What Is a Learning Organization - Example

THE LEARNING ORGANIZATION IS A HIGHLY MANAGERIALIST CONCEPT THAT IS INTENDED TO BENEFIT THE TOP MANAGEMENT OF AN ORGANIZATION RATHER THAN ANYONE ELSE.” (ROLLINSON, OP.CIT.) by Student’s name: Course code+name Professor’s name University name City, State Date of submission Learning organization is an organization where employees learn new skills to help improve the quality of output in a firm. This creates an overall transformed workforce that lead to the eventual growth and betterment of the firm. The statement “The learning organization is a highly managerialist concept that is intended to benefit the top management of an organization rather than anyone else (Infed n.d.).”I will take an opposite stand from this opinion since in a good organization, the learning is for the entire workforce and nobody is left out. The organization learning depends on the individuals in the firm. Notably, nobody is forced to add skills while at work. Managers might try to be selfish and work in a manner likely to block their employees from getting the learning (Rollinson 2008). These are the type of managers who learn by the retarded growth of their firm or inability to counter competition from other firms. Sincerely, all managers are well versed with this hence; many encourage the employees under them to participate in the learning. This ensures that the juniors benefit from the learning. The organization can be said to have learnt learns gets knowledge, skills and understanding. A well learned organization can sign contracts and work with others easily since the learning helps it produce high quality goods and services. This is why the learning across the hierarchy is important as overall skilled team works efficiently. The cost of production drops since the manager fails to see any need for hiring workers from other firms. This is what that makes that make other reluctant companies and firms to learn deal with added cost in the production process (Lu n.d.). Organization learning enables the firm deal with internal matters easily and efficiently. This is regardless of complexity of the problem that may be affecting the firm. The team in the firm gets used to other tougher issues to deal with in their learning adventure thus the one that crops up doesn’t appear to be a major hurdle. The learning organization allows interaction between people at different levels in the firm. The workers in this organization finally work together towards the attainment of a common goal. The employees get another personal picture and consider working as one. This obligation leads to the exchange of information and interdependence between the workers. Exchange of information in the firm becomes efficient and everyone in the firm becomes knowledgeable in the matters concerning the firm. This also simplifies the work of the manager. Firms that have internal barriers to effective communication perform dismally and complicate the work of the managers in charge. Interdependence simplifies decision-making. The process of decision making is systematic and planned before hand. The study on the decision to be made is carried out after a study that seeks to reflect ahead on the expected results. The learning organization emphasizes on infrastructure. Infrastructure in this case is used to refer to information storage and retrieval in the firm. The information of reference in this case includes the information on decision making, implementation of new ideas and the farther learning. Notably it the action taken that leads to the attainment of the objectives but not the knowledge itself. Hence the learning organization should have a strong storage and information retrieval mechanisms so that the information is stored for future use. A learning organization become stable and grows rapidly. The running of the affairs of the company is simple due the togetherness .Hence the individual’s attitude contributes to the output of then firm. Any disputes are easy to solve without disrupting the activities of the firm. The company is able to enjoy the shared objectives. The employees in the firm are in setting target hence the whole team talk in one voice. Businesses that have only the manager making decision for the company are shaky since they rely on the manager alone. Any mistake made by the manager, however, affects everybody in the firm despite being barred from giving a helping hand. In properly functioning learning organization, learning should not be solely inclined towards collecting information but the firm should consider developing new ideas. A learning organization taking this form helps benefit each individual. Each member of staff is encouraged to come up with new ideas. The career of a person may take a completely different and a better form if he manages to make an invention. The knowledge that may be obtained from the firm may be either tacit or explicit. The firm members own tacit knowledge. Explicit knowledge is the recorded knowledge and it is the one that benefits the owners and the firm most. The knowledge created by a group turns out to be of a higher quality than the one from an individual. The researchers in the learning organization follow the strategy of systematic network. This ensure that the whole organization learn implying that the learning benefits reaped in this case are enjoyed uniformly. Every department in a learning organization feels important and works hard to assist the bunch of researchers achieve their objective. This is the importance for the learning organization since nobody’s contribution is ignored however small it might seem to be. It is important to note that the learning organizations do not fail to consider the ethics of the workers. There is a rule that has been effected hindering the exchange of information between people who are reluctant to share knowledge with their colleague (Galbraith 1973). It is in this case that individuals hiding knowledge from others are exempted from benefiting from the knowledge generated from the colleagues. This is a law as touches on everybody, including the