The Concept of a Learning Organisation - Literature review Example

The Concept of a Learning Organisation Executive Summary The concept of a learning organisation can be used by business entities to improve their competitive advantage. A number of challenges exist in the modern business environment, and organisations need to keep changing their business strategy to remain relevant. As such, a learning process that considers various factors in improving performance is required. This includes adapting an organisational structure that promotes change such as a flat organisational structure. There are a number of ways that an organisation can use to remain relevant in a competitive business environment. This includes encouraging creativity and innovation among employees. In essence, giving employees space to explore their talents can help an organisation to adapt to changes in the business environment. It is also important for the management to consider success risk factors such as the employees and continuous improvement. Employees form an important part in improving an organisation’s performance and need motivation to improve worker involvement. In a learning organisation, risk taking can also be explored by the management as a way of discovering new ventures and promoting their uniqueness in the business environment. In essence, a learning process can be used by organisations to improve employee’s skills and enable a commercial entity to undergo a continuous transformation. Introduction The key to personal and managerial effectiveness revolves around getting the workforce to perform their duties, and to the best of their skills or abilities. In an organisation, aligning workers to perform their task pose a challenge to the management in terms of meeting targets. As such, a learning organisation should be an ongoing process that allows managers to figure out the best style to apply and remain at the top. In a continually changing business environment, it is important for organisations to cultivate a culture that can catapult them above competitors. On the same note, an emphasis on knowledge and innovativeness is tenet that the management and employees can exploit and thrive in a rapidly changing business environment (Somunoglu & Ofluoglu 2012, p. 187). Accordingly, an organisation should establish a culture that focuses on employee learning, engage in critical thinking, and explore new ideas. In addition, the management needs to allow room for mistakes and take note or value contributions by employees. A learning organisation can also benefit from experience and experimentation, and in turn, pass new ideas or knowledge to others in the organisation to use in their day-to-day activities. In essence, effective management begins at a personal level and move to the personnel level. As such, effective managers need to show leadership and play an important role when it comes to the overall effectiveness of an organisation. In essence, achieving a competitive edge in the modern business environment requires management and employees adapt organisational culture such as the concept of a learning organisation (Somunoglu & Ofluoglu 2012, p. 186). Literature review: A Learning organisation Learning in an organisation denotes a situation where an organisation can rely on experience to change or improve its behaviours and mind-sets. As such, organisations that apply this approach can improve individual responsibility, and accountability. In addition, leadership grows, and every person within the organisation becomes responsible and works towards a shared vision. Through learning, an organisation can establish a robust network of relationships or peer support. This is because, establishing a learning environment inform business strategy because it relies on distributed intelligence within the organisation (Heorhiadi, La Venture, & Conbere 2014, p.5). For instance, organisational learning promotes the full engagement of internal and external stakeholder for the purposes of tackling various issues affecting the organisation. This engagement in turn helps to change the mindset and attitude of workers and integrates a positive and sustainable thinking in an organisation’s culture. On another note, organisational learning is not an individual venture, but develops from an interaction between individuals in groups or teams. In this sense, organisational learning thrives in an environment that allows groups or teams to reflect on previous actions, accept mistakes and avoid the blame culture. Further, organisational learning creates an environment where individuals or teams are motivated to be innovative and to explore different possibilities with the aim of improving performance and gaining a competitive edge. In the learning process, workers can influence each other, and this helps their ideas to co-evolve in that, each idea adapts and changes relatively to other ideas (Heorhiadi, La Venture, & Conbere 2014, p.7). Organisational learning promotes the ability for a continuous and appropriate adaptation to changes in the business environment. The concept of a learning organisation also encourages self-organisation because, it allows groups to meet and explore new ideas without supervision from a manager outside the group. In achieving competitive advantage, self-organisation plays an important part in the innovation process and establishes an environment that promotes co-evolutionary sustainability (Heorhiadi, La Venture, & Conbere 2014, p.9). As described by Senge (1990, p. 1), learning organisation entails a place where employees can expand their capacity in terms of creating results that they actually desire. In this environment, constructive thinking is nurtured, and there is a collective aspiration to continue learning. Senge (1992, p. 45) further proposes the key tenets of an organisation’s work that include personal master, mental models, shared vision, team learning and systems thinking. Personal mastery denotes employees learning to improve their own capacity for purposes of achieving desirable