become a knowledge-enabled organization'. Instead, the strategy must identify
the key needs and issues within the organization, and provide a framework for
addressing these.

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