The Importance for European Integration for Knowledge Creation

No century in human history has experienced so many social transformations and, for that matter, such radical ones as the twentieth century. The consequently inevitable evolution of competitive conditions in many markets and the globalisation trends result in the need for a new conceptualisation of both knowledge and organisational learning as a whole. The latter concept has become very popular over the past decade within the field of organisational research. The learning processes that do take place are highly complex and become even more complicated when considering multi-national companies confronted by different cultures. Within the European Union it is common practise for companies of all shapes and sizes to operate in such an environment. Therefore, the impact of cultural factors on organisational learning become highly important and should receive added consideration. In this paper we take a first step towards discussing the possibilities, which present themselves to companies that acknowledge the importance of cultural difference for the knowledge creation process. These differences should not be seen as problems for learning but as possible enhancers, as European integration works towards affording human individuals with different backgrounds the possibility of sharing experiences with one another and, therefore, creating the shared mental models that enable effective knowledge creation to take place. This paper discusses modern subjectivist approaches within the field of knowledge management and its practical application in companies. The aim of the article is to contribute to a clearer understanding of what challenges individuals and organisations currently face.