Information technology support for the learning organisation

Laurence Brooks

Helen Webb

pp. 217-229

in: Trevor Wood Harper, Nimal Jayaratna, Bob Wood (eds), Methodologies for developing and managing emerging technology based information systems, Berlin, Springer, 1999

Abstract

This paper investigates the role of information technology (IT) tools within the Learning Organisation (LO). While there is some support for the increase in popularity of LOs among researchers and within the business community, there has been little investigation into how IT tools can be used to increase the effectiveness of the LO principles. Given the size of annual investment in IT by these organisations, this is a surprising outcome. However, as the concepts of the LO are becoming more widespread and accepted, researchers are realising the importance of the links with IT tools and are beginning to examine them more closely.Although current IT tools could support the LO principles, there are few that have been developed specifically for this purpose. This paper shows that there appears to be a lack of conclusive evidence that more developed LO's are using more IT tools to support the LO principles. However there may be some interesting trends developing.