Appreciating the strategic importance of learning and knowledge in organizations, the realm of organizational learning and knowledge management receive growing scholarly attention. Unfortunately, there is a lot of confusion in the use of the terms "organizational learning" and "knowledge management". This article attempts to make a clearer understanding of how knowledge management activities impact organizational learning and performance outcomes. Drawing upon the resource-based theory, we hypothesize that knowledge management activities will help build up organizational learning capability, which in turn will affect organizational performance. Results from two independent samples provide clear support to our hypotheses. Implications for management researchers and practitioners are also discussed.

Recent studies have provided consistent support that successful organizational learning (OL) enhances organizational effectiveness and competitiveness (e.g., Anderson and Boocock 2002; Englehardt and Simmons 2002; Khandekar and Sharma 2006; Pemberton, Stonehouse and Yarrow 2001; Yeo 2005). In order to remain competitive in today's global knowledge-based economy, organizations are increasingly moving towards management policies or practices that promote OL (Gomez, Lorente and Cabrera 2004; Hwang 2003; Pham and Swierczek 2006). Garvin (1998) summarizes the literature from various disciplines and concludes that OL is essential to organizational health and survival, which involves the creation and acquisition of new knowledge. It is argued that knowledge management (KM) has intertwined relationship with OL (Huber 1991; Sharma 2003; Vera and Crossan 2003; Zhang and Faerman 2003; Yang 2007).

While authors in the literature accept such a close relationship, there exist a few empirical studies to explore the link between these two separate, yet overlapping, streams of study. How strategic KM practices can be employed to facilitate OL and how this learning capability is eventually related to organizational performance are the focuses of this study. Unfortunately, the terms OL and KM have been used quite differently in the literature by researchers and there is a need for clarification. In the following discussion, we first summarize the literature on OL and propose to use a new construct, i.e., organizational learning capability (OLC) as a particular type of organizational capability resulted from OL. Drawing on the resource-based view of the firm, the presence of this type of learning capability as one of the intangible resources might lead to better organizational competitiveness and performance.

We then summarize the literature on KM and propose to use a new construct, i.e., knowledge management activities (KMA) as a set of interrelated activities or practices concerning the acquisition, documentation, transfer, creation and application of knowledge. Hypotheses concerning the role of these activities on building up OLC and their impact on organizational performance are developed. Two empirical studies testing the relationships among KMA, OLC and organizational performance are reported. Finally, limitations and implications for the literature on KM and OL as well as future research are also discussed.

Effective Executive Magazine, Organizational Learning Capability, OLC, Knowledge Management, Management Researchers, Knowledge Management Activities, KMA, management policies, Organizational learning, Change Management, Human Resource Development, Rganizational Performance, Regression Analysis.