Organizational learning and the organizational memory.
Schilling (1998) further contends, "learning engenders learning". In other words, as organizations invest in technology and learning, individuals "increase their future ability to assimilate knowledge". Thus, learning becomes a cumulative process whereby building a foundation of knowledge allows individuals to recognize valuable new knowledge and continue to build upon this knowledge. Moreover, by integrating an individual's knowledge with a shared organizational memory, the synergistic effect of this accumulated knowledge can build exponentially rather than linearly. This cumulative knowledge and improved ability to spot new, relevant knowledge can help a firm spot emerging consumer, competitor, supplier, and technology trends among other important environmental factors. In addition, within the organization, as individuals learn, they must move up a learning curve and use the collected knowledge synergistically for creative ideas and hopefully for improved innovation, problem-solving, or decision-making.
All of these issues have been addressed to some extent in the literature. However, the major issue we will focus on in this paper is a model of how an organization can effectively use their CKO in developing an organizational memory within an open systems framework to ultimately facilitate a sustainable competitive advantage. The model we propose is shown in Figure 1. In this model, we attempt to integrate theories associated with absorptive capacity, diffusion of innovations, and organizational memories with the roles and responsibilities of CKO's and other knowledge management professionals. The ultimate goal is to provide a framework that allows knowledge management professionals to implement effective and efficient knowledge sharing and management practices.