Enabling Technologies for Organizational Learning Cisl Wp# 93-05 Chapter 2: Organizational Learning in Networked Organizations ....... 8

Networked organizations are becoming a trend particularly for globalization strategies. The organization's resources and capabilities are extended by a network of suppliers, customers and partners. Internal and external relationships have to be connected with the organization by means of effective communication media and synergistic work processes. To sustain their competitive advantage, networked organizations have to learn continuously. They have to become learning organizations. Organizational learning is more than just the collective sum of individual learning within an organization. Learning enhances the capacity of the organization to adapt and innovate across all of the units along the entire value chain. Much of organizational learning takes place through experience. This experiential learning is formalized in the Problem-oriented learning cycle which is a four-stage cyclic process : doing, reflecting, thinking, deciding and (re)doing. Learning processes can be classified as single loop or adaptive learning for improvement, double loop or generative learning for renewal, and triple loop learning for development. Finally, learning is underpinned by the five disciplines defined by Peter Senge : personal mastery, mental models, team learning, shared vision, and systems thinking. Information technology, an essential fixture in any modern organizational infrastructure, provides an almost ubiquitous setting for learning. Electronic mail is becoming an almost omnipresent communication medium linking workers around the world with round-the-clock messaging capability. Groupware, particularly workflow automation, impacts organizational behavior and culture through its implementation. Information infrastructure planning provides a common platform for cross-disciplinary cooperation in building a shared vision. The goal of this thesis is to examine how using, implementing, and planning for, information technology provide opportunities for learning, what are involved in the learning process and how impediments to learning may be overcome. Thesis Supervisor : Professor Stuart E. Madnick Title : John Norris Maguire Professor of Information Technology