Dear
Professor Dierkes, Ladies and Gentlemen,
It is my great pleasure to welcome you - also on behalf of Dr. Diethard
Schade, my colleague in the Board of Management of the Gottlieb Daimler and Karl
Benz Foundation, - to the conference on "Organizations in the 21st Century:
Knowledge and Learning – the Basis for Growth".
First of all I would like to thank Professor Meinolf Dierkes and his team
from the Wissenschafts-zentrum Berlin für Sozialforschung for having organized
this important meeting. This conference intends to present the results of a
fruitful research process during the last years that has been guided by
Professor Dierkes. It takes place after many years of intense co-operation
between the Wissenschaftszentrum and the Daimler-Benz-Foundation in the
framework of the Ladenburg Collegium titled "Organizational Learning in Various
Environmental Conditions".
Between October 1994 and autumn 2000 more than thirty sociologists,
psychologists, economists, management scientists, and practical experts from ten
countries co-operated within this collegium. Professor Meinolf Dierkes undertook
the tremendous effort to coordinate the scientific work of the group. In
co-operation with Professors Ariane Berthoin Antal, John Child, and Ikujiro
Nonaka, Professor Dierkes edited the "Handbook of Organizational Learning and
Knowledge" as the main result of the collegium which was recently published at
Oxford University Press. I am especially proud that this handbook was also
published in Chinese language, although the Foundation hesitated at first when
Professor Dierkes proposed this edition.
Perhaps I need to explain the characteristics of a Ladenburg Collegium.
The Foundation takes up suitable research proposals and expands them into
so-called Ladenburg Collegia for priority funding within the overall research
program. A collegium is an association of research groups working independently
in their respective institutions while focusing their efforts on the common
objective. Regular joint work sessions are an integral part of any collegium.
Here the members reflect on the findings generated by the projects and
coordinate long-term reserach activities. These sessions take place in the
Foundation’s headquarter in the Karl Benz House in Ladenburg, a small town in
South West Germany.
A collegium is normally designed to last three years. In case of
successfully working collegia this period can be extended as in the case of the
collegium headed by Prof. Dierkes. In establishing Ladenburg Collegia the
Foundation fulfills its goal to support science and research aiming to the
interrelationship between "humanity, environment and technology" . This field of
complex topics demands interdisciplinary endeavors in order to contribute to the
public’s benefit by means of problem-oriented scientific analysis.
To identify the appropriate topics for future collegia the foundation has
developed a discourse process in which scientists from different fields and
expert practitioners from universities, research institutes, industry, and the
politics get together to discuss whether research projects submitted for their
consideration are suitable for priority Foundation funding. The forum of this
discussion is the Ladenburg Discourse. In the case of organizational
learning three meetings beginning in 1993 analyzed the status quo of the
knowledge in this field. They prepared the research program of the following
collegium, which was inaugurated in 1994.
The Gottlieb Daimler and Karl Benz Foundation was interested in sponsoring
this project for various reasons. Industry has been transformed worldwide by a
rapid technological change and by a wealth of information and communication
brought by new technologies. Nearly every kind of organization has undergone a
fundamental and rapid change regarding to their structures, their management,
and their goals. As a worldwide process it involves governmental, societal,
industrial, and business organizations. Furthermore, the public interest in the
performance of organizations, and especially industrial firms, has increased in
many countries. Accidents, for example in the chemical industry, can be subject
of public awareness in a way that the existence of a company may be endangered.
Organizations are challenged by those processes and are forced to manage the
consequences by the generation of new corporate knowledge.
Therefore, the foundation considers "Organizational Learning" to be a central
topic in the context of worldwide transformation. Related topics were subjects
of other Ladenburg Collegia, for instance "Security in Communication Technology"
and "Understanding and Shaping Globalization". To my mind, the Ladenburg
Collegium "Organizational Learning in Various Environmental Conditions"
completes the analysis of new global tendencies in the framework of the
Foundation’s program.
The work
performed in the Ladenburg Collegium "Organizational Learning in Various
Environmental Conditions" led to numerous scientific publications and articles
in newspapers. I have already mentioned the "Handbook of Organizational Learning
and Knowledge" that has been published this August in an English and a Chinese
edition. Both Editions show impressive sales figures: According to Oxford
University Press 1,500 Copies have already been sold. The company is currently
undertaking a reprint of the first edition. We have similar reports from
Shanghai’s People Publishing House: 3,300 of the first printing of 5,000 copies
were already sold in China. Furthermore, the "Annotated bibliography of
organizational learning" - compiled and edited by members of the collegium - was
published 2001 in a second revised edition and the publisher is planning a
reprint for January 2002. These figures indicate the great interest in this
subject but even more in the work of the collegium. In addition, at least forty
articles and books of the single research projects have been published during
the last five years. More than fifteen conference papers of collegium members
are documented.
Among the gratifying spin-off effects of the Ladenburg Collegia are the
opportunities provided to budding scientists for involvement in the various
projects. Central to the Foundation´s endeavors in encouraging the upcoming
generation of academics is the fellowship program promoting the research
activities of young German scientists abroad and young foreigners working in
Germany by awa1rding doctoral grants to graduate students.
We are particularly concerned to support international contacts of young
scientist as early as possible. Those contacts may influence the career of the
participants involved with long-lasting effects. Other programs of the
foundation support the bilateral discussion and co-operation between German
scientists and scientists from Russia and from Vietnam. Additional information
about the Foundation’s programs are available at the information desk outside in
the lobby.
Today, this conference offers the opportunity to discuss the results of the
Ladenburg Collegium "Organizational Learning in Various Environmental
Conditions" in close contact with members of the group and with distinguished
experts in this field. I would like to take this opportunity to acknowledge, on
behalf of the Gottlieb Daimler and Karl Benz Foundation, the central role of the
head of the Collegium, Prof. Dierkes, in assembling distinguished scientists to
form such an outstanding group.
I would also like to thank the editors of the "Handbook on Organizational
Learning and Knowledge", Professors Dierkes, Antal, Child, and Nonaka, as well
as the authors for their tremendous efforts and the members of the collegium for
their contributions.
This conference marks the end of a long and intense co-operation. However, I
am positive that this conference will not be the end of the close relations
grown between the members of the collegium and the Foundation. I hope, that this
conference will give the audience an impressive insight in the results of this
co-operation. I wish you two very interesting and challenging days here in
Berlin.
Now, I would like to hand over the microphone to Professor Dierkes to give
his lecture on "Diverse Networks as Drivers of our Learning on Organizational
Learning and Knowledge". Then Professor Ariane Berthoin Antal will guide us
through the conference. She is head of the group on "Organizational Learning"
within the "Research Unit Organization and Technology" of the Social Science
Research Center and Professor at the Technological University of Berlin and
Henley Management College. She participated in the Ladenburg Collegium from the
very beginning so many of you know her research well. She will introduce the
plenary speakers and the workshops today and tomorrow.
