Organizational Learning
“Learning without thought is labor lost.”
“I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I
do and I understand.”
~Confucius
Prof. univ.dr Constantin Bratianu
Asist. univ.drd. Violeta Mihaela Dinca
Introduction
• Environmental change: technology, knowledge economy,
globalization, demographic change.
• Learning is inevitable and increasingly important to survive
changes in today’s workplace.
• Organizational learning is an area of knowledge within
organizational theory that studies models about the way an
organization learns and adapts.
• In Organizational development (OD), learning is a
characteristic of an adaptive organization = an organization
that is able to sense changes in signals from its environment
(both internal and external) and adapt accordingly.
Organizational studies
Organizational studies, organizational behavior, and organizational theory
enclose the systematic study and careful application of knowledge about
how people - as individuals and as groups - act within organizations.
The Greek philosopher Plato wrote about the essence of leadership.
Aristotle addressed the topic of persuasive communication.
Niccolò Machiavelli laid the foundation for contemporary work on organizational
power and politics.
In 1776, Adam Smith advocated a new form of organizational structure based
on the division of labor.
One hundred years later, German sociologist Max Weber wrote about rational
organizations and initiated discussion of charismatic leadership.
After the First World War, the focus of organizational studies shifted to analysis
of how human factors and psychology affected organizations (Henri Fayol,
Abraham Maslow).
Learning Theories
Four different orientations to theorizing learning:
• Behaviorism. The behaviourist movement in psychology has looked to the
use of experimental procedures to study behavior in relation to the
environment.
• Cognitivism. Where behaviourists looked to the environment, this orientation
turned to the individual's mental processes. In other words, this is concerned
with cognition - the act or process of knowing.
• Constructivism views learning as a process in which the learner actively
constructs or builds new ideas or concepts based upon current and past
knowledge or experience. In other words, "learning involves constructing
one's own knowledge from one's own experiences."
• The social/situational orientation. It is not so much that learners acquire
structures or models to understand the world, but they participate in
frameworks that have structure. Learning involves participation in a
community of practice.
• Other learning theories:
-Andragogy - the art and science to help adults learn
-Connectivism - a recent theory of Networked learning which focuses on
learning as making connections.
Models that facilitate organizational learning
• Chris Argyris
• Learning is defined as occurring under 2 conditions:
1)Organizations achieve what they intended :
A match between the design for action and the actuality
of outcome
2) A mismatch between intentions and outcomes is
identified and corrected A mismatch is turned into a
match
Organizations do not perform the actions of learning
It is individuals as agents of organizations who produce
the behavior that leads to learning.
Chris Argyris
Single-loop learning and double-loop learning
• Organizations can create conditions that may
significantly influence what individuals frame as the
problem, design as a solution, and produce as action
to solve a problem.
• Individuals may bring constraints to the learning
situation that are relatively independent of the
organization’s requirements.
• Example: the human mind’s limited capability for
information processing
Single-loop learning and double-loop learning
• Whenever an error is detected and corrected without
questioning or altering the underlying values of the
system the learning is single-loop.
Match
Governing variables Actions Consequences Mismatch
Single-loop learning
Double-loop learning
Single-loop learning and double-loop learning
• Example:
• The term is borrowed from electrical engineering
• A thermostat = a single-loop learner
• It is programmed to detect states of too cold or too
hot, and to correct the situation turning the heat on or
off.
• If the thermostat asked itself such questions as
why it was set at 68 degrees, or why it was
programmed as it was, then it would be a double-
loop learner.
Single-loop learning and double-loop learning
• Single-loop learning occurs when mismatches appear
and are corrected, by changing actions
• Double-loop learning occurs when mismatches are
corrected by first examining and altering the governing
variables and then the actions.
Match
Governing variables Actions Consequences Mismatch
Single-loop learning
Double-loop learning
Single-loop learning and double-loop learning
• The diagram indicates that learning has not occurred
until a match or a mismatch is produced.
