Building Learning Organizations Research Articles

How can schools build learning organisations in difficult education contexts

There is paucity in the study of learning organisations within the education sector and particularly in schools working in difficult socio-economic contexts, such as those studied in this investigation. In this qualitative study I therefore sought evidence from teachers, in one of the districts of Gauteng province, through in-depth, semi-structured focus group interviews to establish what a learning organisation is. Using data obtained through two in-depth, semistructured focus group interviews with 16 teachers, themes were constructed to theorise their experiences on what a learning organisation is. The results showed that teacher commitment to personal learning enhanced student achievement. This study contributes to the understanding of theories on learning organisations from the experiences of these teachers working in disadvantaged townships schools. Keywords: change; collaboration; collective intelligence; continuous learning; effective teaching; knowledge management; learning organisation; shared values; systems thinking; teacher commitment

The effect of human resource practices on building learning organisations: evidence from Malaysian manufacturing firms

The current study attempts to examine the link between human resource practices and the efforts of building a learning organisation. This link has received very little research attention to date. In general, the statistical results obtained from 37 manufacturing firms in Malaysia indicate significant positive relationships between human resource practices and being a learning organisation. This study suggests that a learning organisation can be developed by rewarding desirable learning behaviours when individual performance improves. Subsequently, it also aids organisations in the design of a performance management scheme that supports the development of individuals in organisations.

Diversity, social capital, and leadership practices: building inclusive learning organisations

Despite the increasing of US society, educational and economic organisations have been slow in developing leadership practices that respond to diversity. The association between and social capital in organisations has received relatively little attention. The Pathways program is discussed in this paper as an example that treats as a social force in order to develop leadership practices that make learning organisations inclusive of diversity. The argument is offered in this paper that treating as social capital results in leading for diversity – building learning organisations based on trust and cooperativeness.

Successful paradigms, execution issues and best practices to build learning organisations

This paper provides an overview of the successful paradigms, execution issues and best practices to harness the power of knowledge residing in an organisation. As businesses and technology lead the transition of society and economy from an industry-based to information-oriented age, Knowledge Management (KM) appears as a powerful competitive weapon. This transition demands a change in the way companies harness the power of the knowledge in the organisation. This paper describes and synthesises the concepts and viewpoints related to the drivers of KM, the challenges to managing knowledge in organisations, the factors critical to successfully adopting the KM philosophy in an organisation, how KM can come to be understood as a critical part of a company's competitive strategy and how to deploy a sustainable KM system that suits the business needs of an organisation. Empirical validation of these concepts is based on the author's extensive experience in envisioning and growing knowledge-based organisations in established global companies and from the interviews conducted by the author with the representatives of several organisations.

Applying self-organised learning to develop critical thinkers for learning organisations: a conversational action research project

The information explosion characteristic of a knowledge-based economy is fuelled by rapid technological changes. As technology continues to permeate our lives, there will be fresh demands upon the conduct of learning and teaching to ensure that learners are equipped with new economy skills and dispositions for creating significant and relevant meaning out of the large chunks of transmitted data. In the spirit of building learning organisations, this paper proposes that a two-pronged strategy of promoting self-organised learning (SoL) amongst educators and students be adopted. As an enabling framework based on social constructivism, the model of SoL, originally developed by Harri-Augstein & Thomas, is described and applied to an educational setting. For educators engaged in action research, SoL is suited as an approach for managing and reflecting upon change. The use of two such thinking tools, the Personal Learning Contract and the Purpose-Strategy-Outcome-Review (PSOR) reflective learning scaffolds are considered. For students who are now expected to learn independently in situations requiring problem-solving skills, much akin to real life contexts, this article also considers the application of Learning Plans as a conversational tool for personal project management. The authors conclude that SoL promotes skilful critical thinking through a systems thinking process of continuous reflective learning. It is proposed that these are essential qualities for citizens working in a technological age. Case study samples of the thinking tools used in this action research project are included as appendices and evaluated in this article.

European perspectives on the learning organisation

This paper, based on a publication entitled Facing up to the Learning Organisation Challenge, published in April 2003, provides an overview of the main questions emerging from recent European research projects related to the topic of the learning organisation. The rationale for focusing on this topic is the belief that the European Union goals related to “lifelong learning” and the creation of a “knowledge‐based society” can only be attained if the organisations in which people work are also organisations in which they learn. Work organisations must become, at the same time, learning organisations. This paper has four main messages. The first is that, in order to build learning organisations, one has to ensure that: there is coherence between the “tangible” (formal/objective) and the “intangible” (informal/subjective) dimensions of an organisation; and that the organisation's learning goals are reconciled with individuals’ learning needs. The complexity involved in ensuring the right balance between these different dimensions, means that in the final analysis one cannot realistically expect more than incomplete or imperfect learning organisations. However, this does not in any way negate the validity of the quest to reconcile these competing but “real” interests. The second message is that challenging or developmental work is a prerequisite for implementing a learning organisation. One of the keys to promoting learning organisations is to organise work in such a way that it promotes human development. The third message is that the provision of support and guidance is essential to ensure that developmental work does in fact provide opportunities for developmental learning. The fourth message is that to address organisational learning there is a need for boundary‐crossing and interdisciplinary partnerships between the vocational education and training and human resource development communities.

