40 Learning Organization

Dr. Radha Kanwal Sharma

1. Learning Outcome

2. Introduction

3. Dimensions of learning organization

4. Six antecedents of learning organization

5. Characteristics of learning organization

6. Learning organization and leadership

7. Building blocks of learning organization

8. Essentials to create a culture that supports learning organization

9. Stages to learning organization

10. Summary

1. Learning Outcomes:

After completing this module the students will be able to:

·  Understand the concepts of the learning organization.

·  How a learning organization differs from other organizations

·  Building blocks of learning organizations

·  How to build a learning organization stepwise.

2. Introduction

Peter Senge defines the learning organizations as ‘ the organizations where people continually expand their capacity to create the results they truly desire, where new and expansive patterns of thinking are nurtured, where collective aspiration is set free, and where people are continually learning to see the whole together’. It is clear from the definition that a learning organization is dependent upon its human resources who learn and put the acquired knowledge into practice. It is also apparent that learning is enhanced when organizational culture is conducive, allows a person to take risk and experiment. Nancy Dixon also opines that the essence of organizational learning is the organization’s ability to use the amazing mental capacity of all its members to create the kind of processes that will improve its own.

The basic rationale for such organizations is that in situations of rapid change only those that are flexible, adaptive and productive will excel. For this to happen, it is argued, organizations need to ‘discover how to tap people’s commitment and capacity to learn at all levels.’

While all people have the capacity to learn, the structures in which they have to function are often not conducive to reflection and engagement. Furthermore, people may lack the tools and guiding ideas to make sense of the situations they face. Organizations that are continually expanding their capacity to create their future require a fundamental shift of mind among their members. For a ‘learning organization it is not enough to survive. ‘Survival learning’ or ‘adaptive learning’ is important. ‘Adaptive learning’ must be joined by ‘generative learning’, the learning that enhances the capacity to create’ (Senge 1990).

Chris Argyris has proposed two types of leaning for an organization:

1. Single – loop Learning

It involves improving the organization’s capacity to achieve known objectives. It is associated with routine and behavioral learning. Under single – loop, the organization learns without significant change in basic assumptions.

2. Double – loop Learning

It re-evaluates the nature of the organizations objective and the values and belief surrounding them. This type of learning involves changing of the organization’s culture.

Single – loop and double – loop learning organization have made a drastic change in the present times, in which adoptive learning, generally based on change in basic assumptions like cultural, value and structural change was introduced. The system faced several difficulties. This led to the need of more important generative learning. Generative learning (term coined by Senge) involves creativity and innovations. Generative process leads to a total reframing of an organization’s experiences and learning from that process.

2. Dimensions of the learning organizations

Based on the above factors, Senge proposed five dimensions of the learning organization:

1. Systems thinking: The idea of the learning organization developed from a body of work called systems thinking. This is a conceptual framework that allows people to study businesses as bounded objects. Learning organizations use this method of thinking when assessing their company and have information systems that measure the performance of the organization as a whole and of its various components. Systems thinking state that all the characteristics must be apparent at once in an organization for it to be a learning organization. If some of these characteristics are missing, the organization will fall short of its goal.

2. Personal mastery: The commitment by an individual to the process of learning is known as personal mastery. There is a competitive advantage for an organization whose workforce can learn more quickly than the workforce of other organizations. Individual learning is acquired through staff training, development and continuous self-improvement. However, learning cannot be forced upon an individual who is not receptive to learning. Research shows that most learning in the workplace is incidental, rather than the product of formal training; therefore it is important to develop a culture where personal mastery is practiced in daily life. A learning organization has been described as the sum of individual learning, but there must be mechanisms for individual learning to be transferred into organizational learning.

3.  Mental models: The assumptions held by individuals and organizations are called mental models. To become a learning organization, these models must be challenged. Individuals tend to promote theories, which are what they intend to follow, and theories-in-use, which are what they actually do. Similarly, organizations tend to have ‘memories’ which preserve certain behaviors, norms and values. In creating a learning environment it is important to replace confrontational attitudes with an open culture that promotes inquiry and trust. To achieve this, the learning organization needs mechanisms for locating and assessing organizational theories of action. Unwanted values need to be discarded. This process is called ‘unlearning.’