• Therefore learning may not be said to occur if
someone (acting for the organization) discovers a
new problem or invents a new solution to a problem.
• Learning occurs when the invented solution is
actually produced.
• Discovering problems and inventing solutions are
necessary, but not sufficient conditions, for
organizational learning.
• Organizations exist in order to act and to accomplish
their intended consequences.
Models that facilitate organizational learning
• March & Olsen (1975)
• link up individual and organizational learning;
• individual beliefs individual action organizational action
response from the environment improved individual
beliefs the cycle then repeats over and over.
• Learning occurs as better beliefs produce better actions.
• Kim (1993)
• analyzes all the possible breakdowns in the information flows
in the model, leading to failures in organizational learning;
• Example: what happens if an individual action is rejected by
the organization for social or political reasons and therefore no
organizational action takes place?
The Need of Organizational Learning
• Organizations need to shift from a deterministic systems
approach towards a purpose-seeking systems approach.
They need to establish a culture of inquiry and evaluation.
• This requires a move from ‘dictatorial’ to ‘participative’
organizational style with an emphasis on learning and
evaluation at individual, group and organizational levels.
• Remember:
• The dictatorial leader traits are: all decision-making power is
theirs, unrealistic in demands, uses excessive discipline and
punishment, does not allow others to question decisions or
authority
• The participative leader traits are: team member ideas or
equal with the leader, everyone’s input is considered, leader is
team facilitator, leader is coach/player, frequently accepts
teams ideas over own, focus is on stimulating creativity,
creates culture of innovation
• The other 2 organizational styles are: authoritative and consultative
Organizational knowledge
• Managers often use knowledge in the way that a handyman will use
his or her skills, materials and tools that are at hand to meet the demands of
a particular situation.
• Example: Unlike an engineer who will plan carefully and scientifically his
or her every action to deliver the desired outcome, such as a steam
engine, a handyman is flexible and opportunistic, often using materials in
unorthodox or unusual ways, and relies a lot on trial and error.
• scientific knowledge guides the engineer, the physician or the chemist,
but managers are often informed by a different type of know-how
• ‘narrative knowledge’ or ‘experiential knowledge’
• = the Kind of knowledge that comes from experience and resides in
stories and narratives of how real people in the real world dealt with real
life problems, successfully or unsuccessfully.
• As the Chinese proverb says "A wise man learns from experience; a
wiser man learns from the experience of others."
Individual learning (1)
• What does it mean to say that an organization learns? Simply summing
individual learning is inadequate to model organizational learning.
• The following definition outlines the essential difference between the two: A
organization focused on learning, is one that actively creates,
captures, transfers, and mobilizes knowledge to enable it to adapt to a
changing environment. Thus, the key aspect of organizational
learning is the interaction that takes place among individuals.
• Capturing individual learning is the first step to making it useful to an
organization.
• Methods for capturing knowledge and experience = publications, activity
reports, interviews, and presentations.
• Capturing includes:
• organizing knowledge in ways that people can find it;
• storage in repositories, databases, or libraries to ensure that the knowledge
will be available when and as needed.
Indicators relevant for
individual/ organizational learning
Romania USA
Statistics from the World Bank
Indicators relevant for
individual/ organizational learning
France Germany
Statistics from the World Bank
Human Development Index
Three dimensions in the HDI
Life expectancy at birth, as an index of population health and longevity
Knowledge and education, as measured by the adult literacy rate (with two-thirds weighting) and the combined
primary, secondary, and tertiary gross enrollment ratio (with one-third weighting).
Standard of living, as measured by the natural logarithm of GDP per capita at purchasing power parity.
What is Organizational
Learning Culture?
• Organizational culture includes a number of basic
elements that provide a guide to what is important, what
attitudes are appropriate, and how to behave within an
organization.
• These elements are beliefs, values, assumptions, attitudes,
and behavioral norms (shared expectations).
