Learning management systems: A new opportunity

In an intensely competitive, rapidly evolving, and increasingly knowledge based IT sector, the ability to learn becomes critical to the success of IT organizations. In today's knowledge economy, a firm's intellectual capital represents the only sustainable source of competitive advantage. This intellectual capital manifests itself, predominantly, in the form of both the individual and the collective competencies of employees within an organization. The knowledge management approach which seeks to facilitate the sharing and integration of knowledge has had limited success, primarily because of its focus on 'knowledge as a resource' rather than on 'learning as a people process'. A strategic 'people-oriented' approach to the management of learning is now emerging in many organizations and this has, in turn, led to the appearance of a new breed of Information Systems (IS) known as 'Learning Management Systems' (LMS). Based on a case study of the implementation of an LMS by a major multinational IT enterprise, this paper proposes an empirically tested framework for 'learning in organizations' and highlights the roles that LMS can play in the continued commercial success of IT organizations.