In order to remain competitive and survive, organisations must anticipate and seek feedback about the changes that occur in their business environment. The centrality of the relationship between the organisation and its environment has placed learning processes not only on the agenda of academics and researchers, but also on the business agenda of practising managers. In this paper, we will argue that “knowledge” and “learning” are considered central to success in today’s complex environment. In this paper we are exploring “knowledge as process” and how we build knowledge as a strategic resource. Drawing on the practical experiences in a mid-sized service organisation, we will describe how this organisation has instigated a change program aimed at knowledge-accumulation through learning and offer a conceptualisation of knowledge management as a dynamic resource accumulation system. In this conceptualisation, appropriate learning and innovation systems supporting a series of productive conversations and dialogues feed the knowledge accumulation process. These ‘conversation-based learning’ processes are indicative of the wide range of approaches necessary to facilitated learning that are outside traditional organizational innovation processes. It is this organisation’s experience that these innovations are part of creating a learningful culture that stresses the importance of the interdependency between an organisation and its members.

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Keywords

• knowledge management
• learning
• knowledge resources
• conversation-based learning

(30 min. Conference Paper, English)