Advantages and Disadvantages of a Learning Organization - Coursework Example

Organizational Learning and Leadership Name: Instructor: Course: Date: Introduction In the past two decades, the level of competition in the local and international market has increased tremendously. The reason is that multinational businesses that have diversified their operations to different markets across the world are taking advantage of the liberalization of markets. Currently, globalization has forced countries to remove tariffs and economies of countries across the world to integrate. As A result, international firms have diversified their businesses to less competitive but high potential markets with the aim of reducing the risks and uncertainties that are associated with focusing on a single or few markets. These are organizations that have accumulated huge amounts of money that they use as a barrier of entry to other interested investors (Schein, 2010). Therefore, with powerful organizations expanding their operations in order to maximize their returns, the market has become dynamic with new challenges arising each day. As a result, it’s critical for the business to develop a learning culture in order to retain its competitive advantage in the market. This paper will analyze the reason why the concept of learning organization is a nice theory but impractical to practice. Description of a learning organization A learning organization is a firm that has put in place the necessary mechanisms that facilitates the learning of its subordinates. It has an effective training program that equips the employees with the latest skills that enable them to maintain or improve the position of the business in the market. For instance, Apple has an ideal learning culture whereby the program starts with identifying raw talents. It has been able to achieve this objective by working together with institutions of higher learning in order to identify students with rare talents. The company sponsors them and later trains them before they are incorporated to become part of the organization. Furthermore, the company keeps on training its existing workforce in order to enlighten them on ways to deal with new challenges that keeps on arising in the market (Goldsmith, Morgan, & Ogg, 2004). This explains the reason why the company has been able to retain its global position despite the increased competition from new entrants and other existing companies. A learning organization is one with a platform to build a shared vision. This enables the individual employees to enhance their vision and energy towards learning new aspects in the market. Furthermore, such organizations encourage its employees to dialogue, and try new things that might enhance the performance of the business in the market (Schein, 2010). A learning organization is one which has an effective system that incorporates changes in order to improve its operations in the market. The management and employees are open to learn about the new trends in the market and incorporate them in the production systems. With the increasing number of substitutes in the market, customers have a variety of options to select from. Therefore, businesses have been forced to shift their attention from profit making to satisfy the tastes and preferences of the target market. A learning organization is able to identify such changes and train its employees on ways to improve their relationship with the customers (Reed, & Signorelli, 2011). This is critical in ensuring that the products and services are customized according to the needs of the customers. This plays a significant role in enabling the business to retain its loyal customers and prevent them from being attracted to the substitutes and competitors’ products in the market. A learning organization is a firm that has an ideal environment that facilitates learning. Such an organization has set goals and objectives that enable the subordinates to learn new things in the working environment. As a result, employees are able to expand their capacity to develop and achieve the results they desire. Furthermore, it has ways of nurturing new ideas and expansive thinking. Furthermore, the organizations’ policies are enshrined towards enabling the employees to learn new trends in the market. A learning organization is one that has incorporated a positive learning culture. Therefore, the employees are free to unleash their potential. These are organizations that have established strong teams whose members emanate from different cultural, religious, and racial backgrounds (Mulford, Silins, & Leithwood, 2004). Therefore, they are able to learn from each and incorporate the necessary changes that would enhance the performance of the business in the market. Advantages of a learning organization One of the benefits of being a learning organization is improved efficiency. Currently, new technologies keep on being introduced into the market. Furthermore, the tastes and preferences of the target market keeps on changing. Therefore, the organization should keep on adjusting its operations in order to meet these needs. Introducing new technologies enables the business to increase its sales and reduce the cost of production. As a result, it is able to use the extra amounts to expand its operations to new market. On the other hand, a learning organization is able to develop a culture of teamwork. With the improved movement of people from one part of the world to the other which has been facilitated by globalization, the market has become diversified (O'Connor, Bronner, & Delaney, 2007). Therefore, the interests of various customers vary significantly. In order to understand these aspects, the organizations have been forced to employ a diversified workforce. Therefore, through a learning culture, they are able to understand the main factors that affect the consumption behavior of the target market. The employees are able to make the necessary changes, thereby retaining its competitive advantage in the market. A learning organization benefits from reduced turnover levels. Employees prefer to work in an organization whereby they are able to express themselves, grow, and develop. Therefore, a learning organization is able to offer the subordinates with a platform to unleash their potential. This plays a significant role in increasing their levels of satisfaction and loyalty. Therefore, they become committed towards the set goals and objectives of the company (Lapré & Nembhard, 2011). Many organizations have lost their competitive advantage in the market after losing their highly experienced employees to their competitors. The employees are able to leak the competitive secrets of the business. This has made the competitors to stage a strong marketing campaign against the businesses and reduce the market segment of the firms. Learning organizations are able to develop leaders at all levels, an aspect that helps them with succession planning. The competition of rare talents in the job market has intensified with some organizations opting to form partnership