results. In addition, the environment created by organisational learning allows employees to establish goals that they desire. Mental models, on the other hand, involve employees being able to reflect, clarify and improve their worldviews in terms of shaping individual actions and decisions. About shared visions, individuals can develop a sense of commitment to their work groups, which is important in meeting organisation’s targets. In team learning, individuals within a group can explore relevant thinking skills that can move an organisation forward in terms of becoming a top performer. Further, Senge (1992) views systems thinking as a way of assisting managers and workers to grasp how systems can be changed efficiently and act in tandem with the modern business environment. For example, systems thinking may involve employee’s way of understanding forces or interrelationships considered to shape the business environment. The concept of a learning organisation is vital when coping with organisational change because; it engages employees on how to move forward. Organisations that rely on this concept are in a position to improve their business prospect because learning is planned, systematic and corresponds with the organisation’s strategic goals. For an organisation to establish a competitive advantage, it is important to understand how to acquire organisational knowledge. In this sense, organisations can learn collectively and at all levels and functions to develop core competencies. For example, it is not enough for a company to identify its vision as the leader in a particular market. This is because, for a company to sustain its market leadership, it should strategically develop and maximise its market share by taking advantage of its core products, employee skills and technology (Govaerts & Beart 2011, p. 545). In the modern business environment, strategy plays a significant role in the learning process particularly, for a learning organisation. This is because; the focus is on organisation developing core competencies for the present and future business prospects. In addition, strategy focuses the learning process towards the desired future that an organisation intends to fulfil. To this end, an organisation can carry out transformational change at all levels to improve its competitive advantage in the market (Govaerts & Beart 2011, p.551). Discussion and analysis A learning organisation can develop because of the challenges that it faces, and this enables such an organisation to gain competitive advantage in the business environment. The various challenges that an organisation face require the management and employees to continue learning and transforming itself to meet the demands of a constantly changing business environment. In a learning organisation, the factors that the management and employees need to consider are shared values, management styles and strategy. Other factors necessary to improve competitive advantage about a learning organisation also include organisational structure, employee characteristics, skills, measurement systems and teams. Organisations are often exposed to a competitive environment that results from rapid change. As such, the competitive edge of an organisation depends on its ability to adapt to change effectively and rapidly compared to its competitors (Duden 2014, p.56). In the era of rapidly evolving environment, it no longer plays to the advantage of managers to assume all responsibility for an organisation. Instead, the management needs to allow a process where each individual should be accountable and responsible for making changes that take place within their work areas. In addition, individuals within their work areas need to share knowledge and emphasis teamwork. Because of the challenges that exist in the modern business environment, a learning organisation needs to have a clear vision that states where they aspire to be at the present and in the future. On the other hand, the mission should state how an organisation intends to achieve success in the future. This may involve, for example, capitalising on the talents of employees, establishing high standards in all engagements and taking care of customer’s needs (Duden 2014, p.58). Further, learning processes that can improve the performance of an organisation require the management and employees to lay emphasis on shared values. Such shared values are important as guiding principles in the decisions and actions taken by an organisation. In another example, learning principles such as innovation or excellence can be reinforced in an organisation through a focus on mission awards aimed at recognising contributions by employees. This may involve the management giving recognition to teams in the organisation. In a process such as organisational renewal, the management can implement a flatter structure that allows various teams to come up with their own initiatives. On the other hand, the development of a learning organisation and for a continuous transformation requires a look at the critical success factors. Such success factors include people and continuous improvement (Gaile 2013, p.133). With regard to people, an organisation needs to attract and develop individuals with skills who share the organisation’s values and vision. The strategies that an organisation can rely on to achieve this critical success factor include creating a work environment that is attractive to workers. There is also need to provide space for employees to realise their full potential. Concerning a focus on continuous improvement, the management needs to embrace a culture that promotes continuous improvement in all the activities of the organisation. This is possible through a process of identifying improvement opportunities in terms of measuring and analysing work processes. The employees can also be allowed to take part in the continuous improvement and benchmark important work processes. In addition, critical success factor acts as a driver when it comes to cross-functional teamwork within an organisation. This is