Editing Organizational learning (section)

=== Developing organizational memory ===
Organizations need to have an organizational memory, a documentation of their milestone events. That documentation needs to be accessible for all involved to have the ability to learn as an organization.<ref name=DALKIR-K-2011/>{{rp| 365}} Because organizations have a routine of forgetting what they have done in the past and why, organizational memory systems should be created to make the knowledge explicit so that the transparency, coordination and communication in the organizations increase and it becomes possible to learn from past mistakes.<ref name=DALKIR-K-2011/>{{rp| 372–373}} OL grows through processes but the essential material is individual's memory, culture and experience. Individual learning is the first level in OL. Transfer process to OL is synthesized by "what people learn (know-what) and how they understand and apply this learning (know-how).<ref>{{cite book | doi = 10.1016/b978-0-7506-9850-4.50006-3 | chapter=The Link between Individual and Organizational Learning | year=1998 | title=The Strategic Management of Intellectual Capital | pages=41–62| last1=Kim | first1=D. | isbn=9780750698504 }}</ref> While learning is the know-how, memory could be perceived as a storage area. Memory plays an active role in a learning process. In a transfer mechanism, mental models are an excellent way to share knowledge and to make it independent from individuals.

Organizational memory is an agglomerate of individual's memory, composed by data, information and knowledge. For those three levels of learning, five retention facilities are available:<ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Walsh | first1 = James P. |author1-link= James P. Walsh | last2 = Ungson | first2 = Gerardo Rivera | year = 1991 | title = Organizational Memory | journal = The Academy of Management Review | volume = 16 | issue = 1| pages = 57–91 | doi = 10.2307/258607 | jstor = 258607 }}</ref>

* Individuals, with their own memory capacity and experience  
* Culture, perceived and thought experience transmitted to the members of the organization. Language is a cultural information transmitted repeatedly 
* Transformation, the logic and repeated continuation of actions transforming an input into an output  
* Structure, link between an individual and its role in the organization 
* External archives, information retailed by sources outside the organization about its past.

The big deal of organizational memory is its availability to be used and re-used. It could represent a competitive advantage but its value is often underestimated because of the complexity to calculate it, even though sometimes employee's, customer's, supplier's, capital's and top management's memory values are budgeted.<ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Wijnhoven | first1 = F | year = 1999 | title = Development Scenarios for Organizational Memory Information Systems | journal = Journal of Management Information Systems | volume = 16 | issue = 1| pages = 121–146 | doi = 10.1080/07421222.1999.11518236 }}</ref>

Organization's memory needs technological solutions on its side. Technology is often associated with information or communication technology (IT) which relates to different software solutions that support the organization's memory and ease the transfer of knowledge 
.<ref name=ABDULAZIZ-A-2004>{{cite journal | last1 = Abdulaziz Al-Tameem | first1 = A | year = 2004 | title = An inhibiting context hampering role of information technology as an enabler in organizational learning | journal = The Journal of Computer Information Systems | volume = 44 | issue = 4| pages = 34–40 }}</ref> Technology can be a barrier if it is not accepted or there is not enough understanding of new technologies. Technology can open for example new ways of communicating, but it is different to find a shared acceptance for its utilization.<ref name=ARDICHVILI-A-2008>{{cite journal | last1 = Ardichvili | first1 = Alexandre | year = 2008 | title = Learning and Knowledge Sharing in Virtual Communities of Practice: Motivators, Barriers, and Enablers | journal = [[Advances in Developing Human Resources]] | volume = 10 | issue = 4| pages = 541–554 | doi = 10.1177/1523422308319536 | s2cid = 143487366 }}</ref>{{rp| 550}}

IT is an enabler for codifying and distributing data and information as well as both tacit and explicit knowledge.<ref name=ABDULAZIZ-A-2004/> A. Abdulaziz Al-Tameem also states that the interaction between humans and IT enhances OL. Different repositories are used within organization to store corporate knowledge as an extension for the memory. Maintaining organizational memory is enabler for efficient and effective processes and routines but most of all for profitable business.<ref name=ABDULAZIZ-A-2004/> Traditionally, IT was regarded solely as a tool to support human learning. In contrast, with the advent of machine learning in organizations, IT based on machine learning algorithms is now viewed as a further type of organizational learner that learns side-by-side along human learners and can offer its own contributions to organizational learning. To this end, today's organizations form complex systems of interrelated human and machine learning that requires coordination and rises a wide range of new managerial issues.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Sturm|first1=Timo|last2=Gerlach|first2=Jin P.|last3=Pumplun|first3=Luisa|last4=Mesbah|first4=Neda|last5=Peters|first5=Felix|last6=Tauchert|first6=Christoph|last7=Nan|first7=Ning|last8=Buxmann|first8=Peter|title=Coordinating Human and Machine Learning for Effective Organizational Learning|url=https://misq.org/coordinating-human-and-machine-learning-for-effective-organizational-learning.html|journal=MIS Quarterly|volume=45|issue=3|pages=1581–1602|doi=10.25300/MISQ/2021/16543|s2cid=238222756 }}</ref>