To What Extent does Your Workplace Conform with the Requirements of a Learning Organization - Essay Example

?To what extent does your workplace conform with the requirements of a learning organisation? I work for the Department of Environment and Resource Management or DERM in the state of Queensland. It is a state agency under the authority of both the Minister for Natural Resources, Mines and Energy and the Minister for Climate Change and Sustainability. DERM’s organisational mandate is to address the complex issues that face Queensland’s environment, particularly those about securing water and its availability in the future, managing land use, addressing the issue of climate change as well as the maintenance and conservation of Queensland’s various natural and cultural heritage. The organisation mainly works around the parameter that sustainable living must be promoted and that science and technology should be harnessed in the most effective way in order to achieve this purpose. I believe that DERM, my organisation, is a learning organisation. I will explain in this paper why this is so. In order to demonstrate that the Department of Environment and Resource Management is a learning organisation, it is necessary to provide some form of benchmark or standards that would set clear requirements and criteria to credibly assess DERM’s organisational capability in the context of the learning organisation concept. For this purpose I have collated some authoritative insights from experts and academics. What is a Learning Organisation? According to Forest, a learning organisation is one that purposely applies its resources towards “the acquisition of knowledge about itself and its environment” and is continually expanding its capacity to meet present and future challenges with increasing sophistication and success. (p391) Central to this definition is the idea that the organisation can learn and not some individual employees or groups of employees, the management, and so forth. The organisation is recognized to have the capability to acquire knowledge and use it for its own good. Another interesting insight that adds dimension to the learning organisation concept is the variable of change or the concept of organisational change as suggested by many academics. For instance, Caldwell (2006) stressed that learning organisation is a model of a team approach to change agency and organisational change because it views organisations “not as highly formalized hierarchical structures, but as macro-systems and micro-processes of learning and knowledge creation that give primacy to leadership and change agency at all levels.” (p155) The organisation in the entire process is characterized by all employees who work together as a whole – cooperating, coordinating and collaborating – acquiring knowledge and applying them for common organisational goals. This point of view has been supported by Rosell (1995) who explained that a learning organisation is able to adapt over time to changing conditions in a way that is productive to itself and its members by having the so-called “distributive intelligence”, which calls for horizontal information flow and less vertical decision making. (p83) Senge (2006), one of those credited to have brought the learning organisation concept to mainstream attention, talked about the role that people/employees play in this framework. According to him, the learning organisation is a place “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 how to learn together.” (p3) Lunenberg and Ornstein (2007) summed up the five disciplines posited by Senge that collectively create the learning organisation. These are: Personal mastery: the process of personal commitment, vision, excellence, and lifelong learning. Shared vision: Sharing an image of the future one want to realize together. Team learning: The process of learning collectively. Mental models: the ingrained assumption that influence personal and organisational views and behaviors. (p28) From the body of literature on the subject, as represented above, I have outlined three important elements that could the extent by which DERM conform to the requirements of a learning organisation. These elements are: 1) knowledge acquisition; 2) how knowledge is used particularly in the context of change; and, 3) employee training and development. Knowledge Acquisition DERM’s organisational structure is conducive to knowledge acquisition. The structure (see Fig. 1) typifies what Caldwell cited as a learning organisation because it is not too formal and rigid. As DERM plays the role of both environmental resource and governmental regulatory arm in itself, makes such organisational model not only imperative but logical. The agency is tasked to address highly volatile issues that are constantly in a flux, requiring the organisation to adapt constantly. With the organisational structure that we have, knowledge transfer is also easier. The responsibility delegated to John Bradley, the chairman of both the Board Management and Executive Management, highlights this fact. The chairman works to ensure that DERM’s strategic direction and priorities align with the state’s policies and objectives. In order to do this, he implements resource decisions (all of which knowledge-based) that are crucial in planning activities, policy initiatives and risk management. Our knowledge database enables him to do his job, steering the