Learning Capabilities and Organisational Learning – the Strategic Role of Information Systems in the Knowledge Economy

Resumo

The present work aims at illustrating the role of information technology in general and of information systems in particular (Martin & Powell, 1992; Daniels, 1994; Mankin et al, 1996) in the process of organisational innovation. Two distinct frameworks are used, both being extensively based in information and communication technology and linking the human with the technical aspects of information systems: learning regions (Charles et al, 1999) and learning organisations (Pedler et al, 1989/91; Nadler et al, 1992; Senge, 1990/98/99; Askew et al, 1998; Hofstede, 1994). Some learning theories are briefly described (Sherry, 1996; Seamans, 1990; Streibel, 1991; Savery & Duffy, 1995; Askew & Carnell, 1998) and the semiotics model of organisational morphology (Kecheng, Stamper and Huang, 1997) is presented as the theoretical foundation of this study. The idea is to identify common patterns of behaviour and similar rationales for organisational innovation, when analysed from different perspectives, ranging from an individual and personal level, to teams, organisations, sectors and regions. At regional level, the higher degree of complexity considered, there are common aspects that link the learning organisation’s ideals to the learning region concept. The information era and the knowledge economy paradigm (Kearmally, 1999; Dowrick, 1995) are referred as taking an holistic and systemic approach that is, itself, the justification for the broad perspective taken in this particular study. The interpretation of an organisation as an information system, that is characteristic of the semiotics framework (Stamper, 1985), stresses the need to avoid the technical bias of usual information systems analysis and design. The richness, ambiguity and complexity of human organisations must not be ignored and the referred morphology model presents a technique to evaluate both human and computational issues of information system design. Finally, knowledge and knowledge management, as the new paradigms of today’s society (Kearmally, 1999; Dowrick, 1995), is one way of explaining why the human aspects of information systems are so difficult to tackle.