How Measuring Learning May Limit New Knowledge Creation

This paper demonstrates that the desire found within many organizations to measure the learning being undertaken can undermine the ability to develop new knowledge. The reasons for this are cited as the potential impact of mental models as closing mechanisms, coupled with the likely affect that this will have upon the dominant coalition. This propensity is seen to become more likely because of the way that organizations routinely support learning via targets, appraisals and objective setting which will all be framed from within the current mental models. The paper concludes by considering future ways of measuring that might not close down knowledge development, but might even encourage it. The most important implication of this research is that the more passionate an organization is about knowledge development, the more it may prevent or adversely affect it because of the way that it monitors its own performance