Organisational memory and learning network organisation: the case of Finnish labour protection inspectors

The paper studies the relationship between organisational memory, team work and organisational learning. A development project carried out by a Finnish labour protection office during 1988-1992 is taken as a case study. During the development project the labour protection inspectors radically changed their work orientation and practices. At the same time as creating a new way of working the inspectors also developed a new computer tool, which has several “memory” functions. The most important function of the new instrument is the representation of the common object of work of an inspection team. Expansive transition from individual work to team work became possible only after the group of inspectors had begun to work out this common instrument and to analyse a broad problem area using the new instrument