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How networks, communities and organizations communicate, collaborate, solve
problems, make decisions, devise strategies, accumulate experience and
expertise and make sense of their environment has become dramatically linked
to value creation and business survival in the Knowledge Economy.
“Organizational learning is both a process and an outcome,” explains
Prof. Ariane Berthoin Antal, WZB program leader for
organizational learning and conference co-chairperson. “The process is a
dynamic and interactive one that entails acquiring, sharing, making sense
of, applying and storing knowledge, as well as creating new knowledge. The
outcome of organizational learning is stored in many forms, including
organizational culture, routines, and to a lesser extent, documentation and
data banks.”
The demand for new approaches is increasing with the accelerating pace of
technological, social, political and economic changes occurring in the world
today. “Industry has been transformed worldwide by a rapid technological
change and by a wealth of information and communication brought by new
technologies,” notes
Prof. Gisbert Freiherr zu Putlitz, Chairman of the Board of the
Gottlieb Daimler and Karl Benz Foundation.
 Government, social, business and academic organizations are all involved in
this global transformation. “Nearly every kind of organization has undergone
a fundamental and rapid change regarding their structures, their management
and their goals,” he adds. “Organizations are challenged by those processes
and are forced to manage the consequences by the generation of new corporate
knowledge.”
Traditional management approaches and assumptions are no longer sufficient
considering rapidly changing environment organizations face today,
particularly considering the importance of creating new balances between
meeting global and local needs. “Probably the most important learning skill
that organizations must develop is the ability to capture and interpret
early signals from diverse stakeholders in varied socio-political contexts
and to draw on and share tacit knowledge across organizational boundaries,”
says Prof. Meinolf Dierkes, who headed the Kolleg’s work. |