Preparing expatriate managers of multinational organisations for the cultural and learning imperatives of their job in dynamic knowledge‐based environments

The advent of the global economy has brought a realisation that the only lasting competitive advantage is an organisation’s ability to effectively exploit intellectual capital. Excellent companies build learning organisations systematically but in their haste many firms underestimate the importance of cultural, technological, executive and learning imperatives that permeate dynamic, knowledge‐based environments. Learning is a dynamic process between the needs of the individual, its leader, operational environment and the demands of the organisation.

Putting people back into organizational learning

There is an overemphasis on an outside‐in, macro‐organizational view of learning and an under‐emphasis on the inside‐out view which recognizes that people are the main agents of learning and change. Attempts at building a learning organization should start with an understanding of how adults learn and develop rather than elaborate ideas about competitive strategy, market research and information dissemination. Adult learning theory tells us that people learn primarily by being encouraged to tackle challenges, experiment, fail and correct failures and reflect on their experiences. The challenge in building learning organizations is fighting the bureaucratization that often replaces experimentation with control and routine. This paper examines the literature on market orientation, organizational learning and adult learning theory to identify how individual level learning can be maximized as a mechanism for enhancing organizational learning. Recommendations are made to integrate these streams of research and offer suggestions for further research.

The implementation of quality management initiatives in the context of organisational learning

As a prerequisite to pursuing business excellence companies build learning organisations and companies that want to transform their organisations to a continuous improvement philosophy need to embrace the notion of organisational learning, whether they like it or not. Aims to analyse quality management initiatives in the context of organisational learning. At the start of this research Excellence Ireland and Advanced Management Technology secured the participation of four manufacturing organisations. These companies wanted to implement the Business Excellence Model. They were encouraged to form a network called “Best in class”. Presents a review of the organisational learning literature; the research agenda; sample design and the methodology. Presents a case history of a company which has implemented quality management initiatives. Discusses the findings and analysis, and draws a conclusion in the context of organisational learning. Focuses on presenting the organisational learning literature and not the quality management literature.

Adaptation to creation: progress of organizational learning and increasing complexity of learning systems

AbstractA brief survey of organizational learning literature shows that understanding of how organizations learn has proceeded along two streams: one based on progress function or learning/experience curve effect, and the other as a process facilitating organizational adaptation and growth, and development and sustenance of competitiveness. This latter stream presents three phases of evolution: initially it considered learning as adaptation through search and problem solving, followed by attempts at conceptualization of learning as an organization‐wide, holistic phenomenon, and finally focusing on development of systems, processes, training tools, capabilities, etc., for building learning organizations. Learning is now understood as the development of organizational generative capabilities with a wide response range. The article identifies that the understanding of organizational learning from learning as adaptation to information processing and knowledge creation systems capable of generating a wide range of response patterns exhibits an underlying link of increasing complexity. This in turn holds an interesting correspondence to Boulding's hierarchy of systems. The article discusses the implications of this correspondence for research and practice. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Quality management practices and the link to potential learning outcomes within the Australian retail sector

Two critical success factors within the retail industry are quality management practices and continuous learning. Presents empirical evidence suggesting a link between a set of retail management practices and potential learning outcomes. Retailers need to focus on developing a market orientation that is linked to structures, processes and systems necessary to build learning organizations. All interactions with customers and other key stakeholders can lead to a potential learning outcome. To develop and maintain competitive advantage, retailers need to share information with their key stakeholders, build long‐term alliances and link market orientation with a learning orientation. It was found that all levels of employees need time to reflect on and review information critical to their action outcomes and the action outcomes of their key stakeholders. Retailers must capitalize on each potential learning experience by reflecting on, documenting and transferring knowledge, and creating a climate which facilitates learning through the effective exchange of knowledge across all sections of the organization.

The Strategic Link

The argument put forward in this brief paper is threefold. Firstly, it treats the impact of globalisation on corporate culture building exercises and shows how externalities affect internal organisational behaviour. It emphasises the fact that globalisation is neither a chimera nor is it a novel phenomenon. Secondly, it examines the behavioural context in which managements operate and extends the analysis of some authors who have worked in this field. Thirdly, it highlights some of the characteristics of change that need to be followed if organisations have to thrive on the cutting edge of competition. In doing so, the paper presents a political economy of HR Interventions on the one hand and offers constructive suggestions on corporate culture building exercises on the other. The paper argues for creating value-based corporate cultures that are a precondition for building learning organisations.

Knowledge management in resource‐based competitive environments: a roadmap for building learning organizations

Today’s competitive focus manifests itself with the strategic management of unique operational resources that impact the rules of competition, rather than a market‐based view where the firm follows the rules dictated by markets. Knowledge management becomes hereby a vital prerequisite. This paper suggests a roadmap for building a learning organization in a resource‐competitive environment, based on previous research, and highlights the knowledge management issues involved along the way. A number of learning issues from this process are addressed as well. Combined, they form the basis for constructing agile learning environments, linked to tangible performance criteria and strategic objectives.

