Int. J. Innovation and Learning, Vol. 2, No. 3, 2005 261 Copyright © 2005 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd. A framework for building a learning organisation in the 21st century Sushil K. Sharma* Department of Information Systems and Operations Management, Ball State University, Muncie, IN 47306, USA E-mail: ssharma@bsu.edu *Corresponding author Jatinder N.D. Gupta The University of Alabama in Huntsville, Huntsville, AL 35899, USA E-mail: guptaj@uah.edu Nilmini Wickramasinghe Computer & Information Science Department, James J. Nance College of Business Administration, Cleveland State University, Cleveland, OH 44114, USA E-mail: n.wickramasinghe@csuohio.edu Abstract: The concept of the learning organisation that strives continually to develop its people and processes is now accepted by many as a competitive necessity in today’s business environment (Drucker, 1999; Davenport and Prusak, 1998). Organisations are increasingly being challenged to leverage learning, as it has been widely articulated that knowledge creation and continuous learning at the individual, team, and organisational levels may be the only source of sustainable competitive advantage. Organisations of the future will not be able to expand into new markets and win market share unless they have a coherent framework (technologies, people, processes and methodologies) to systematically and effectively use their past knowledge to gain a competitive advantage. Many organisations claim that they have initiated measures to convert their organisations from a traditional model to the learning model. However, we believe critical knowledge gaps exist in understanding of how to exploit technologies to create a suitable framework for a learning organisation. This paper attempts to address this apparent void. Our framework sets up guidelines for the building of learning organisations. Keywords: learning organisations; knowledge management; evolving organisations and organisational memory. Reference to this paper should be made as follows: Sharma, S.K., Gupta, J.N.D. and Wickramasinghe, N. (2005) ‘A framework for building a learning organisation in the 21st century’, Int. J. Innovation and Learning, Vol. 2, No. 3, pp.261–273.