Knowledge management and learning in the organizational context

Abstract

In the last decades, learning and knowledge have become key success factors for international competitiveness with the result that intangible and immaterial resources have overtaken physical and tangible assets in order of importance. The introduction of knowledge management (KM) practices and initiatives has provided companies with new opportunities to maximize the value of the knowledge they possess. It has helped as well to increase their capacity to learn and adapt quicker to the environment and to react pro-actively to the changes, performing better than competitors. Learning easier and faster has become one of the key challenges in this new context, putting a special accent on knowledge acquisition, on the speed of reaction and the application of the newly acquired competences and skills. The process of learning now is centered on acquiring new practical oriented skills. Knowledge workers are expected to devote efforts to continuously up-date their qualification, skills and knowledge, manifesting new and better ideas, resulting in better decision making. The only limited resource now is the time – time for learning and for adaptation to the constant changes. The present paper focuses on KM and learning in organizations. It introduces the concepts of tacit and explicit knowledge, considers organizational learning and knowledge workers specifics. In the centre of the paper are the issues of complementarity between KM and learning. The integrity between KM and e-learning is highlighted on the bases of case-study research of KM technologies usage in companies.