Attributes of a Learning Organization - Literature review Example

Note: I will submit one more copy with complete reference Assignment 2 Attributes of a Learning Organisation 1. The Organisation The organisation is a car dealership where two popular brands of automobiles are being advertised and sold. The organisation is generally consisting of sales representatives; accounting staff, HRD, and maintenance where after sales services are being conducted. It employs both part-time and full-time experience sales representatives who are being paid on commission basis. It has been in the business for over a decade and its success is highly dependent on the number of units sold annually. For this reason, the organisation advertised through print, billboards, and other media particularly when they need to increase their sales further before the year ends. Moreover, since there are a number of automobile brands marketed globally by different dealerships in the area, the organisation is constantly dealing with competitive pricing, better vehicle features, customer-friendly down payment and instalment scheme, and excellent customer services, 2. Outline of the Framework 2.1 Global competition and rapid change The attribute selected here is the organisation’s ability to deploy new knowledge in pursuit of its business purpose. This particular attribute is chosen due to its importance to managing global competition and rapidly changing business environment. For instance, a vehicle being marketed by a certain dealership may be popular but due to tough global competition, the organisation must be ready to learn the vehicle’s new features, target market, difference from other major brands, and effective ways of marketing this particular vehicle model. These include creating marketing strategies, offering low down payment or monthly instalment scheme, sales promotion, discounts and so on. The ability to deploy new knowledge in line with the current business purpose is every important to an organisation in a number of ways. According to Dierkes et al. (2003), learning in learning organisations is an ongoing process and an outcome of acquisition of knowledge and review of experience. Therefore, an ideal learning organisation is one that values their capacity to acquire knowledge and use it to enhance the organisation’s effectiveness (p.466). The attribute permit the organisation to succeed in highly dynamic and competitive business environments. It is a skill they can use to create, acquire, and transfer knowledge to individual, team and the rest of the organisation in order to ensure realisation of its business purpose. Moreover, the ability to learn and engage in continuous learning is critical attribute of an organisation and its members since global competition requires strategies and development beyond the conventional (Walter & Williams 2010). 2.2 Managerial and Operational Performance The ability of team and individuals comprising the organisation to understand, agree, and pursue the same vision is another important attribute of a learning organisation that can enhance managerial and operational performance. According to Bernold & Abourisk (), individuals in learning organisations are the ones who actually transform the company thus organisation must ensure that its members are properly informed and ready to work in a cooperative and collaborative environment. An environment characterised by endless adjustments and realignment of goals and visions that needs competencies beyond the ordinary and able to adapt automatically to changes (p.16). In this environment, the members of the organisation are taking the role of key decision makers, exercising choice and judgement, and ready to take full responsibility for their actions (Douglas et al. 2000). Moreover, since a learning organisations typically have an in-depth knowledge of the current competitive environment and factors that can affect their present and future performance, the ability to work in a cooperative and collaborative environment while pursuing similar goals and visions is equally important as deploying new knowledge to succeed (Blazey, 2008). 2.3 Competitiveness and Profitability If one would carefully examined the five key disciplines in learning organisations such as system thinking, personal, mastery, mental modes, building shared vision, and team learning, the bottom line is generally competitiveness and profitability (Tomer, 2002). As an attribute of a learning organisation, the ability to exploit every possible advantage is a very important quality since being competitive and profitable entails a lot of hard work and willingness to transform traditional process and programs in favour of strategies that can move the organisation forward (Gilley & Maycunich, 2000). According to Belasen (2000), self-managed teams are often found in constantly improving organisations as they help the organisation to become more productive and therefore competitive, and profitable (p.252). In other words, the ability to exploit every possible advantage help the organisation becomes more flexible and adaptive to the changing environment, able to give up outmoded knowledge, techniques, and beliefs, as well as learning and learning and deploying new innovative ones (Mabey et al, 1998). Similarly, the ability of an organisation to exploit every opportunity faster than its competitors, enable it to prolong its position in the market (Werthner & Bichler, 2001). 