with institutions of higher learning in order to identify young talents. This has been necessitated by the need by to innovate in order to retain the loyalty of the customer towards the company’s products and services (Marshall, 2000). Multinational companies are willing to pay highly qualified employees a fortune in order for them to fill the top positions. Therefore, learning within the organization reduces this aspect by enabling the organization to develop its own leaders who takes over the top positions when a vacancy arises. The move is important in motivating the employees to work harder in order to be identified and picked to fill these positions. In addition, it increases the loyalty of the employees towards the organization because they feel appreciated and their contribution towards the success of the organization recognized (Information Resources Management Association, 2012). A Learning organization benefit immensely from reduced resistance when introducing critical changes that affect the future of the business. With increased competition in the market, businesses are forced to introduce frequent changes in order to meet the needs of the customers. However, many organizations have failed to initiate the change process due to resistance from the employees. However, in a learning organization, top-level managers find it easy to introduce changes because the subordinates are always willing to learn and adopt new things (Easterby-Smith, & Lyles, 2011). This plays a significant role in enabling the organizations to adapt to any changes in the market. For instance, a change in perceptions regarding specific products and services might necessitate a change in the production process. However, in a rigid organization, the managers might find it very hard to introduce the necessary changes. This might derails the progress of the business especially in the current dynamic market. Disadvantages of a learning organization One of the disadvantages of a learning organization is that it faces frequent conflicts between the employees. The reason is that the level of individualism is very high. Each employee is eager to pursue personal interests. This kills the spirit of teamwork within an organization. In case the issue is not regulated, it might affect the overall performance of the business in the market. For instance, employees might focus too much on their individual development and forget about the importance of working as a single team (Frydman, Wilson, & Wyer, 2000). This would lead to individual competitions within the departments. This would affect the sharing of ideas by the employees, thereby, making it hard for them to deal with various challenges that affect the business in the market. Learning organizations suffer from slowed processes. The reason is that employees shift their attention towards personal development rather than achieving the set goals. In some cases, skilled employees who have completed the learning processes might start demanding for salary increase, an aspect that might destabilize the organization. Such subordinates can be attracted by better working terms that are being offered by the competitors (Hasebrook & Maurer, 2004). Therefore, despite heavy investment on training the employees, the organization can lose such subordinates to more established businesses in the market. Building a learning organization The first step towards building a learning organization is to establish an effective communication system. For instance, the top-level managers in an organization should implement an open office policy. This would be significant in enabling the employees to communicate directly to the top-level managers without the use of intermediaries (Beitler, 2005). This would offer the subordinates with an opportunity to air their grievances that might affect their growth and development to the managers for assistance. Aligning the middle managers to create a learning culture is significant in building a learning organization. The reason is that they are the ones that drive learning and not the human resource team. This can be achieved by training them how to accommodate employees’ ideas and the importance of a learning culture to the organization as a whole. This is significant in making them realize that training is just a tool to impart knowledge (Dierkes, 2001). Furthermore, they should be enlightened that learning is mainly about sharing lessons, making mistakes, and improving gradually. Exposing the workforce to diverse learning resources is significant in building a learning organization. This can be achieved by exposing the subordinates to social media, online videos, and expose them to working with diverse employees. This would facilitate the learning process. Involving technology would play a significant role in accelerating learning within an organization. The organization should ensure that employees have access to the internet and other critical tools such as blogs, wikis, and other related platforms that are free (Brown, Kenney, & Zarkin, 2006). Furthermore, managers should move beyond metrics. The reason is learning is tacit and is only visible through results achieved by the team. Potential difficulties One of the main difficulties towards building a learning organization is resistance to change by the employees. For instance the managers would feel that once the employees undergo the training process, they are likely to replace them. Therefore, the managers are likely to frustrate the process in order to maintain the status quo (Argote, 2013). On the other hand, the rest of the employees would feel that the changes are likely to affect their working routine as they will be expected to perform better after being equipped with the new skills. The new trends in the market are likely to affect the change process. With new technologies being introduced in the market, it has become significant for the organization to keep on upgrading its systems. Therefore, new changes would force the organization to train the employees afresh. This is not sustainable for the business. Conclusion A learning organization is able to cope with different changes in the global market. An organization can build a learning environment by developing an effective communication system and creating a serene working environment. However, implementing these changes can face stiff resistance, an aspect that can derail the process. Furthermore, with frequent changes in the market, it is not possible to sustain the learning environment. References Argote, L. (2013). Organizational learning: Creating, retaining and transferring knowledge. Heidelberg: Springer. Beitler, M. A. (2005). Strategic organizational learning: A practitioner's guide for managers and consultants. Greensboro, NC: PPI. Brown, M. L., Kenney, M., & Zarkin, M. J. (2006). Organizational learning in the global context. Aldershot, England: Ashgate. Dierkes, M. (2001). Handbook of organizational learning and knowledge. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 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