Learning and Organizational Memory

Abstract

Knowledge and learning have a mutual cognitive dimension, both of which are intricately intertwined and assessed relative to the need for action. According to Deway (1933), all learning is a continuous process of discovering insights, inventing new possibilities for action, producing the actions and observing the consequences leading to insights. According to autopoietic epistemology, learning thus involves the actions of using existing insight or knowledge to produce new insight or knowledge. In a similar way, according to the HCM, there exist previously acquired experiences and competences in the worldview that form the basis for acquiring new insights and knowledge from the situation — e.g. from a project. The worldview then functions as a kind of ‘melting pot’, in which learning proceeds on the basis of old and new ‘material’ — i.e. skills, competences and knowledge.