Continuous Organizational Learning Research Articles

FOLLOWING L&D TRENDS: CONTINUOUS LEARNING IN CANADA

The article analyzes the best practices of building the culture of continuous learning in Canadian organizations through the prism of such global corporate Learning and Development trends as increasing investment into corporate learning, extensive use of technology, effective prediction, assessment and addressing skill gaps, especially in the area of soft skills development. As the Canadian authorities play a significant role in promoting the culture of continuous learning in organizations, the following aspects of their involvement are analyzed: recommendations of Canadian government on continuous learning within a company, predicting and addressing demands of the future in terms of emerging skills development, enabling access to education at all stages of person’s life. The article further dwells on two major challenges faced by companies in Canada due to technological disruption: keeping up with rapid pace of changes in terms of employees’ digital literacy and using technology effectively to build the culture of continuous learning. The issue of constant lack of time for a modern professional is also addressed. As companies strive to keep up with the pace of global changes, new employment opportunities are constantly created requiring professionals with diverse skillsets which might be currently in scarcity. A number of ongoing projects run by Canadian companies and authorities is analyzed to illustrate the best practices of building the culture of continuous learning to address the issue. Particular attention is paid to soft skills development.

Principles and Reality of Competent Employee Engagement

Today, leading manufacturing and service companies rely on Lean Management, Total Productive Maintenance and alike to foster continuous improvement and organizational learning. However, analyzing the effect of daily practiced leadership efforts by managers of operating units remains a black box. In this article, we show how such managers can bring the employee engagement model competently to life by focusing on six key levers which drive job satisfaction, continuous improvement activities as well as bottom-up initiation of strategic action plans by individual employees.

Contribution of knowing in practice to dynamic capabilities

PurposeThis paper aims to discuss the contribution of knowing in practice (KP) to the development of dynamic capabilities (DC) in the context of health-care organizations.Design/methodology/approachThe authors develop a case study in a Brazilian hospital in three stages using the data collection techniques of interviews, focus groups, shadowing and conjoint analysis. The participants were health-care employees, supervisors, project managers and members of the board of directors.FindingsThis paper identifies the contribution of KP to develop DC based on strategic practices and their respective microprocesses as key elements to DC microfoundations. In the end, the paper points out a mutual contribution between the theoretical approaches.Research limitations/implicationsThis proposal makes sense in organizations where the practices have a strategic nature, such as hospitals and service providers.Practical implicationsThis study suggests an alignment between strategic and operational views, stimulating learning across organizational levels.Originality/valueKP helps to give DC a tangible form by including a human dimension into microfoundations, giving voice to practitioners in the strategic decisions. The integration of KP and DC approaches allows organizations to perceive DC in daily practices making DC present in every organizational level, stimulating a continuous organizational learning process.

Exploring the potential of a multi-level approach to improve capability for continuous organizational improvement and learning in a Swedish healthcare region

BackgroundEldercare and care of people with functional impairments is organized by the municipalities in Sweden. Improving care in these areas is complex, with multiple stakeholders and organizations. Appropriate strategies to develop capability for continuing organizational improvement and learning (COIL) are needed. The purpose of our study was to develop and pilot-test a flexible, multilevel approach for COIL capability building and to identify what it takes to achieve changes in key actors’ approaches to COIL. The approach, named “Sustainable Improvement and Development through Strategic and Systematic Approaches” (SIDSSA), was applied through an action-research and action-learning intervention.MethodsThe SIDSSA approach was tested in a regional research and development (R&D) unit, and in two municipalities handling care of the elderly and people with functional impairments. Our approach included a multilevel strategy, development loops of five flexible phases, and an action-learning loop. The approach was designed to support systems understanding, strategic focus, methodological practices, and change process knowledge - all of which required double-loop learning. Multiple qualitative methods, i.e., repeated interviews, process diaries, and documents, provided data for conventional content analyses.ResultsThe new approach was successfully tested on all cases and adopted and sustained by the R&D unit. Participants reported new insights and skills. The development loop facilitated a sense of coherence and control during uncertainty, improved planning and problem analysis, enhanced mapping of context and conditions, and supported problem-solving at both the individual and unit levels. The systems-level view and structured approach helped participants to explain, motivate, and implement change initiatives, especially after working more systematically with mapping, analyses, and goal setting.ConclusionsAn easily understood and generalizable model internalized by key organizational actors is an important step before more complex development models can be implemented. SIDSSA facilitated individual and group learning through action-learning and supported systems-level views and structured approaches across multiple organizational levels. Active involvement of diverse organizational functions and levels in the learning process was facilitated. However, the time frame was too short to fully test all aspects of the approach, specifically in reaching beyond the involved managers to front-line staff and patients.

