Learning Organization

Outline:
• Definition of Organization
• Definition of Learning Organization
• The Element of Organization
• The Fifth Disciplines-the Art and Practice of Learning
Organization
• Strategic controls
• Learning culture
• Key Management process
• Tool and Technique
• Learning in healthcare organization
• Org.Structure and dynamics
• Characteristics learning Org
• Learning Org Knowledge
 What is the organization?
• An organization (or organisation — see
spelling differences) is a social arrangement
which pursues collective goals, which controls
its own performance, and which has a
boundary separating it from its environment.
• The word itself is derived from the Greek word
ὄργανον (organon) meaning tool. The term is
used in both daily and scientific English in
multiple ways.
Learning Organization

• A ‘learning’ organization is one of which

facilities learning and personal development
for all its staff whilst continually
transforming itself.
• Organization learn by the process of
individual members acquiring knowledge
and skills which becomes transformed into
organizational learning when it becomes
transformed into organizational learning
when it becomes embedded in some way in
the life of an organization.
 Cont…

•Learning Organization
– An organization that has developed the capacity
to continuously learn, adapt, and change.
•Knowledge Management
– The cultivation of a learning culture where
organizational members systematically gather
and share knowledge with others in order to
achieve better performance.
 Organizational Designs
• The Learning Organization
– An organization that has developed the capacity to
continuously learn, adapt, and change through the
practice of knowledge management by employees.
– Characteristics of a learning organization:
• An open team-based organization design that
empowers employees
• Extensive and open information sharing
• Leadership that provides a shared vision of the
organization’s future, support and encouragement
• A strong culture of shared values, trust, openness,
and a sense of community.
 The Elements of Organization
• Structure :defines formal channels for reporting,
and issuing instructions and the allocation of
authority and responsibility.
• Systems and Procedures : consist of methods for
information processing, decision making and
taking action.
• Values and Culture : may be more or less
formalized - bureau tic /mechanistic,
team-working, outward-looking, putting people
first, and organic.
 Peter Senge in The Fifth
Disciplines-the Art and Practice
• of Learning Organization
Personal mastery- the discipline of continually
clarifying and deepening one’s personal vision
and objectivity.
• Making mental models- the discipline of creating
with metaphors and language a mental model of
what the organization is, what it stands for, and
how it works.
• Building shared visions- the discipline of
translating the visions of an organisation’s leader
or leaders from the objectives shared by a few to
a vision for everyone in that organisation.
• Team learning -the discipline of ensuring
that the collective intelligence of a team
is greater than the sum of the individual
intelligence; if a team is dysfunctional,
the intelligence of a team will be less
than the summed intelligence of the
individuals.
• Systems thinking- what senge calls the
fifth discipline -the discipline in which
individual elements are linked together
into a coherent set of activities with a
common set of objectives.
 System Thinking

Principl Result
es Insights Rules Action
s

Single loop

Double loop

Triple loop
 Cont…
• Organisational learning )described in more
non-normative terms is the occurrence of
behavior changes under the influence of
knowledge.
• Argyris (2000) refers to this process as single-loop
learning. Many quality improvement projects can
be called single-loop learning.
• Double-loop learning involves changing the
underlying principles. The term covers e.g.
business process re-engineering.-->thus about
why…???
• A third loop must be added to the two loops of
Argyris: triple-loop learning (Swierenga and
Wierdsma, 1990). Triple loop learning is when the
principles upon which the organization is based
are put into question:do we or do we not want to
provide health care in a commercial basis?
 Strategic Controls

