Organizational Memory: an Approach from Knowledge Management and Quality Management of Organizational Learning Perspectives

The recognition of the fact that, as of late, knowledge represents one of the most important assets of an organization, decisively influencing its competitiveness, has led to some comprehensive approaches of organizational memory. The organizational memory and the organizational learning capacity are the main sources for a competitive edge, so the main challenge is to effectively manage knowledge while maintaining the quality of formation services. The scientific investigation of literature (Crosby, 1979; Deming, 1982; Juran, 1990; Barcet and Bonamy, 1994; Barnabé, 1997; Bouchard and Plante, 2002; Demeuse and Strauven, 2006) specific to the area of management of services related to organizational learning, reveals the orientation of research, based on: (a) conformity between delivered services and the demanded characteristics or specifications; (b) meeting client’s needs; (c) studying the existing adequacy between result and what had been announced, foreseen or promised; (d) improving overall functioning of the organization by defining and implementing of a quality project, one that will involve the whole necessary staff for satisfying the needs of the learners. This paper will present: (1) contributions to a coherent point of view regarding the organizational memory from the perspective of the principles of quality management of services associated to organizational learning and based upon Knowledge Management; (2) the analysis of the main quality models that may be employed in organizational learning related services; (3) a study regarding the perception of successful organizational factors in the field of Knowledge Management-based training services amongst Romanian companies and institutions.