Organizational Learning, Knowledge Management and Continous Improvement a Case of General Motors East Africa

Abstract

In an ever changing environment, efficiency and effectiveness in information processing is not enough, the company needs to invest in creation of information and knowledge. Analysis of an organisation on its capability to learning and managing knowledge and the end effect that it will have on the continuous improvement of the organisation is vital in determining the capacity of the organization to adapt to the ever changing business environment. The research objective was to establish the effect of organizational learning, knowledge management on continuous improvement of General Motors. The study used primary source of data that was collected by a process of self-administered questionnaires and the data analysis was through the use of mean and standard deviations while presentations was done using tables, pie charts and percentages. The findings of the study were that for effective organizational learning, there is need for collaboration among different departments and groups of staff in an organization. This is required to develop synergy between different resources groups in an organization and that the organization should come up with appropriate performance management systems, establish autonomy and freedom of different staff and sections within the organization and at the same time establish an effective reward and recognition system. The firm was found to appreciate the process of fostering knowledge creation and support the development of a knowledge management system in the organization. In addition, the creation of customer value, is considered as a core objective of knowledge management system. The organizations’ employees have the responsibility to ensure that they learn how to meet customer expectation. The research concludes that a firm’s ability to continuously improve its services and products is a major source of competitive advantage and just as any critical endeavor in organizations; its key success factor is reliant on the capacity of the involved managers and/or employees that would facilitate a useful use of the internal tools and/or techniques to ensure a sustainable competitive advantage for the firm in an ever changing business environment. The recommendations are that to realize effectively the organizations learning process, the top management support is paramount and therefore all managers should consider supporting fully the process.