Page 89 - Crossing Cultural Boundaries - Cees den Teuling

In this research, the following definition of ACAP is considered. “ACAP is a set of organisational routines and processes by which firms acquire, assimilate, transform, and exploit knowledge to produce a dynamic organisational capability” (Zahra & George, 2002, p. 186). According to Revans (1982,1984, 1991), practical learning as an AL is a sequence of activities, logically connected and executed, followed in the order of: Analysis, Development, Procurement, Assembly, Implementation and Review. The primary idea of this AL approach is to learn dealing with existing and actual managerial problems from a real environment, to share with fellow managers and to learn from their mutual experiences and learning capacities. According to the author, the re- interpretation of past experiences requests less pressure on behavioural change attitude than in the situation of the acceptance of new knowledge. Overcoming defensive reasoning is asking for leaving the comfort zone. Managers, in AL subsets, are supported and inspired by their peers and equals, such as fellow-managers, in reflections with others, in a supportive and trustful environment, to achieve a personal change. If the learning process is shown in more explicit detail, the entrepreneur/manager will realize how daily experience benefits from problem-solving through the implementation of latent available tacit knowledge in an AL set of managers.
Learning by organisations, as argued by Senge (1990), is based on the capacity to recognise and to be able to react to upcoming and impeding threats and opportunities. Having a pro-active state-of-mind is an unconditional pre-requisite, to be able to avoid “learning disabilities” and to be open-minded to see and accept new ideas and implementations. The author describes five core disciplines (Systems thinking, Personal mastery, Mental models, Shared vision and Team learning), which are connected in a framework so that to be able to see interrelationships and changing patterns instead of single subjects. The “Fifth Discipline” (Team learning) should integrate and combines the five core disciplines, to reach the level of synergy. The four dimensions (Acquisition, Assimilation, Transformation and Exploitation) are closely related and have their influence on the organisation’s strategic choices, as stated by Zahra and George (2002). As far as acquisition is concerned, the organisation’s capabilities are determining the speed and/or quality of the external knowledge to be acquired, in which different areas of expertise, existent within the organisation are able to acquire external knowledge. Externally obtained resources should be assimilated through the organisations processes and capabilities, to be able to analyse, to understand and to evaluate the acquired knowledge. However, in a number of cases the knowledge
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