learning organization

Examples of learning organization in the following topics:

• Productivity: Argyris

  • Argyris's theory of single- and double-loop learning has been applied to management theory to suggest the best ways for employees to learn.
  • He is best known for his work on learning theories in the area of learning organizations.
  • In single-loop learning, entities (such as individuals, groups, or organizations) modify their actions according to the difference between expected and obtained outcomes.
  • While this type of learning, and this broader type of behavior, is extremely common in the real world, it is not the ideal method to learn and adapt from a broader organizational level.
  • Argyris's theory of single- and double-loop learning has been applied to management theory in order to suggest the best way for employees to learn and think about new goals and strategies for an organization.

• Increasing Adaptation

  • In order to succeed, modern organizations must constantly adapt to evolving technologies and expanding global markets.
  • Strategic management largely pertains to adapting an organization to its business environment.
  • If an organization takes on the identity of a growing, adapting, and learning organization, these qualities become part of the fabric of how it operates.
  • Implementing a strategy of adaptation may have effects that ripple across an organization.
  • The following are methods that can be employed to help an organization and its staff to cope with change:

• Knowledge Management and Behavior Modification

  • The value of knowledge management from the perspective of the organization is its ability to help employees learn and improve their skills, allowing the organization itself to evolve and achieve higher efficiency.
  • Knowledge is an intangible resource which organizations can concretize by documenting experience over time.
  • KM is similar to organizational learning but distinguishes itself because it focuses more on knowledge as a strategic asset of a company's employees.
  • Knowledge management in a company is sometimes seen as an organizational concept that takes the best knowledge from individual employees and organizes it into functional learning and education systems that all employees can learn from.
  • The company's information technology department can make this happen by electronically collecting specific components of an employee's knowledge expertise, creating an online learning module, and redistributing it to the company.

• Why Study Organizational Theory?

  • Organizational theory studies organizations to identify how they solve problems and how they maximize efficiency and productivity.
  • Organizational theory then uses these patterns to formulate normative theories of how organizations function best.
  • Therefore, organizational theory can be used in order to learn the best ways to run an organization or identify organizations that are managed in such a way that they are likely to be successful.
  • Correctly applying organizational theory can have several benefits for both the organization and society at large.
  • One example of how development in an organization affects the modern era is through factory production.

• Developing Leadership Skills

  • Leadership skills can be learned, and leadership development benefits individuals and organizations.
  • Following formal training, organizations can assign leaders to developmental jobs that target the newly acquired skills.
  • Leadership coaching focuses on enhancing the leader's effectiveness, along with the effectiveness of the team and organization.
  • Using self-directed learning, individual leaders teach themselves new skills by selecting areas for development, choosing learning avenues, and identifying resources.
  • These experiences and the ability to learn also have an impact on each other: leaders with a high ability to learn from experience will seek out developmental experiences, and through these experiences leaders increase their ability to learn.

• Defining Intrapreneurship

  • Intrapreneurship means behaving like an entrepreneur while working within a large organization.
  • Intrapreneurship means behaving like an entrepreneur while working within a large organization.
  • Intrapreneurs bring their ideas to the firm to generate new products, processes, or services and thereby act as a force for change within the organization.
  • Capturing a little of the dynamic nature of entrepreneurial management (trying things until successful, learning from failures, attempting to conserve resources, and so on) adds to the innovation potential of an otherwise static organization without exposing those employees to the risks or accountability normally associated with entrepreneurship.
  • In reality, entrepreneurship is often much easier to discuss in a classroom than to integrate into an actual organization.

• Delivering Constructive Feedback

  • Constructive feedback, both positive and negative, can help individuals learn and improve their performance.
  • Critical assessments are essential to learning and performance improvement.
  • Feedback is given in organizations in a variety of ways.
  • The goal of this form of feedback is to apply lessons learned from one project to subsequent ones.
  • Employ constructive feedback in conjunction with the varying control functions available to managers in an organization

• The Inclusive Workplace

  • Corporate culture is the collective behavior of people who are part of an organization and the meanings that these people attach to their actions.
  • Discrimination-and-fairness paradigm: In this phase, the organization focuses simply on adherence to social and legal expectations.
  • Now the organization is looking at the overall benefits derived through diversity and utilizing them to capture maximum competitiveness.
  • Learning-and-effectiveness paradigm: In this final stage, management has successfully integrated inclusion in a way that is proactive and learning-based.
  • Groups are designed to not only capture the innovative and creative aspects of diversity, but also to share diverse skill sets and grow in efficacy through the learning process.

• Organizational Development

  • Vasudevan has referred to OD as a systemic learning and development strategy intended to change the basics of beliefs, attitudes, and relevance of an organization's values and structure.
  • Experts in systems thinking and organizational learning have also emerged as OD catalysts.
  • These emergent perspectives view the organization as the holistic interplay of a number of systems, all of which impact the processes and outputs of the entire organization.
  • The purpose of OD is to address the evolving needs of successful organizations.
  • Rewards: For what actions does the organization formally reward or punish its members?

• Human Resource Planning

  • Human resource planning identifies the competencies an organization needs to fulfill its goals and acquires the appropriate people.
  • Human resource planning is a process that identifies current and future human resource needs for an organization, based on the goals and objectives set by upper management.
  • Human resource planning serves as a link between human resource management and the overall strategic plan of an organization.
  • These skills and abilities are measured against those needed to achieve the vision, mission, and business goals of the organization.
  • If the available people lack necessary competencies, the organization plans how it will develop them.