Corporate Literacy: Discovering the Senses of the Organisation

Citation

Calvert, P. (2008), "Corporate Literacy: Discovering the Senses of the Organisation", The Electronic Library, Vol. 26 No. 1, pp. 132-133. https://doi.org/10.1108/02640470810851815

Just what is corporate literacy? In this author's view it is the combination of a set of skills with the information flows across the organisation that have been implemented to achieve strategic goals. This already sets the definition apart from many others because here literacy is more than just the skills. The concept of “information flows” introduces information architecture into the definition. Later the organisational culture is also discussed, which is yet another dimension, and in describing the importance of culture the author says that the organisation could “know” more than all the individuals in the organisation collected together, though for the great majority of organisations, this will not yet be the case. To develop corporate literacy, the argument goes that we should be aware of the “senses” of the organisation and look to make them more effective, just as we do with ourselves, and one reason is that not all the information the organisation needs will be immediately visible.

The process of creating organisational literacy has four sectors. The first is the use of strategy, for as with all things, strategic alignment is essential for the survival of the project. The second sector is the use of channels that become known to us by use of the corporate senses – in simple terms, this is environmental scanning, but it is really more than just that. The third sector is information architecture through which the information flows. This section is very interesting and could be read separately to the rest of the book. The fourth sector is the method of operation, such as information sharing and the creation of new attitudes to knowledge.

What I was struck by while reading this book was the similarity of the ideas presented here with the idea of the Learning Organisation first written about by Senge (1990). This new book could perhaps be read to complement Senge. It is mainly theoretical in nature and the readership will be those in the role of developing organisational culture, knowledge management, and perhaps LIS faculty.