• Organizational learning could also be seen as indicators of an
organization with a culture of learning or a commitment to
learning:
– a learning strategy (learning becomes a deliberate and conscious part
of the strategy)
– a flexible structure with reduced bureaucracy which encourages cross
function co-operation
A systemic view Environmental factors such as
of workplace learning competitiveness, globalization,
knowledge economy, technological
change and government policy
The workplace learning community
Networks and The enterprise
partnerships Culture of learning Technology
Supply chains
Government The workgroup
and individual Training
Community
Professional Skills and capability
societies Innovative capacity Plans
Other enterprises
Formal VET Access to networks
Workplace learning for increased
competitiveness and innovative capacity
Workplace Learning
formal
learning
Workplace
learning
non
informal formal
learning learning
Formal/ Informal
• Formal learning is learning that takes place within a teacher-
student relationship, such as in a school system.
• Formal education is highly institutionalized, bureaucratic,
curriculum driven, and formally recognized with grades,
diplomas, or certificates
• Informal learning occurs in a variety of places, such as
• learning at home, work,
• through daily interactions
• through shared relationships among members of society.
• For many learners this includes
• language acquisition,
• cultural norms and
• manners.
• Informal learning for young people is an ongoing process that
also occurs in a variety of places, such as out of school time, as
well as in youth programs and at community centers.
Formal/ Informal
• In the context of corporate training and education, the
term Informal Learning is widely used to describe the
many forms of learning that takes place independently
from instructor-led programs:
books,
self-study programs,
performance support materials and systems,
coaching,
communities of practice.
Formal/ Informal
• To illustrate the difference between formal and informal learning, consider
the game of golf.
• If you want to learn to play golf, you can go to a seminar, read a book about
the history and etiquette of golf, watch a videotape of great golfing moments,
and then you can say you know something about golf. But have you really
learned to play golf?
• You can then buy and enjoy a great e-golf game, find a golf pro, take
lessons, take a simulated swing on a simulated golf course, practice putting,
slice and dice balls at the driving range all weekend. After all this, you
think you can do it, but have you really learned to play golf?
• From your first shot on your first hole, it takes hours of adopting and
adapting, alone and in a group, in all sorts of weather and conditions. You
discover what you know and can do, swing all the clubs, ask all sorts of
questions, fail and succeed, practice and practice some more, before you
have really learned to play golf.
Formal/ Informal
• Real learning, then, is the state of being able to adopt and
adapt what you know and can do—what you have acquired
through formal learning — under a varying set of informal
circumstances. As shown in the above graph, it accounts for
about 75 percent of the learning curve.
Formal/ Informal
• The majority of companies that provide training are currently involved only
with the formal side of the continuum. Most of today’s investments are on
the formal side. The net result is that companies spend the most money on
the smallest part - 25% - of the learning equation.
• The other 75 percent of learning happens as the learner creatively adopts
and adapts to ever changing circumstances.
• Technology can also be used to facilitate the informal as well as the formal
transfer of knowledge by including:
• e-mail connections with instructors,
• real-time Internet meeting places,
• virtual-learning support groups,
• instant messaging,
• expert networks,
• mentor and coaching networks,
• personal e-learning portals,
• moderated chats, and more
Non-formal learning
• Non formal learning is a distinction in learning between formal
and informal learning. It is learning that occurs in a formal
learning environment, but that is not formally recognized.
• It typically involves workshops, community courses, interest
based courses, short courses, or conference style seminars.
The learning takes place in a formal setting such as an
educational organization, but is not formally recognized within a
syllabus framework.
• The term non-formal has been used most often to describe
organized learning outside of the formal education system.
These offerings tend to be short-term, voluntary, and have few
if any prerequisites. However they typically have a curriculum
and often a facilitator.
• Example: learning by coming together with people with similar
interests and exchanging viewpoints, in clubs or in
(international) youth organizations, workshops.