managers, who might be tempted to take advantage of their positions. This improves trust of the members of the organization. We can cite a case of 150 people who were taken as partners in the invention. The individuals held a meeting with planning team of the company and received material reward. The learning organization allows the members to raise comments without fear. No one is at liberty to punish a junior without concrete reason. Stakes in this case are shunned and an individual considers himself as a part of the team. No impunity is tolerated in the learning organization. Any case of mistreatment is addressed fearlessly. This reminds every member that they are supposed to work as team hence each person has to have an equal share of the cake, in case of a reward. New employees have a chance of learning and avoiding any accidents. A laborer, like a manager, has a right to learn and enjoy his job. The new workers have a right to enjoy learning incentives, as they are taken as the new people ready to be absorbed into the existing system. The learning firm makes sure that that every person’s knowledge and skills increase progressively. The explanation that can be given behind this is that the reputation of each individual becomes better. Every person improves quality of skills hence can no one will be condemned to remain at the same position. A laborer in the firm will get a salary increase and promotion as the manager. Notably, no one is on the losing end in a learning organization. The other thing is that the nature of communication between the same manager and the laborer is very effective. The rate of misunderstanding is very low. The learning organization rarely gets strikes. Strikes arise due to the mistreatment by the higher authorities. Everybody in the organization becomes elite who can reason carefully. There is a sense of goodwill hence the manager addresses the issues relating to the welfare of his juniors early and effectively. Everybody feels accountable to the objectives of the firm hence the salary increase, if there is to be any, should happen to everyone in the firm. The net income of the firm is bound to increase. Everybody is recognized for the objectives achieved. This is different from other firms where a manager ends up to be the only person gaining recognition and attributed to the success. This becomes unfair to the juniors since no one takes note of them hence the firm continually performs impressively but nobody will recognize them. This is the human nature and no one is to blame incase the employees continues with his meager earnings. This is what the learning organization targets to address. This is why the organizations achieve results easily since the employee’s motivation makes them fell important in the firm’s achievement of goals. The organization learning is a transformation by itself. Businesses should strive to transform fast to adapt to the rapidly changing world. The change in the businesses is brought about by technological changes in various departments. Any firm that becomes reluctant to welcome the changes in technology finally realizes that the competitors have adopted the technological change. This means that the company gets a technological knockout hence making it lose the customers. The company not only registers loss on the sales but ends up letting the employees down. The learning organization defies this by making sure that it lies abreast with any technological changes. Everybody in the firm gets to learn about the technological changes according to his department and role. This ensures that the company is able to deal with competition where a win is guaranteed since the technological knowhow is uniformly distributed. It is also important to note that a learning organization teams recommend accuracy when it comes to the application of the things one has learned and the output. Hence everyone at any position should work hard toward the accomplishment of the goals. Each person has a responsibility that is open to all hence no one can pull down the efforts of the others. In the past, there are stories of the managers making mistakes that affect the performance of the company and worse still walk unnoticed due to cover up. This does not mean that the learning organization punishes its employee’s. Rather it is the conscience that is expected to ‘penalize’ an individual. Businesses management involves a lot of politics and quest for higher seats. It means that it comes to a time when people seek to exercise their democratic rights. The learning organization recognizes the need for democracy and advocates for voting as a team in order to improve the internal wellbeing of the workers. Every worker gets a chance to vote for people of their interest interests (Cors 2003). This an organization that can make good decision since serious thinkers inhibit it. It is therefore clear that the learning organization do not benefit only some individuals in the higher offices. The policies that guide the business in its operation shun the unfairness caused by inequality caused by different offices. This is made possible by instilling skills into every employee. The freedom enjoyed by the juniors in the company is also remarkable. The sense of importance of the juniors in the learning organization improves the accountability of everybody. The workers in the learning organization work as a team, hence nobody suffers in the hands of the other. References list Cors, Rebecca. "What Is a Learning Organization?" May 5th, 2003. http://www.engr.wisc.edu/services/elc/lor/files/Learning_Org_Lit_Review.pdf (accessed May 1, 2012). Galbraith, J. R., 1973. Designing Complex Organizations. Reading: Addison Wesley Longman. Rollinson, D. (2008). Organizational Behavior and Analysis: An Integrated Approach, 4th Edition, Pearson Education. Infed. "The learning organization." http://www.infed.org/biblio/learning-organization.htm (accessed May 1, 2012). Lu, Xin-An Lucian. "Surveying the Concept of the Learning Organization." http://www.leadingtoday.org/weleadinlearning/xaoct04.htm (accessed May 1, 2012). Read More