because; it encourages workers throughout the organisation and from different departments to work in unison in solving particular problems. As a learning process, it is important for teams to apply a systems approach to solving problems and explore collective thinking skills to develop the creativity and experience of individual employees (Gaile 2013, p.137). In using strategy as an example of a learning organisation, the management can encourage workers to establish a shared value, vision and mission. This is achievable through an extensive consultation in the group meetings, for instance. About personal mastery, a program that allows workers to provide informal feedback to their team leaders, the management or HRM enables employees to cope with changes taking place in the organisation and their personal lives. Such a process can also influence workers who resist change to support change management. Establishing an organisational structure that is flat also allows workers to contribute towards the identified business strategy. As a learning organisation, this process can take place annually by relying on ‘both bottom up’ and ‘top down’ process. Various teams in the organisation can come up with strategies or plans targeting functional areas that can be incorporated in the management’s final plan (Novak 2014, p. 221). In a horizontal organisational structure, it is easier to implement an efficient communication process necessary to align the organisation’s objectives with a functional group or team plans. In addition to the critical success factors or key performance measures, groups within the organisation can establish a sub-set of critical success factors related to financial and non-financial measures that they can apply in their functional areas. As a result, functional teams are in a position to determine how their activities affect the team’s success and the organisation, in general. In essence, the concept of a learning organisation allows business entities in a rapidly changing environment to come up with modalities that ensure they remain relevant in a competitive business world (Gaile 2013, p.139). Conclusion As a result of numerous challenges that exist in the modern business world, the concept of a learning organisation assists businesses to adapt to constant changes. This in turn, allows businesses to remain competitive in a constantly changing environment. To stay consistent in the business world, an organisation needs to improve the capabilities of its employees. This is achievable through learning processes that help to improve innovation and excellence. Achieving a competitive advantage require organisations to be unique in terms of services they offer to their customers or clients. Uniqueness provides a business entity with a differentiation strategy when compared to competitors jostling for the same market share. How the management relates with employees also plays an important role in improving employee engagement. As such, flexibility from the management is necessary in improving performance level among employees. This is because, innovation as a learning process, for instance, require the management to provide employees with the space to explore their talents. It is such a venture that promotes creativity in an organisation and provides a competitive edge in the modern business environment. Recommendation An organisational culture that focuses on the concept of a learning organisation as means of improving its competitive advantage require: i. A motivated workforce: It is important to recognise the factors that influence employee engagement. In this sense, motivation is a major factor in influencing employee behaviour. For instance, a motivated workforce is enthusiastic and carries out assigned duties diligently. Employees derive their motivation from recognition of their effort by the management or being offered other incentives (for example, bonuses) for improved performance. ii. Encourage risk taking: The management needs to allow risk-taking behaviour among their talented workforce. This is because; risk taking allows employees and the organisation to venture into other areas that can improve their competitive edge. iii. Develop creativity and innovative thinking: Improving organisation’s performances rely on nurturing creativity and innovation. The management can nurture creativity and innovative thinking by providing employees with the space to explore their talents. In addition, establishing a flat organisational structure plays a role in building teams where individuals can share their skills. iv. Have knowledge of competition: A competitive business environment tends to motivate employees especially when they know the competition. The management can gain by providing information to employees regarding the industry. This helps workers to remain abreast with the latest happenings in the business world. References Duden, A. 2014, ‘Successful learning is change’, International Journal of Management Cases, Vol. 16, no. 4, pp. 56-64. Gaile, A., 2013. ‘External factors facilitating development of the learning organisation culture,’ Journal of Business Management, Vol. 3, no.7, pp. 130-140. Govaerts, N., & Beart, H 2011, ‘Learning patterns in organizations: towards a typology of workplace-learning configurations,’ Human Resource Development International, Vol. 14, no. 5, pp. 545-559. Heorhiadi, A., La Venture, K., & Conbere, J., 2014. ‘What do Organizations Need to Learn to Become a Learning Organization? OD Practitioner, Vol. 46, no. 2, pp. 5-9. Novak, V.M., 2014. ‘Design management of sustainability values: a learning organization perspective,’ Architectural & Design Management, Vol. 10, no. 4, pp. 218-232. Senge, P. 1990, The Fifth Discipline: The Art & Practice of the Learning Organisation, Doubleday/Currency, New York. Senge, P. 1992, The Fifth Discipline Fieldbook, Doubleday/Currency, New York. Somunoglu, S., & Ofluoglu, G 2012, ‘The concept of continuing education for organizations and its effects,’ Human Systems Management, Vol. 31, no. 4, pp. 18. Read More