Continuum of Business Education
Teacher-Directed Learner-Directed
(Training) (Development)
Technical Skills People Skills Conceptual Skills
Courses Courses Courses
Accounting Team Building Leadership
Finance Conflict Management Strategy
Harvard Business Review - Is yours a Learning Organization?
David Garwin & Amy Edmondson – professors at Harvard Business School
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lUP4WcfNyAA&feature=related
• If an organization is learning more rapidly than the competition
it can get ahead and stay ahead;
• If there’s one company that runs the test of being a learning
organization, it’s GE – they have the processes, they have the
climate and clearly the leadership behavior. (In 2009, Forbes
ranked GE as the world's largest company)
• A culture of psychological safety facilitates organizational
learning helping the teams get a supportive learning
environment: comfortable at asking questions, admitting
mistakes, floating new ideas
• Hospital: blame-free reporting – being straightforward, open
• What if the organization as a whole does not encourage this
concept? As a manager we could start by modeling your own
behavior: show curiosity, ask questions, admit when things are
puzzling, acknowledge the uncertainty, invite others’ input.
Organizational learning versus
learning organization
Organizational learning is an area of knowledge within organizational
theory that studies models about the way an organization learns
and adapts.
A Learning organization is the term given to a company that facilitates
the learning of its members and continuously transforms itself.
Learning organizations develop as a result of the pressures facing
modern organizations and enables them to remain competitive in the
business environment.
The university = A learning organization
• The Agora Model
• The Acropolis Model
The term of acropolis (signifying «highest city»)
signifies in general manner a citadel The Agora of Athens was, during the
build on the highest ground and most well protected place of a Antiquity, the main square/ place of the town. It
town (polis), servant as last refuge for populations when they served for commerce, for meetings and
were attacked. gathering of the Ecclesia.
The acropolis also includes all the temples
dedicated to the most important gods of the town.
The University = A learning organization
The Business School Model The entrepreneurial model
Acropolis Agora
• Decision with sufficient data • Decision with insufficient data
• The information is filtered, coming from • The information is not filtered, coming
from different sources
authorized sources
• The evaluation is made by multiple
• The evaluation is made by oral/ written feed-back
exams
• Learning is phenomena of learning by
• Training or learning is held in class doing
• Identifying and analyzing situations and • Attention is focused on solutions than
problems in order to give a specific answer on problems, on the future than on the
• Elitist frame past
• Rigorous selection of inputs • Takes into consideration the market
rules
• Takes into account the economic
impact of its products
• Makes promotion of its flexibility and of
critic curiosity
Glassman et. Al (2003) - Academic Entrepreneurship: Views on Balancing the Acropolis and the Agora
Lifelong learning
• Lifelong learning, also known as LLL, is the "lifelong, lifewide, voluntary, and self-
motivated“ pursuit of knowledge for either personal or professional reasons.
• It enhances social inclusion, active citizenship and personal development, and
competitiveness and employability.
• The term recognizes that learning is not confined to childhood or the classroom, but
takes place throughout life and in a range of situations.
• Learning can no longer be divided into a place and time to acquire knowledge (school)
and a place and time to apply the knowledge acquired (the workplace).
• Instead, learning can be seen as something that takes place on an on-going basis
from our daily interactions with others and with the world around us.
• There are several established contexts for lifelong learning beyond traditional
"brick and mortar" schooling:
• Home schooling where this involves learning to learn or the development of informal
learning patterns.
• Adult education or the acquisition of formal qualifications or work and leisure skills
later in life.
• Continuing education which often describes extension or not-for-credit courses offered
by higher education institutions.
• Knowledge work which includes professional development and on-the-job training.
• Personal learning environments or self-directed learning using a range of sources and
tools including online applications.
Lifelong learning (% of the population aged 25 to 64 participating in
education and training)
Anyone who stops learning is old,
whether at twenty or eighty. ~Henry Ford
Learn as much as you can while you are
young, since life becomes too busy later.
~Dana Stewart Scott