Building Learning Organizations in Engineering Cultures: Case Study

The ability of organizations to learn is critical for success. Implementing organizational learning in engineering cultures can be difficult due to a focus on technology instead of people and imbalances among cultures within an organization. A project to transform a medium-sized engineering organization into a learning organization is reported, and the degree, nature, and causes of its success are evaluated. An implementation team developed skills in five disciplines of a learning organization. However the underlying organizational learning concepts were not embraced by the organization at large or incorporated into regular operations. Success was constrained by the organization's ability to share and utilize the knowledge acquired by the implementation team to generate organizationwide commitment to organizational learning. The dominance of the engineering culture and the lack of organizational learning infrastructures and development process experimentation suggest that organizations with a balance amon...

Using neural network-based tools for building learning organisations

During the last decade, most European countries have institutionalised a series of measures in order to protect the environment and to provide better public services. Such measures have also been adopted in The Netherlands by Rijkswaterstaat (RWS), part of the ministry of communications and responsible for roads and waterways. One of the current RWS objectives is to provide a quality motorway of high impact to the Dutch road network. In recent years, RWS has committed itself wholeheartedly to Total Quality Management (TQM). It is in the process of making fundamental changes in motorway construction management. For instance, it is considering giving the responsibilities for the quality of road maintenance to sub-contractors. Managers involved in the TQM project feel the need to develop the attitudes and quality-consciousness of all parties involved in the management of the construction and maintenance of the motorway. In an initial stage, it is essential to study the current attitudes to quality in general and to policies related to `providing a high-quality road' of all parties involved. The research project described below is a step in this direction. The research project took place within the broader framework of RWS's interest in `organisational learning'. The research project capitalised on the ability of Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs) to study human behaviour and integrated this with current RWS needs. More particularly, ANNs were used to visualise stakeholder perceptions and to monitor changes in these perceptions. As a result of the research project, a software tool was developed which is currently used in order to support the organisational change process.

Public management and the learning organization

This paper examines institutional arrangements that would allow public sector organizations to learn more effectively. According to management strategists and organizational theorists any organization that can learn is inherently equipped to develop a sustainable competitive advantage. The NPM could help build learning organizations that operate more efficiently and effectively and that also better serve citizens and the public interest.

Exploring learning organizations: enacting mental models ‐ the power of the Rosenthal stage

Discusses that the only true source of sustainable competitive advantage seems to be by building learning organizations. Says that, in order to ensure the survival of their organizations, managers need to focus on individual and organizational learning, the development of a shared vision, an awareness of the internal environment and the external context, and that a key requirement in this process is the ability to surface and test the mental models of people throughout the organization. Also one of the ways of testing mental models is within the context of action. States that exploration of effective action is examined using the Rosenthal stage. Uses an action‐based method using a miniature stage. The Rosenthal stage involves a five‐step process of surfacing, externalizing, reflecting, revealing, and active dialogue of people’s perceptions of their organization. Presents a case study which demonstrates the surfacing of a mental model of a senior manager in a multinational communications organization. The power of the Rosenthal stage enabled this manager, after one session, to gain contextual insight into the breadth of his organization, and the value of his contribution.

Building a learning organization: communities of practice, self-directed learning, and continuing medical education

Learning organizations may provide a mechanism by which physicians can meet the challenges currently occurring in the medical profession, such as the emergence of HMOs, increased concern over medical costs, and the need to maintain continuing competence in increasingly complex environments. Learning organizations are generative; they are respon- sive and have been used effectively during times of rapid change and in chaotic, highly competitive environments. This paper describes the learning organization and discusses how self-directed learning and communities of practice provide the beginnings for the establish- ment of a learning organization in the medical profession. Continuing medical education (CME) is seen as the mechanism to transfer new knowledge across all members of the com- munity of practice and become a key component in building learning organizations.

Building Learning Organizations: The Design and Implementation of Organizational Learning Mechanisms

This article concerns the first phase of a project introducing organizational learning into the Ordnance Corps of the Israel Defense Forces. Conducted as a joint experiment, the project was guided by a set of principles and metaphors that constituted a vision of learning organizations. The article describes the conceptual rationale underlying the project, difficulties encountered and their solutions, and implications of our experience for building learning organizations.

Using evaluation to understand the learning architecture of an organization

This article presents an emerging theoretical perspective for understanding organizational learning and what it takes to build learning organizations. The concept of learning architecture is introduced as a critical element in understanding organizational learning. The learning architecture consists of the organization's framing mechanisms, memory, knowledge, and learning processes which connect these three structures. The article provides insight into the role of evaluation as an important link to (a) understanding the learning architecture of organizations, and (b) helping organizations to transform the learning organization ideal into reality. It concludes with a framework to guide evaluators in uncovering an organization's existing learning architecture and designing a new learning architecture essential to building a learning organization.