2.4 Building of favourable learning environment Generally, an environment containing better opportunities for learning often results to better learning (Marquardt, 2011). Therefore, a learning organisation that has the ability to act and reflect learning in a daily basis generates better learning opportunities and outcome. According to Shani & Docherty (2003) learning is an important factor for sustainability and competitiveness thus learning organisations must ensure that they are maintaining the right balance between the needs and interest of different stakeholders (p.181). The quality of learning environment plays a very important role in a learning organisation. For instance, attributes of true learning include sense of curiosity and wonder and openness to new possibilities thus an environment characterized by experimentation and open access to information will likely result to better learning (Chawla & Renesch, 1995). According to Bowerman & Van Wart (2011), a learning organisation must create an environment that encourage learning and promote a mind-set for high-quality change. These include providing tools and opportunities for learning and innovation, change-friendly environment, an environment that recognised failures as a learning experience, allows experimentation and performance benchmarking, encourage creative discourse, and so on (p.144). Therefore, an organisations ability to act and reflect learning in a daily basis can result to a learning environment that not only conducive for learning but also beneficial to self-managed teams who are generally dependent on their own skill and judgement. 2.5 Continuous learning and innovation One important attribute of this part of the framework is the organisation’s ability to recognise the value of employees’ well-being and development. An organisation with this ability is more likely to acquire knowledge and skills essential for innovation and new strategies development (Landy & Conte, 2009). Such recognition may include initiatives such training and performance management systems, learning opportunities for different jobs for new hires and programmes for workers development throughout their career. For instance, according to Landy & Conte (2009), a large company like Motorola established a corporate university in the 1980 to ensure that workers are retrained and updated. These include completing a certain number training hours and computer-based training programmes (p.328). Employees’ development or the ability of an organization to improve competencies and performance constantly contribute to employees’ determination and willingness to learn new ways of working and innovate. This is because such initiative is commonly viewed as beneficial to employees’ personal growth and therefore boosts morale and satisfaction (Vallabhaneni, 2009). According to Park (2007), investment in employee development is associated with employee commitment and motivation consequential to an environment of continuous learning and performance improvement (p.36). In contrast, organizations that do not support and developed employees create learning disabilities resulting to poor performance and productivity (Lowe, 2010). 2.6 Expanding capability and high organisation performance The ability to enable and measure learning is an important part of this framework. According to Giesecke (1998), measuring learning is the third key aspect of the learning organisation processes. These include strategic planning efforts intended to gather data and measure work processes (p.37). More importantly, learning organisations must measure the impact of learning on employee performance and customer satisfaction. According to Paton (2005), high performance learning organisations are sophisticated and often link their funding and growth to their ability to measure success (p.272). The ability to enable and measure learning in other words is an ability linked to continuous improvement since results of these measurements enable organisations to get a clear picture of their performance, identify flaws, and maintain those that are effective. For instance, if one learning organisation is good in promoting learning and support continuous improvement then this organisation must have some evidence of what is required in the future endeavour. They cannot simply go ahead with their learning advocacies without any substantial knowledge of what is working or not. Therefore, measuring learning is as important as promoting and building a learning environment since continuous learning and improvement is dependent on the impact of previous learning initiatives. 3. Synopsis of Findings Car Dealership Attributes of a Learning Organisation Scale 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Ability to deploy new knowledge Understand, agree, and pursue the same vision Exploiting every possible advantage Value employees well-being and development Enable and measure learning 4. Justified Recommendations To what extent the organization is already a learning organisation The car dealership as mentioned earlier exist for about a decade and during this time it had already established some learning capabilities induced by competition and customer demands. For instance, the organisation provides training and development annually or whenever there is new product to market. In terms of sales, the organisation is well aware of their customer’s preferences, which they constantly take into account whenever they need to market a new car model. Similarly, the organisation’s customer service learns from experiences and performing better year after year as evidenced by customer satisfaction rating. The organization is already a learning organization in a number of ways as below: a. Learning organizations encourages learning in all levels (Drejer, 2000) There is significant evidence that the car dealership learning initiative is reaching all levels. For instance, even the maintenance personnel are being trained annually along with sales person, accountants, and so on. Moreover, whenever there is a new model to market, all of them attend a whole day seminar and orientation. In other words, the organisation is making sure that all levels of the organisation are well informed and oriented towards a common goal. b. Learning organizations enable supportive working environment, development, and learning of new skills and knowledge (Griego et al, 2000). As mentioned above, the organisation never hesitates to support its employee’s development. In fact, the organisation is supportive of an open learning environment as evidenced by the availability of information regarding the product, trend, customer preferences, and other valuable information that can help each individual