Organisational Ability : Constituents and Congruencies

• During recent years there has been an upsurge of interest in knowledge management and organisational learning. But why focus on a subject that, at some level, has been around since the pre-Socratic philosophers? The answer to the question is manifold. One explanation is that knowledge and improvement of knowledge is considered to be crucial for the performance and development of organisations. It is also argued that in our contemporary society knowledge is an important asset in order to reach sustainable competitive advantage (see for example Drucker, 1993; Nonaka and Takeuchi, 1995; Quintas, Lefrere and Jones, 1997; Davenport and Prusak, 1998). One question of concern is what are the implications of seeing knowledge as an organisational asset? When comparing intangible assets, such as knowledge, with tangible assets, such as machines or land, they can hardly be treated as having the same properties. Another question is: how should we relate knowledge to the organisation’s total ability to perform actions and deliver value to its customers? Is knowledge the only constituent of organisational ability or are there other inherent parts? The purpose of this chapter is to investigate these questions and thereby develop the notion of organisational ability In order to do this the chapter begins by looking at some theories around the area of interest.

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TECHNOLOGY

TEKNIKVETENSKAP

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