Organisational learning - Essay Example

Organisational learning by The of the The of the School The and where it is located The Date Organisational Learning Introduction If one takes a look at the human civilization, one cannot help noticing that there are many characteristic features that it possesses. While some might suggest that such feature as ability to generate verbal interaction is what really defines the mankind, it is obvious that there are some characteristics that reflect the nature of the humans on a deeper level. For example, one might mention the respect for knowledge. It is generally suggested that individuals are capable of learning something new. This paper will argue that learning is something that can be done by organisations as well as individuals. What is learning? To begin with, it may be particularly important to examine the very concept of learning. One of the approaches towards it suggests that learning is knowledge transfer (Soliman, 2013). Indeed, this might be the fundamental part of it since in the course of it one party is transmitting knowledge to a different party. It is obvious that organisation is capable of doing so. For example, the newcomers will be able to learn new from manuals or experienced employees. Another approach to knowledge states that it can be perceived as commodity. This can hardly be seen as an exaggeration since nowadays company are willing to invest into knowledge and some organisations even sell their knowledge or offer their help in producing it. Therefore, the view of knowledge as commodity is fully applicable to an organization. One should also keep in mind that there are two major types of knowledge: explicit and tacit (Collins, 2010). The former is the kind of knowledge that has been codified, written down and passed in different medium. The latter is the knowledge that is passed from an individual to an individual. These two kinds of knowledge are found in organisations. For example, the explicit knowledge can be found in different manuals and employees can easily access. In addition to that, tacit knowledge is provides by experienced individuals who are thought to represent the soul of the company. The explicit knowledge of a company may be copied, but not the tacit knowledge. A good example is the rivalry between Apple and Samsung. Both organisations produce smartphones, but it is clear that the latter followed the footsteps (copied explicit knowledge) of the former to achieve success. Nevertheless, the image of Samsung can hardly enjoy the same reputation and respect as one of Apple which means that while the explicit knowledge (in this case, technical characteristics of a smartphone) could be replicated to a certain extent, the tacit knowledge (here, the spirit of a device) was not repeated. All this shows that the concept of knowledge can be easily applied to an organisation. Single and double loop learning One may engage a particular theory that is connected to knowledge, implement it in an organisational setting and verify if it is able to reflect the peculiarities of the environment. Thus, there is a concept of single-loop and double-loop learning. The first type focuses on the use of a norm and strict adherence to it without any questioning (Argyris and Schon, 1978). This can be found in organisations that rely on providing work that is not creating. For example, a person at an assembly line is not expected to show any creativity. As a result, single-loop learning is implemented in such organisation and characterizes its nature. In other words, this approach to learn is great when it comes to teaching skills that are easy and are constantly repeated. On the other hand, there is a concept of double-loop learning. It states that the norm is verified and question after each implementation of it (Brockbank & McGill, 2006). In other words, the adherence is performed through acknowledgement that the norm is the best known way to perform a certain task. It often happens that a company learns from its mistake. It analyzes projects that failed and tries to understand the reasons. This may be regarded as a great example of double-loop learning: since the environment that an organisation operates in is unstable, it is expected of it to come up with new approaches to solving known problems. One would make no mistake suggesting that double-loop learning greatly contribute to success of an organisation since it provides it with a greater flexibility as well as adaptability Managers learning It is obvious that organisational learning is a somewhat abstract term since in reality there is no such entity as organisation. It can exist within legal framework, but it cannot act directly, only through its representatives. That is why exploration of organisational learning should also include examination of the manner in which people who represent the organisation learn. There are numerous studies that are devoted to analysis of the way managers learn. According to one of them, managers gain new knowledge with the help of reflecting on their past experience (Schön, 1983). In other words, they learn their lessons by examining their failures in the past. It is obvious that a good manager is a professional who constantly gains new knowledge and is not satisfied with the present quality of skills and abilities, willing to improve them. That is why learning can be seen as an irreplaceable part of being a good manager. Another point that should be mentioned is that managers are urged to learn because they work in a rather unpredictable environment. Indeed, books on economics and finance are able to deal with theoretical models, but the real situation can be much more difficult. That is why managers often face problems that do not have clear solutions (Stacey, 2003). As a result, they have to engage the experience of other people in order to gain a proper understanding of the situation. For example, a particular company may be influenced by a great number of external factors as well as its own history. Therefore, the generalized models can hardly be fully applied to it because they may not contribute to the desired outcome. That is why a careful analysis of the situation is needed So, while managers learn, the organisation in general learns as well. The experiential learning cycle There is another important theoretical framework that can be applied to an organisation in order to verify if it is able to learn. It is called the experiential learning cycle and consists of four elements (Dixon, 1999). The first