Learning Organizations

March 23, 2012 By Comments

By Shirley J. Caruso, M.A., Human Resource Development

A learning organization is an institution or company that facilitates the learning of its members and also keeps on transforming itself. The main objective of a learning institution is to create a knowledgeable workforce by encouraging employees to share and exchange information. Modern organizations develop learning organizations in order to survive and prosper in today’s competitive business environment.

Advantages of Learning Organizations

There are a variety of advantages that are associated with learning organizations. Learning organizations create a culture that supports continual employee and help employees learn from experiment and experience. Learning organizations allow every employee to contribute to learning.  An organization benefits through learning organizations because it has the potential to remain competitive through maintaining high levels of innovation, flexibility and agility. Involvement of employees helps them to gain personal satisfaction and better knowledge of customer needs.  Employees are better equipped to respond to external pressure and the organization’s business image is enhanced because employees are more customer-oriented.

Challenges of Learning Organizations

Although there are many benefits gained by learning organizations, they are not without challenges.  Employees need to adopt a learning culture and teamwork which can be hard to instill in an employee who does not find learning beneficial to him or does not share the same vision. Management should encourage learning that would not only be beneficial to the company but to individuals as well. Learning is also hard for large organizations because of the complex organizational structures that make communication, internal knowledge sharing and inter-employee relationships weak.

Learning Organization Theories

Peter Senge  illustrates that modern learning organizations should exhibit five characteristics.  These are shared vision (leaders cultivate a shared vision among people throughout the organization, as well as with stakeholders), mental models (leaders surface and challenge mental models which hinder open communication and learning in themselves and others), systems thinking (leaders foster practices, processes, and relationships that make systems thinking a normal approach to innovation and problem solving), personal mastery (leaders promote the intrinsic and extrinsic benefits of personal mastery, recognizing areas of needed growth, and being disciplined about those improvements), and team learning (leaders ensure an atmosphere where people feel safe to express their ideas and feedback across functions and levels, to harness and deeper synergy from team leaning) (Senge, 1990).  Senge argues that many management problems encountered in organizations are a result of leaders who fail to see the organization as a dynamic process, and instead of focusing on it as a whole they tend to breakdown systems into individual units. Senge says that cause and effect are the best practices in organizations such that when faced with a problem the first approach involves looking for solutions.

Team learning theory is another important characteristic that suggests that learning organizations can only create and develop a team with a common goal. Senge believes that there is a noticeable growth and better results when members learn together. Team learning produces transformational leaders who believe that a higher level of thinking cannot be achieved individually. Team learning allows member to notice in advance the patterns of interaction that would undermine learning (Senge, 1990).

Summary

Learning organizations are significant in the modern world where technology and competition call for better service delivery. Learning organizations have the potential to offer better services and have better employees who are knowledgeable and skilled and can respond well to change.

References

Senge, P.M. 1990. The Fifth Discipline Field book: Strategies and Tools for Building a Learning Organization. London: Century Business.

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Filed Under: Employee Performance Tagged With: , , ,

Learning Organizations Empower Employees

November 1, 2011 By Comments

Human resource development (HRD) is a practice that combines training, organizational development, and career development efforts to encourage improvement of individual, group, and organizational performance.  Its purpose is to enhance employee performance and productivity, which leads to employee and customer satisfaction and an increase in the profitability of the organization.

HRD efforts are necessary for any organization so that the employees and managers of the organization are kept abreast of developments in their industry as well as the market forces at work that may present opportunities or threats. Organizations that implement HRD are referred to as learning organizations.

A Shared Mission

The idea of the learning organization is one where employees are empowered to act based on the relevant knowledge, skills, and attitudes (KSA) they have acquired through HRD efforts.  HRD efforts must be aligned with an organization’s mission and shared with employees to empower the employees and develop innovative organizations. Without this common goal, employees will not extend themselves to take responsibilities or apply their creative energies. Having a clear mission that is supported by employees is, therefore, an essential strategic building block of a learning organisation. If the mission of the organization is widely shared and understood by employees, they feel more capable and confident of taking initiatives.

Managers as Coaches

In today’s competitive work environment, employees are encouraged to take calculated risks, to problem solve, and to innovate. Managers are seen as coaches rather than superiors, where the rank of an employee is not as important as the ability of the employee to contribute to the performance of the organization.

Encouraging Innovation

Another important quality of a learning organization is its ability to construct new knowledge and to use it for the benefit of the organization. Embracing this quality requires taking a look at the state of affairs that currently exist and what procedures are in place, which allows employees to bring new ideas about current conditions into the organization. Managers should also encourage employees to continuously improve work processes and try new ideas. A system that gives recognition to the innovative ideas of employees should also be in place.

The Transfer of Skills, Knowledge, and Attitudes

Skill and knowledge acquisition are obviously useless unless they can be transferred to the job by the employee. It is even more advantageous if this knowledge can also be transferred to other parts of the organization to solve problems. Learning organizations not only encourage these practices but also have mechanisms or systems that encourage them to take place. Part of this knowledge transfer involves benchmarking, or learning successful practices from other organizations and competitors as well. Such benchmarking activities ensure that organizations are always learning to improve their management processes and their products or services.

Teamwork

Emphasizing teamwork is for learning organizations. When encouraged to work in teams, employees bring their collective knowledge and skills to solve problems and to develop innovative ideas for the organization. Teams should be formed with employees from a variety of functional areas for optimum effectiveness.

Summary

Together with HRD efforts, employees and managers contribute to the success of a learning organization through shared vision, coaching, innovation, problem-solving, and teamwork. Empowered employees empower organizations.

By Shirley J. Caruso, M.A., Human Resource Development

 

 

Filed Under: Adult Learning, Employee Performance, Resources & Tools Tagged With: ,
 
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