Creating a Culture of Learning and Knowledge Sharing in Libraries and Information Services

Abstract

Organizations have focused over the last two decades on finding a solution which could help them achieve success in a society dominated by changes that maintain and enhance competition permanently. The solution identified by organizations is represented by a new managerial process that concentrates on the most valuable resource currently available to them, namely the knowledge held both at the level of the employees individually and of the processes and practices specific to each organization. Implementation of knowledge management process is largely seen as a critical element in contemporary organizations which will enable and facilitate their survival and success, preservation of their position on the market, and growth of their performance. Awareness of the importance which knowledge resources have concerning the performance of organizations has led to structural changes and massive investment for implementing knowledge management in organizations. Any discussion and any initiative in this regard involves the recognition of the need to make significant changes at organizational level that refer to the transformation of the way organizations relate to competition, to change and how they act in order to meet the challenges of society. Any knowledge management approach should consider hence that key element enabling organizations to adapt continuously to the changing environment, namely learning. This plays a leading role in transforming organizations and therefore in the implementation of knowledge management, and from there to the discussion on the need for their transformation into learning organizations is only one step. Competitive advantage, which is often mentioned in literature, is based on the knowledge resources and the learning capacity of organizations (Argyris & Schon as cited in Tschaitschian et al., 2000; Prusak, 1996). It depends according to analysts on the organization's ability to acquire knowledge assets by planning and facilitating organizational learning (Pucik, 1996) which leads to the development, consolidation and growth of these resources, both through internal actions and collaborations, alliances, and partnerships with other organizations. Knowledge sharing too contributes to increasing competitive advantage (Teece, 2002) because value creation is based not only on the possession of knowledge and other assets, but also on the ability to transfer, assimilate, and combine knowledge and other assets. Knowledge resources as such, their collecting, storage, processing and organization, but also learning as a simple process do not guarantee organizations they will obtain performance in