4.  Shared vision: The development of a shared vision is important to motivate the staff to learn, as it creates a common identity that provides focus and energy for learning. The most successful visions are built on the basis of individual visions of the employees at all levels of the organization. This creation of a shared vision can be hindered by traditional structures where the company vision is imposed from top. This is the reason that learning organizations tend to have flat, decentralized organizational structures

5.  Team learning: The accumulation of individual learning constitutes team learning. The benefit of team / shared learning is that staff grows more quickly and the problem solving capacity of the organization is improved through better access to knowledge and expertise. Learning organizations have structures that facilitate team learning with features such as boundary crossing and openness. Team learning requires individuals to engage in dialogue and discussion; therefore they must develop open communication, shared meaning, and shared understanding. Learning organizations typically have excellent knowledge management structures, allowing creation, acquisition, dissemination, and implementation of this knowledge in the organization.

3.  Six antecedents of learning organization

John Denton has described six antecedents which propels an organization to become a learning organization. Senge argued that to survive the dynamics of external environment, an organization must learn. Old, traditional bureaucratic command and control models are not good enough to withstand these challenges (because of red tapism and greater emphasis on means rather than on ends).An organization has to be fast enough to meet the new product development time of foreign competitors and to spot new market opportunities. Six antecedents that exist for a learning organization are:

1.      The shift in the relative importance of factors of production away from the capital towards labor, and towards

intellectual labor in particular;

2.      The increasing acceptance of knowledge as a prime source of competitive edge;

3.      The increasingly rapid pace of change in the business environment;

4.      Increasing dissatisfaction among managers and employees with the traditional command and control management

paradigms;

5.      The increasingly competitive nature of the global business environment and;

6.      The greater demand being placed on all businesses by their customers.

In addition to these, there are other factors that have driven the trend towards organizational learning, viz. environmental pressure to meet new demands, advances in information technology, outsourcing, temporary employment and flexible working. These factors play relatively small role but nonetheless, learning is the resultant response to all of these changes.

4. Characteristics of a Learning Organization

A learning organization possess an organizational culture that nurtures learning; processes that encourage interaction across boundaries(these are infrastructure, development and management processes); methods that aid individual and group learning (such as creativity and problem solving techniques) and provides skills and motivation to employees to learn and to adapt . Some of these characteristics are:

· Future and external orientation: These organizations develop understanding of their environment; senior teams focus to think about the future. There exists widespread use of external sources and related advisors e.g. customers on planning teams.

·  Free flow and exchange of information: In these organizations, systems are in place to ensure that expertise is available where it is needed. Individuals network extensively, crossing organizational boundaries to develop their knowledge and expertise.

·  Commitment to learning and personal development: There is support from top management; people at all levels are encouraged to learn regularly. Learning is rewarded. Individuals are given time and opportunities to learn (understanding, exploring, reflecting, and developing).

·  Valuing people: People are highly valued resources. Ideas, creativity and “imaginative capabilities” are stimulated, made use of and developed. Diversity is recognized as a strength. Views can be challenged and discussed freely.

· Climate of openness and trust: an environment of openness and trust prevails. Individuals are encouraged to develop ideas, to speak out and to challenge actions.

· Learning from experience: Learning from mistakes is often more powerful than learning from success. Failure is tolerated, provided lessons are learnt.

4.1 Learning organizations can be distinguished from other organizations in terms of following factors:

1.      Employees in learning organizations feel that they are doing something that matters to them as well as to the society at

large;

2.      Every individual in the learning organization is constantly learning and stretching himself, this enhances and individual’s

capacity to create;

3.      Team building and teamwork is common practice because people feel that they are more intelligent in the group rather than while being alone. They believe in synergy;

4.      Transparency is considered extremely important. Ongoing activities in the organization are shared with the employees,

so that they are able to understand how their actions can influence others;

5.      People feel free to enquire about each other and their feelings, assumptions and biases;

6.      People treat each other as colleagues. There exist feeling of mutual trust and respect among them and it is reflected in

the way they talk and work with each other. This is not affected by their positions in the organizational chart;

7.      People are empowered. They feel free to experiment, take risk and share the results.

5.  Learning organization and role of leadership

Senge emphasized the role of the leader in the creation of this learning organization. He defined three leadership roles that would rewrite the old-fashioned approach to being the boss. These are: Leader as Designer: If the organization is assumed to be a ship, the leader is likely to be the designer rather than captain of this ship. This is because the leader is responsible for

1.      Creating a common vision with shared values and purpose.

2.      Determining the “policies, strategies, and structures that translate guiding ideas into business decisions.”

3.      Creating effective learning processes which will allow for continuous improvement of the policies, strategies, and structures.

