2. A LEARNING APPROACH TO MANAGING THE TEChNOLOGICAL CHANGE PROCESS
An understanding of the issues that contribute to
the successful implementation of technology into an
organization is complex. The literature does not offer
a tool for exploring these processes. The technology
literature recognizes the organizational issues for
implementation of new technology and the importance
of innovation but it does not address adequately
the linkages to creativity and learning. The organizational
literature characterizes the socially constructed
nature of the organization and recognizes the changes
within it as being manifested in the organizational
culture but rarely addresses questions related to technology.
Culture is established as being a creative process
that may be explored through the processes of
innovation. Linking these processes has resulted in
the development of a knowledge transfer model for
use as a framework for exploring the organizational processes. It conceptualizes the processes of organizational
learning by exploring the attitudes, behaviours
and activities of members of the organization as exhibited
by the culture of the organization. Contigent
upon this model is the notion of feedback that enables
the learning process to be creative.
The framework illustrated in Fig. 1 was constructed
directly from a critique and synthesis of the literature
and embodied the current thinking on organizational
learning. It followed the proposal that a model for
technology change for the 21 st century must employ
the processes of knowledge transfer throughout the
organization. It accepted the notion of the learning
organization on the basis that an organization that is
receptive and that enables learning to occur is better
able continuously to develop and change, to react to
internal and external effects and to achieve competitive
success. Such a model may be described as a
paradigm for a learning organization (Bessant et al.,
1992). Recent studies suggest that the key to success
for an organization is embodied in its ability to
implement and appropriate new technology
(Willmann, 1991). The answer to how this might be
achieved is described in terms of the knowledge transfer
capability within the organization. This argument
is developed by Cohen and Levinthal (1990), who
suggest that knowledge transfer is a critical factor in
the ability of a firm to innovate. What is being
described here is the capacity of the firm to recognize
the value of internal and external information and to
use it for commercial ends. This process is defined
by Seaton and Cordey-Hayes (1993) and Trott (1993)
as the concept of receptivity: the ability that the
organization has which enables it to take advantage
of this knowledge. If innovation and the introduction
of new technologies are seen to be an organizational
issue where management and organizational processes
are deterministic in achieving success, then the
emphasis moves away from the technology and must
begin to focus on the organization itself and the way
in which organizational behaviour may be understood.