learn. Moreover, as shown by employees strong motivation towards their work (coming in early to review their agenda for the day and the list of clients for follow-up, receptivity to announcement being made by their supervisors and top management as well, enthusiasm particularly when a new model is coming, and so on), the organisation managed to create a self-managing workforce constantly developing their own knowledge and skills. The car dealership, as described by its senior employees had changed so much over the last ten years in terms of efficiency and productivity. For instance, the car dealership started with a very small share of car sales in the local market but it had grown to almost 80% in the last 10 years. According to the same employee, the management made it a point to provide employee development programmes each year along with motivational programmes such as employee of the month/year, best car sales representative, and so on. c. Learning organizations link their business strategy to learning (Harrison, 2005) As mentioned earlier, the top management of the car dealership in this study made it a point to train employees in a regular basis, as the success of their business is highly reliant on good reputation and the number of car sold every year. Moreover, the competition in this kind of business is strong thus, innovation and commitment to quality service plays a very important role. The link between business strategy and learning in this organisation is evident in the way management conduct its business. For instance, one senior sales person relates that whenever a new car model is to be introduced in the local market, a series of orientation seminars is expected along with comprehensive reviews of previous sales records and customer expectations. Moreover, the management is very open to the details of its business strategy and share this information to all employees. This supportive environment enables a somewhat automatic knowledge acquisition and voluntary learning on the part of employees. This is where they acquire knowledge required to perform their tasks and responsibilities as demanded by the current business strategy. Consequently, employees are always updated and well informed, moving in the same direction while attempting to accomplish exactly the same goals. The link between business strategy and learning is also evident in the ability of the organisation to manage their customers. For instance, the car dealership after sales service is increasingly becoming sensitive to customer needs over the years and now is able to anticipate future customer requirements. d. Learning organizations allow their members to access their internal knowledge and skills repository (Logan & Sachs, 1997). The ability of an organisation provide free access to internal knowledge and skills repository is one key aspect of a learning organisation (Logan & Sachs, 1997) and for this reason, this quality should be present in this car dealership in order to be considered a legitimate learning organisation. The nature of this business is highly demanding considering the fact that vehicle manufacturing and sales is a global industry. The competition between American, European, and Asian cars for instance demand innovative strategies from the car dealership not only in terms of sales but customer retention through excellent after sales services. The fact that employees of the car dealership in this study is able to learn on their own indicates that the organisation is allowing its members to access whatever is available in their knowledge and skills repository. For instance, the car dealership allows its employees to access information about previous sales promotion strategies so they can use them as reference for their current sales target. It also allows its employees to take some extra hours after work to review vehicle specifications, pricing scheme, and other available options to make their individual sales strategy more efficient and relevant to the organisations business goals. Strategies that could improve the effectiveness of the learning organisation By analysis, the primary success factors of learning organisations are their ability to share information and constantly develop their employees’ knowledge and skills. Therefore, if one would create a strategy to improve the effectiveness of the learning organisation, it must be within or along this line. As discussed earlier, the car dealership is no doubt a learning organisation with capacities for continuous learning and improvement. However, rapid change in technology and ever increasing global competition needs more than just continuous learning and improvement. According to Easterby-Smith et al. (1999), it is fair enough to say that learning organisations must be able to deal with both change and competition but the rapidly changing business environment demands more than mere learning and improvement. For this reason, the only competitive advantage left is to learn faster than other competitors (p.132). Moreover, as soon as an organisation becomes successful they might become victims of their success because the cultural values, ideas, and practices that helped them attain success may dominate their thinking, which is detrimental to effective performance in a rapidly changing environment (Daft, 2009). More importantly, since “learning is not an end itself” (Marsick & Watkins 1999, p.9) and organisations have always had to learn but organisations must consider the fact that the rapid pace of change had intensified the rate at which learning needs to take place (ibid, p.9). The car dealership therefore will benefit more if they learn faster than other competitors do but how can they facilitate such rapid learning. By analysis, open repository of knowledge and skills is a good start but if employees are not taking advantage of this organisational feature then this repository is useless. Moreover, even if employees do so but not in a regular or frequent basis then rapid learning will not also occur. Therefore, it may be beneficial for the organisation to have clear procedures