direction of the DERM or its initiatives according to the changes in environmental problems, environmental risks as well as in the policy shifts from the government’s end. The organisational structure also allows him to implement change swiftly. There are also specific departments that exclusively involved in the research and studies that underpin DERM’s policies and services. For example, there is the Environment and Resource Science department, which investigates, assesses, monitors and maps natural systems. Knowledge Use Our annual compliance plan, which outlines our compliance activities every year, is an excellent demonstration of how DERM makes use knowledge. A key feature of the plan is an overarching compliance strategy that enables participation and information exchange that help build for all stakeholders the capacity to comply with environmental regulations by tailoring each element of the plan proactively and reactively. (Annual Compliance Plan 2010) This goal cannot be achieved without some form of comprehensive knowledge acquisition. There is also DERM’s Water: Learn it For Life program. This is an educational initiative targeted to students in the early and middle years in school. Throughout the years, DERM has studied and evaluated developments both in the environmental and academic sectors in its development and modifications of the program. It is being ensured that Water: Learn it For Life is focused not just on students but also on the teachers and the community collectively. Throughout the years, we were able to fine-tune the program in order to cater to these diverse and sometimes changing variables. As an agency concerned with the environment and natural resources, DERM is engaged in the continuous study, research and experiments to achieve its objectives and maintain its efficacy as an organisation in realizing them. We have systems in place that collect: incidents that affect the environment and natural resources; risks and problems threatening the environment, our clients and our organisation itself; and, ongoing monitoring and interaction with clients for information exchange that goes with ensuring compliance to various governmental regulatory instruments. (Annual compliance Plan 2010-11, p. 2) We also have specific teams and task force mandated to investigate issues and problems concerning our mandate. For example, there is the Statewide Landcover Trees Study, the initiative to address the degradation of water resources, the task force monitoring the Queensland’s water management and risks and abuses to the water system. These capabilities underscore our efficacy in coming up with plans and strategies mitigate risks and enhance the quality of the environment. Employee Training and Development Senge, must have been talking about an organisational culture that values knowledge when he talked about personal mastery, shared vision, team learning and mental models. At DERM, the case is the same; there are policies in place that promotes a kind of culture that encourages employees to imbibe the sense of personal commitment, vision, excellence, and lifelong learning. This described best by Angela Willett, a senior planning officer at DERM, who explained that the organisation is an equal opportunity employer that supports life balance enabling her to maintain parity in all aspect of her life - work, professional development, personal and sporting. Furthermore, she said: “On my professional learning continuum within DERM, I have been afforded opportunities in marine park impact assessment, decision making, team leadership, mentoring for women in leadership, and a Diploma in Frontline Management.” The sentiment permeates in the workplace contributing to a high sense of moral and collective purpose. Besides HR policies that are responsive to innovations and developments in the workplace, DERM also has programs for training and scholarship. For instance, there is graduate program which allows employees “with the enthusiasm, motivation and qualifications to help drive sustainable environment and natural resource management” to study and train further. (DERM 2010) The organisational policies in place enables the employees to easily learn collectively and ingrain what Senge maintained as the assumption that influence personal and organisational views and behaviors. Conclusion Again, it must be underscored that knowledge acquisition is crucial for DERM not just as a strategy for adaptability or for some competitive advantage. Knowledge and learning is part of the organisation’s role as an environmental resource and regulatory agency. This characteristic enabled my workplace to naturally learn as an organisation in the process of fulfilling its mandate. Fig. 1: DERM’s Organisational Chart References "Annual Compliance Plan", 2010, Department of Environment and Resource Management. Available from: [22 February 2011]. Caldwell, R 2006, Agency and Change. Routledge, Oxon. Department of Environment and Resources Management (DERM), 2011, Available from: [22 February 2011]. Forest, J 2002, Higher education in the United States: an encyclopedia. ABC-CLIO, Santa Barbara, CA. Lunenberg, F and Ornstein, A 2007, Educational Administration: Concepts and Practices. New York: Cengage Learning. Rosell, S 1995, Changing maps: governing in a world of rapid change. Carleton University Press, Ottawa. Senge, P 2006, The Fifth Discipline. Doubleday/Currency. Read More