• Direct Control is appropriate when the work is

capable of being clearly specified in terms of
the one best way of doing it and when outputs
can be precisely measured in terms of
quantity and quality.
• Indirect Control will be appropriate in creative
work, research and work which involves rapid
responses to unexpected events.
 A Learning Culture
• Future, external orientation these organisations
develop understanding of their environment;
senior teams take time out to think about the
future. Widespread use of external sources and
advisors e.g. customers on planning teams.
• Free exchange and flow of information - systems
are in place to ensure that expertise is available
where it is needed; individuals network
extensively, crossing organisational boundaries to
develop their knowledge and expertise.
• Commitment to learning, personal development -
support from top management; people at all levels
encouraged to learn regularly; learning is rewarded.
Time to think and learn (understanding, exploring,
reflecting, developing)
• Valuing people - ideas, creativity and "imaginative
capabilities" are stimulated, made use of and
developed. Diversity is recognised as a strength. Views
can be challenged.
• Climate of openness and trust - individuals are
encouraged to develop ideas, to speak out, to
challenge actions.
• * Learning from experience - learning from mistakes is
often more powerful than learning from success.
Failure is tolerated, provided lessons are learnt
("learning from fast failure" - Peters).
Key Management Processes
• Strategic and Scenario Planning - approaches
to planning that go beyond the numbers,
encourage challenging assumptions, thinking
'outside of the box'. They also allocate a
proportion of resources for experimentation.
• Competitor Analysis - as part of a process of
continuous monitoring and analysis of all key
factor in the external environment, including
technology and political factors. A coherent
competitor analysis process that gathers
information from multiple sources, sifts,
analyses, refines, adds value and redistributes
is evidence that the appropriate mechanisms
are in place.
• Information and Knowledge Management - using
techniques to identify, audit, value (cost/benefit),
develop and exploit information as a resource
(known as IRM - information resources
management); use of collaboration processes and
groupware e.g. Lotus Notes, First Class to categorise
and share expertise.
• Capability Planning - profiling both qualitatively
and quantitatively the competencies of the
organisation. Profiling these on a matrix can be
helpful to planning adjustment:
• Team and Organisation development - the use of
facilitators to help groups with work, job and
organisation design and team development -
reinforcing values, developing vision, cohesiveness
and a climate of stretching goals, sharing and
support
• Performance Measurement - finding appropriate
measures and indicators of performance; ones
that provide a 'balanced scorecard' and
encourage investment in learning (see, for
example, Measuring Intellectual Capital).
• Reward and Recognition Systems - processes and
systems that recognize acquisition of new skills,
team-work as well as individual effort, celebrate
successes and accomplishments, and encourages
continuous personal development.
 Tools and Techniques
• Too numerous to cover in detail, but include a
wide range of learning and creativity skills in
the following groups:
1. Inquiry - interviewing, seeking information
2. Creativity - brainstorming, associating ideas
3. Making sense of situations - organising
information and thoughts
4. Making choices - deciding courses of action
5. Observing outcomes - recording, observation
6. Reframing knowledge - embedding new
knowledge into mental models, memorizing
 Organizational Structure and
Dynamics
• The formal structure is described in organization
charts, policy manuals, job descriptions, and work
schedules.
• The informal organization has its impact at an
interpersonal level and often influences quality of
performance within the formal system.
 Characteristic of a learning
organization
• Observation and research identifies four types of
factor:
1. Learning Culture - an organizational climate that
nurtures learning. There is a strong similarity
with those characteristics associated with
innovation.
2. Processes - processes that encourage interaction
across boundaries. These are infrastructure,
development and management processes, as
opposed to business operational processes (the
typical focus of many BPR initiatives).
3. Tools and Techniques - methods that aid
individual and group learning, such as
creativity and problem solving techniques.
4. Skills and Motivation - to learn and adapt.
Learning Organization Defined
• The learning organization is "an
organization which facilitates the
learning of all its members and
continuously transforms itself.”

Leveraging the Power of Knowledge

Learning is the key competency
required by any organization that
wants to survive and thrive in the
new knowledge economy.

In organizations with a well

 Organizational knowledge /
Knowledge Organization
• Knowledge Organization (KO) as related to LIS
is about activities such as document
description, indexing and classification
performed in libraries, databases, archives etc.
• KO as a field of study is concerned with the
nature and quality of such knowledge
organizing processes (KOP) as well as the
knowledge organizing systems (KOS) used to
organize documents, document
representations and concepts.
• A knowledge organization is a
management idea, describing an
organization in which people use
systems and processes to generate,
transform, manage, use, and transfer
knowledge-based products and
services to achieve organizational
goals.
 Knowledge and learning
• A health care organization consists of
professionals who use their knowledge to
prevent medical problems, to treat
patients with medical problems and to
take care of patients with chronic
problems.
• Weggeman et.al 1997, differentiate
between three concepts:
- Data are symbolic representations of
figures, quantities, variables or facts.
- Information is attributing meaning to
Learning Organization versus Traditional
Organization
 Summary
• Organizational culture, organizational
learning, knowledge and knowledge
management are critical factors for an
organization’s success.
• Davenport and Prusak stated that knowing
about knowledge is critical to business
success- and possibly to business survival.
• Outcome management us an
operationalisation of the principles of the
learning organization in the figure
outcome.
• In organization, learning processes take
place at different levels.first, learning at
the individual level. Each health care
professional has gathered a certain
amount of knowledge through
education and experience keeps that
professional know-how up to date and
expands upon it.
• Second, learning takes places at team
or group level. Here, a number of
health workers who collaborate in a
care process develop collective