of them is concrete experience. In other words, it is something that objectively happens to a particular organisation. Thus, having gained a certain experience an organisation might reflect on it. It generally takes the form of learning on past mistakes since company rarely focus their attention on their successful initiatives. So, an experience triggers reflection on it and all this leads to the third element of the cycle which is called abstract conceptualizing. The latter means that an organisation tries to understand the fundamental principles of the situation that is encountered and make sure that is it able to repeat it or avoid, based on the outcome (Beard & Wilson, 2006). In other words, while the first two stages did not feature any control over the reality, this element shows that an organisation is interested in controlling the environment to a certain extent. After the theoretical model has been designed, it is being tested which completes the cycle as tests bring out new experience. As one can easily see, the above mentioned theoretical framework can be perfectly applied to an organisation. Communities of practice In order to gain a better understanding of the way in which organisational learning exists, one might take a look at communities of practice. Organisation and community of practice cannot always be used interchangeably though (Hernáez, 2011). Thus, the latter is a group of people who do not only know what they are doing and share a certain profession, but also acknowledge the cultural perspective of their work. There are several characteristics of it and fit organisational setting perfectly as learning in both relies on engagement of the individuals, alignment of their practice and the goals, building a strong mutual relationship, and developing a shared repertoire. One may be willing to engage a real life example. In 1960s a Palo Alto Research Centre was founded by Xerox in California (Butow, 2007). It was a peculiar organisation since it involved people who worked on the very edge of science. It is quite understandable that under such conditions it was useless to write a manual that all the people could follow. That is why the research centre in question relied on different principles, such as dissemination of knowledge through talking, rather than referring to manuals. The success of this approach can be seen in the fact that thanks to Palo Alto Research Centre the work can now use laser printing, graphic user interface, LAN and many other aspects of technology that were invented in it, but are now taken for granted. What is a Learning Organisation? One would make no mistake suggesting that there are numerous scholars who explored the concept of organisation learning. They all were able to come up with certain definitions of this idea. For example, according to Nonaka “successful companies are those that consistently create new knowledge, disseminate it widely throughout the organisation, and quickly embody it in new technologies and products”. (1991, p. 96). One of the major points that are stressed here lies in the fact that organisational learning is facilitated with the help of knowledge dissemination. According to a different approach, one of the characteristic features of an organisation that is engaged into learning is that it “consciously transforms itself and its context” (Pedler, Boydell & Burgoyne, 1991, p. 3). Other researchers would point out that there are certain elements of organisational learning that make it unique. For example, this kind of learning is closely connected to the goals (Senge, 1990). In other words, an organisation will not be willing to learn something that it does not need. In addition to that, it is generally argued that learning can also be used to remove the limits that influence in a negative way on the creativity and efficiency of employees. Learning and power Finally, one should explore the connection between learning and power in order to understand the peculiarities of organisational learning. Thus, it must be noted that organisational learning often occurs in within social context and is characterized by the fact that parties that are involved possess different amount of power. In addition to that, one should also keep in mind that the idea that learning is something positive is heavily promoted in the social environment; so, organisation can hardly be seen as exceptions (Contu et al. 2003). What is more important is that learning within an organisation is also connected to empowerment (Coopey, 1995). Indeed, employees feel that they are capable of doing more and become more valuable to the organisation when they acquire new skills. As a result, education has a positive impact on the self-esteem and performance of the employee since it broadens their outlook and provides them with new skills and abilities. One should also keep in mind that in order to get a promotion, employees are generally expected to gain more knowledge in their area so, learning becomes an irreplaceable element of it. With the increase of the individual level, the general level of the organisation increases. Conclusion Having examined all the points that were mentioned in the paragraphs above, one should point out that learning is indeed something that can be performed not only by individuals, but organisations as well. This has been proven by application of different aspects of learning on the organisational setting and each of these concepts was able to function properly. All this leads to the understanding that in spite of the fact that organisations stand for large groups of individuals that are structured in a certain manner, they share certain characteristics of their building units such as the ability to learn. That is why organisational learning might be seen as a perspective direction of research. References Argyris, C. and Schön, D. (1978) Organisational Learning: A Theory of Action Perspective. Addison-Wesley. Beard, C., & Wilson, J. (2006). Experiential learning a best practice handbook for educators and trainers. London: Kogan Page. Brockbank, A., & McGill, I. (2006). Facilitating reflective learning through mentoring & coaching. London: Kogan Page. Butow, E. (2007). User interface design for mere mortals. Boston, MA: Addison-Wesley. Collins, H. (2010). Tacit and explicit knowledge. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press. Contu, A., Grey, C. and Ortenblad, A. (2003) ‘Against Learning’, Human Relations, 56(8): 931-952. Coopey, J. 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