Leader as Teacher: Second role that a leader plays in learning organization is that of a teacher. The leader here is seen as a coach that works with the mental models present in the organization. He must understand these concepts of reality and restructure these views to be able to see beyond the superficial conditions and events into the underlying causes of the problems.

Leader as steward: This is the vaguest of the three and refers largely to the attitude of the leader. a leader is part of something greater; whose desire is first and foremost not to lead, but to serve this greater purpose of building better organizations and reshaping the way businesses operate.

The first two roles outlined by Senge shed a lot of light into the requirements of effective Knowledge Management set up and organizational learning.

7. Building Blocks of the Learning Organization

Organizational research over the past two decades has revealed three broad factors that are essential for organizational learning and adaptability: (i) a supportive learning environment; (ii)concrete learning processes and practices; and (iii)leadership behavior that provides reinforcement. These are the building blocks of the learning organization. Each block and its discrete subcomponents, though vital to the whole, are independent and can be measured separately.

Building Block 1: A supportive learning environment.

An environment that supports learning has four distinguishing characteristics: psychological safety; appreciation of differences; openness to new ideas and time for reflection.

1. Psychological safety: To learn, employees should not fear being belittled or marginalized when they disagree with peers or authority figures; ask naive questions, own up to mistakes, or present a minority viewpoint. Instead, they must be comfortable expressing their thoughts about the work at hand.

2. Appreciation of difference: Learning occurs when people become aware of opposing ideas. Recognizing the value of competing functional outlooks and alternative worldviews increases energy and motivation, sparks fresh thinking, and prevents lethargy and drift.

3. Openness to new ideas: Learning is not simply about correcting mistakes and solving problems. It is also about crafting new approaches. Employees should be encouraged to take risks and explore the untested and unknown.

4. Time for reflection: All too many managers are judged by the sheer number of hours they work and the tasks they accomplish. When people are too busy or overstressed by deadlines and scheduling pressures, however, their ability to think analytically and creatively is compromised. They become less able to diagnose problems and learn from their experiences. Supportive learning environments allow time for a pause in the action and encourage thoughtful review of the organization’s processes.

Building Block 2: Concrete learning processes and practices.

A learning organization is not cultivated effortlessly. It arises from a series of concrete steps and widely distributed activities, not unlike the workings of business processes such as logistics, billing, order fulfillment, and product development. Learning processes involve the generation, collection, interpretation, and dissemination of information. They include experimentation to develop and test new products and services; intelligence gathering to keep track of competitive, customer, and technological trends; disciplined analysis and interpretation to identify and solve problems; and education and training to develop both new and established employees.

For  maximum  impact,  knowledge  must  be  shared  in  systematic  and  clearly defined  ways.

Knowledge  sharing   can   take   place   among   individuals,   groups,   or   whole   organizations.

Knowledge can move laterally or vertically within a firm. The knowledge-sharing process can be

(i) internally focused, with an eye toward taking corrective action. Right after a project is completed; there should be the process of post-audits or after action reviews that are then shared with others engaged in similar tasks; (ii) knowledge sharing can be externally oriented—for example, it might include regularly scheduled forums with customers or subject-matter experts to gain their perspectives on the company’s activities or challenges. Together, these concrete processes ensure that essential information moves quickly and efficiently into the hands and heads of those who need it.

After Action Review (AAR) process is the best known method of this approach and is widely used by many companies. It involves a systematic debriefing after every, project, or critical activity. This process is framed by four simple questions: What did we set out to do? What actually happened? Why did it happen? What do we do next time?

Building Block 3: Leadership that reinforces learning.

As discussed earlier, organizational learning is strongly influenced by the behavior of leaders. When leaders actively question and listen to employees, and prompt dialogue and debate, people in the organization feel encouraged to learn. If leaders signal the importance of spending time on problem identification, knowledge transfer, and reflective post-audits/ AAR, these activities are likely to flourish. When people in power demonstrate through their own behavior a willingness to entertain alternative points of view, employees feel emboldened to offer new ideas and options.

The three building blocks of organizational learning reinforce one another and, to some degree, overlap. Just as leadership behaviors help create and sustain supportive learning environments, such environments make it easier for managers and employees to execute concrete learning processes and practices smoothly and efficiently. The concrete processes provide opportunities for leaders to behave in ways that foster learning and to cultivate that behavior in others.

