Proposed paper for "Debating the Knowledge-Based Economy"
The Learning Organisation - now with Quality Assurance
The paper is intended to contribute to a conversation so could be amended as part of a workshop. The aim is to explore links between ideas around quality assurance and management learning. It may seem obvious that such a connection exists so some attention will be paid to the blocks that prevent this. The interest came from working on an ISO 9000 system in the printing industry where the issue came up as to whether people learn anything from corrective action meetings or system review. It might seem that 'management learning' would be relevant in this situation but one block is that academics regard anything to do with quality with suspicion or hostility.
The idea of a 'learning organisation' seems to have been dropped by academics in favour of 'leadership', a more personal focus with even less connection to formal organisation. Connecting with quality assurance could demonstrate how a learning organisation would be effective. As described by Senge there is a link back to Deming and 'the New Economics'.
This is relevant to the Knowledge Economy as there have been recent changes in technology making it possible to imagine a flexible system for documentation available for any process. This is just a way to describe something happening anyway, not necessarily an imposition of quality ideas.
British Origins of Anti-Performativity
One of the blocks is an approach based mostly on analysing something like 'quality' as language on the assumption that it disguises something else. A sentence such as "The Knowledge-Based Economy (KBE) conjures a world of smart people, in smart jobs, doing smart things, in smart ways, for smart money, increasingly open to all rather than a few. It has become the dominant economic strategy for many countries, regions, and cities and is endorsed by many economic, political, and social forces." may mean that KBE is the latest version of neo-liberal propaganda. It could be doubted that anything 'managerial' would ever appeal to academics in a tradition where vocational knowledge is only recently accepted as part of the scope.
Web site as an example of a system
One version of reality is that the web is reaching a wider range of people with access to knowledge. There is 'divide' and 'exclusion' deriving from knowledge claims made by academics who object to the content that is available for free. The 'intellectual commons' is no less available through open source than through access to university libraries.
I currently send reports to OhmyNews a 'citizen journalism' site based in South Korea. There are some strong claims being made but they can be shown to be based on realism. ( It has to be admitted that some claims in the UK seem to be rhetoric)
In a workshop context it may be useful to look at a site such as m@n@gement asking questions about how it works as a learning resource or organisation and how ideas about quality may contribute something.
Deming W.E. , The New Economics , MIT 94
Kim T and Lee S. and Lee Y. , Media Big Bang, Communication Books 05
Wilkinson A. and Willmott H.. Making Quality Critical, Routledge 95
