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Dissertation Information for Glenn Marchi

NAME:
- Glenn Marchi

DEGREE:
- Ph.D.

DISCIPLINE:
- Library and Information Science

SCHOOL:
- SUNY, Albany (USA) (1999)

ADVISORS:
- Salvatore Belardo

COMMITTEE MEMBERS:
- Neil Vincent Murray
- Peter Seagle

MPACT Status: Fully Complete

Title: The role of the Internet in learning organizations

Abstract: The purpose of this exploratory study is to determine how learning organizations use the Internet, and to what extent their use differs from non-learning organizations. The basic definition of a learning organization is one that is continually expanding its capacity to create its future.

Existing literature postulates that learning is critical to an organization's success because in our rapidly expanding knowledge economy, learning is at the heart of all productivity, innovation, and competitiveness. The Internet with its myriad capabilities--e-mail, database searching, file transfer, newsgroup discussions, distance learning--may be the perfect venue to facilitate organizational learning.

This study tests the effect of learning organization characteristics on Internet use. The theory being tested is that organizations with a higher degree of learning organization characteristics (e.g., leadership, culture, structures and processes, and managing people as assets) tend to use the Internet more extensively per capita, and use the Internet in different ways. For example, learning organizations may be more likely to use Internet tools such as newsgroup discussions, distance learning, and data mining.

The subjects for this study include 1,000 U.S. organizations that have IT functions. There are 103 senior IT managers who completed the survey instrument by mail, Internet, or fax. The survey includes inquiries about company demographics, Internet usage, and learning organizations. The learning organization portion was constructed from previously tested instruments. These instruments identify learning organization characteristics designed around core learning disciplines. Finally, 30 telephone interviews were conducted after the survey to ensure non-bias between survey respondents and non-respondents.

Results show that learning organizations use the Internet to a greater extent than non-learning organizations. Learning organizations also use Internet tools differently than non-learning organizations. Internet tools that were used differently by learning organizations include online services, web browsers, multimedia, entertainment, push technologies, e-mail, WWW, home pages/web sites, search engines, data mining, newsgroups, chat rooms, intranets, GroupWare, e-business, and business applications.

By implication, practitioners can develop strategies for building learning capability supported by various Internet tools. Recommendation for future research may include studies to determine whether learning organizations using the Internet are more successful than non-learning organizations.

MPACT Scores for Glenn Marchi

A = 0
C = 0
A+C = 0
T = 0
G = 0
W = 0
TD = 0
TA = 0
calculated 2008-01-31 06:13:18

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