8. Essentials to create a culture that supports a learning organization

To compete in this information-saturated environment, it is necessary to remain dynamic, competitive, and to continue to look for ways to improve organizations. Continuous improvement requires a commitment to learning. Change is the only constant. Learning organizations embrace change and constantly adapt to environmental requirements.

1.   The very first thing needed to create a learning organization is effective leadership, which is not based on a traditional hierarchy, but rather, is a mix of different people from all levels of the system, who lead in different ways (Senge 1996).

2.  Secondly, there must be a realization that all individuals have inherent power to find solutions to the problems they are faced with, and that they can and will envision a future and forge ahead to create it. A learning organization’s culture is based on openness and trust, where employees are supported and rewarded for learning and innovating, and one that promotes experimentation, risk taking, and values the well-being of all employees. (Gephart 1996)

To create a culture that will act as the foundation for a learning organization begins with a shift of mind (i) employees should start to see themselves as connected to the world rather than as separate from the world;(ii) employees should star to see themselves as integral components in the workplace, rather than as separate and unimportant cogs in a wheel.

3.  Finally, one of the biggest challenges that must be overcome in any organization is to identify and breakdown the ways people reason defensively i.e. resistance to change must be overcome. Until then, change can never be anything but a passing phase (Argyris 1991). Everyone must learn that the steps they use to define and solve problems can be a source of additional problems for the organization.

9. Stages towards a learning organization

Following ten steps are necessary for the making of learning organization:

·  Stage One is to create a communications system to facilitate the exchange of information, the basis on which any learning

organization is built. There should be free flow of information, universal access to business and strategic information should

be provided to employees. Complex concepts should be explained in easy language.

·  Stage Two is to organize a readiness questionnaire, a tool that assesses the gap between an organization’s present status

and where it would like to be in future. The questionnaire should be administered to all/ maximum employees, and should be

used to develop an assessment profile to design the learning organization initiative.

·  Stage Three is to commit to developing, maintaining, and facilitating an atmosphere that garner learning.

· Stage Four is to create a vision of the organization and write a mission statement with the help of all employees .

· Stage Five is to use training and awareness programs to develop skills and understanding attitudes that are needed to reach

the goals of the mission statement, including the ability to work well with others, become more verbal, and network with

people across all departments within the organization .

·  Stage Six is to communicate a change in the company’s culture by integrating human and technical systems.

· Stage Seven is to initiate the new practices by emphasizing team learning and contributions. As a result, employees will become more interested in self-regulation and management, and be more prepared to meet the challenges of an ever-changing workplace .

·  Stage Eight is to allow employees to question key business practices and assumptions.

· Stage Nine is to develop workable expectations for future actions.

· Stage Ten is to remember that becoming a learning organization is a long process and that small setbacks should be expected. It is the journey that is the most important thing because it brings everyone together to work as one large team.

10.Summary:

learning organizations as ‘ the organizations where people continually expand their capacity to create the results they truly desire, where new and expansive patterns of thinking are nurtured, where collective aspiration is set free, and where people are continually learning to see the whole together. Systems thinking, personal mastery, mental models, shared vision and team learning is famous five dimensions of a learning organization. A shift in the minds of employees to think differently; a conducive culture for knowledge creation/ sharing ; free flow of information; employees ability to take risk, experiment and learn are important requirements for an organization to become a learning organization.

Learn More:

1. Argyris,C(1991). Teaching smart people how to learn. Harvard Business Review.May-June.
2. Dixon,N. (1994). The Organizational Learning Cycle. McGraw-Hill
3. Gephart, Martha A., Victoria J. Marsick, Mark E. Van Buren, and Michelle S. Spiro. (Dec. 1996). Learning Organizations Come Alive.Training & Development, Vol. 50, No. 12, pp. 35-45.
4. Senge, Peter M. (1990). The Fifth Discipline: The art and practice of the learning organization, Doubleday, New York.
5. Senge, Peter. (Dec. 1996). Leading Learning Organizations. Training & Development, Vol. 50, No. 12, pp. 36-4.
6. http://www.knowledge-management-tools.net/leadership-and-the-learning-organization.html
7. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Learning_organization
8. https://hbr.org/2008/03/is-yours-a-learning-organization
9. http://www.skyrme.com/insights/3lrnorg.htm
10. http://www.moyak.com/papers/learning-organization.html