about learning. For instance, it may be necessary to make the annual training and development initiative a quarterly affair since this would make learning faster by 50%. These include orientation and seminars not only when there is a new model to market but on a monthly basis. Frequent orientation and seminars not only can help retain previous knowledge and skills better but clarify and gradually increase them. For instance, an annual orientation or seminar will provide a bulk of knowledge at the same time that may be too much for employees to accommodate. In contrast, regular accumulation of knowledge and skills is clearer and easily absorbed. The faster the learning occurs the faster the organisation manages change and for this reason, the following is recommended: a. Maintain an open repository of knowledge and skills b. Provide employees with updated information as frequent as possible c. Conduct training, seminars, and orientation more often d. Encourage employees to gather external information and learn from them e. Review the organisation’s reward system and provide better employee incentives to increase their motivations and aspirations to learn faster. Barriers to implementing these strategies Although careful study and planning can increase the success of the recommended strategies, some barriers may prevent its successful implementation. The following are expected barriers to rapid or faster organisational learning: a. Management may not support frequent training, seminars, and orientations since this entails additional financial investment on their part. For instance, if the cost of yearly is 5% of the annual budget, the cost of monthly several will force the organisation to add 55% more. Moreover, the car dealership may view this strategy as an over-reaction and unnecessary since changes in organisation strategy only occur whenever there is a new model or vehicle to market that only occur once annually. Similarly, employees themselves may view this strategy as a waste of time considering the fact that they must be out there most of the time and secure as many deals as possible every month. b. Internal information repository may not be updated as frequent as necessary to cope with employees learning requirements. For instance, although employees are motivated to learn faster than their competitors are, absence of new and updated information will prevent them for doing so. Consequently, they may lose interest on rapid learning and return to their usual pace of knowledge and skills acquisition. Another problem is the lack of application for this new knowledge and skills particularly when the organisation’s business strategy is fixed for that particular year. Therefore, business strategy and rapid learning must coincide with each other and there must be some embedded flexibility in the organisation’s business approach. For instance, if the car dealership to increase their sales on Sport Utility Vehicles for the following year then the strategy must recognise the possibility of new information coming in from the market and adopt a flexible approach where employees new knowledge and skills that will be acquired in the near future can be applied. How these barriers might be overcome Overcoming these barriers may not be easy since the strategy is dependent on the positive perception of management and employees. However, if the strategy is presented in a clear and justified manner then chances of acceptance may be higher. For instance, convincing management that regular and more frequent training and seminars can promote rapid learning requires considerable evidence. This evidence may be in the form of survey data from literature and real-life study of factors affecting learning. Another is documented analysis of information consumption and application in the car dealership itself showing the gap between employee knowledge and skills requirements and available updated information. In relation to the above barrier, the availability of new and relevant information is vital to the success of rapid learning initiative since employee knowledge and skills must always much the amount and quality of information in the repository. Regular updates are then necessary as well as encouraging every employee to be vigilant for new information coming from external sources. For instance, allowing employees to innovate on their own can enhance their research and information acquisition skills. Similarly, management who are committed to rapid learning may bring in new information from their respective sources. 5. Summary The car dealership in this study is a legitimate learning organisation due to the presence of important characteristics and qualities attributed to a learning organisation. This include the ability to deploy knowledge, the ability of everyone to understand, agree, and pursue similar vision, exploitative of every possible opportunity, supportive of frequent learning, recognised the value of employee development, and able to measure the impact of learning on their performance. In summary, the car dealership generally encourage learning in all levels, supportive of development and learning, it established a link between business strategy and learning, and provide open access to internal information. However, it may be more beneficial if the organisation learn faster than it is now by conducting more frequent knowledge and skills development programmes, updated information repository, and acquisition of external information. 6. References Dierkes M, Antal A, & Child J, (2003), Handbook of organisation learning and knowledge, UK: Oxford University Press Drejer A, (2000), Organisational Learning and Competence Development, The Learning Organization, Volume 7, Number 4, p..206-220 Griego O, Geroy G, & Wright P, (2000), Predictors of Learning Organizations: A human resource development practitioner’s perspective, The Learning Organization, Volume 7, Number 1, pp.5-12 Harrison R, (2005), Learning and Development, UK: CIPD Publishing Logan L. & Sachs J, (1997), Meeting the Challenges of Primary Schooling, UK: Routledge Read More