Variation in compliance with safe surgery checklist in hospitals with different levels of patient safety culture

ABSTRACT Background Positive patient safety climate can improve the adherence of care services to safety standards and consequently promote safe surgery as fundamental healthcare services. This study aimed to investigate the variation in compliance with safe surgery checklist in hospitals with different levels of safety culture. Methods This was a descriptive cross-sectional study conducted in six training hospitals affiliated by Qom University of Medical Sciences, Iran in 2016. Patient safety culture was assessed among 206 operating room staff who were selected to participate in the study through consensus method. In addition all safe surgery checklists in study time period (April to June 2016) were collected and analyzed by SPSS version 20 and use of descriptive and analytical statistical tests. Results Findings revealed that patient safety culture among employees was assessed in a moderate level (117.05 ± 4.7). Among different dimensions of patient safety climate, the highest score belonged to teamwork (36.9 ± 1.2), perception of safety among personnel (32.1 ± 0.7), and managerial support (31.7 ± 0.4). Furthermore results confirmed that hospitals with different levels of patient safety culture had various compliance rates with safe surgery checklist. Conclusion Promoting patient safety culture in hospitals can increase the congruence rate of safe surgery standards in operating rooms. Therefore focusing on significant cultural dimensions such as effective communication and teamwork, supportive work environment and continuous organizational learning are suggested to improve patient safety culture among personnel.

Identificação do relacionamento entre melhoria contínua e a aprendizagem organizacional na indústria de linha branca dos níveis 1º e 2º da cadeia produtiva

O artigo objetiva identificar relações entre maturidade da melhoria contínua e aprendizagem organizacional na indústria. Analisa a contribuição desses fatores para a eliminação de barreiras que comprometam a qualidade dos processos e produtos em uma cadeia produtiva. A metodologia baseou-se em pesquisa qualitativa realizada em três empresas atuantes na cadeia de eletrodomésticos de linha branca, produtor, fornecedor e seu fornecedor. Aplicaram-se dois questionários nas três empresas pesquisadas, em funcionários com cargos de chefia nas áreas de produção, qualidade e engenharia. O questionário "Guia para Verificação da Melhoria Contínua na Organização", semiestruturado, contendo perguntas abertas e fechadas busca identificar habilidades organizacionais para melhoria contínua, caracterizando a organização quanto ao Sistema de Gestão da Qualidade, evidenciando os diferentes processos de aprendizagem organizacional. O questionário "Diagnóstico do Nível de Excelência Organizacional em Melhoria Contínua", estruturado, contendo perguntas fechadas, visa medir em qual dos 5 níveis de maturidade organizacional em melhoria contínua se encontra cada empresa, detalhando suas habilidades e comportamentos constitutivos. Concluiu-se que a maturidade em melhoria contínua está ligada positivamente à aprendizagem organizacional. As empresas que possuem boas práticas em aprendizagem organizacional se localizam nos melhores níveis de maturidade em melhoria continua.

Sustainable Management: New Insights

Sustainable value framework can be created by building enhanced utility and greater profitability. Big corporations can ensure excellence not only by building quality in products but also by standardising the processes through training their people. Highly skilled global workforce is the solution to our planet where we are looking for global economy. Resource optimization - both in natural and human would help us sustain this planet. This paper examines the current thinking on the processes of corporate learning systems and explores the issues of sustainability in learning. New research shows how the big corporations in the globalised world can achieve sustainable results by adopting new corporate philosophy which requires re-structuring around human workforce’s continuous and time-bound learning in organizations.

Sustainable Management: New Insights

Sustainable value framework can be created by building enhanced utility and greater profitability. Big corporations can ensure excellence not only by building quality in products but also by standardising the processes through training their people. Highly skilled global workforce is the solution to our planet where we are looking for global economy. Resource optimization - both in natural and human would help us sustain this planet. This paper examines the current thinking on the processes of corporate learning systems and explores the issues of sustainability in learning. New research shows how the big corporations in the globalised world can achieve sustainable results by adopting new corporate philosophy which requires re-structuring around human workforce’s continuous and time-bound learning in organizations.

Organizational culture and green management: innovative way ahead in hotel industry

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to identify perspective and feasible combinations of the existing revenue-driven methods with still more pervasive features of knowledge-based management and green management in hotel industry. The authors believe that the key path to success is in even closer, that is, daily personal orientation on customers, specifically on their satisfaction in both functional and emotional dimensions. Design/methodology/approach A research prototype of competitiveness modelling framework can be fully implemented in accordance with the methodology, proposed by Mitroff and Kilmann (1978). The key output of our conceptual modelling stage was causal loop diagram, showing relations among internal variables and determining overall dynamics of analyzed problem. In the implementation phase, the authors adopted system dynamics (SD) paradigm, which composes system behaviour from parametrically adjustable temporal accumulation of levels of internal resources. These resources (stocks) can be both quantitative (money, employees, services) and qualitative (trust, motivation, quality). After parameterization and validation, SD models are used for the analysis of real-world situations. Findings With the resultant interactive SD model, the authors designed and tested several scenarios, comparing the purely revenue-oriented hotel management with its customers-oriented and organizational knowledge-supported enhancement. The authors’ experiments showed that the proposed extension can contribute to the overall performance up to 15 per cent. According to the experimental findings, the primary reasons for the improvement are higher ratio of regularly returning customers and improved efficiency of internal processes as a result of continuous organizational learning. Originality/value So far, hotel managers use mainly simple analytic and planning tools, which cannot cover the practical complexity of surrounding market and internal processes. In comparison with purely revenue-based principles, advanced managerial practices, considering also qualitative and human-related matters, require additional viewpoints. The authors enhanced the hospitality domain with the introduction of dynamic hypotheses – feasible explanations of temporal behaviour of complex structures.

Institutionalizing Insider Action Research Initiatives in Organizations: The Role of Learning Mechanisms

Managers face increasing pressure to find ways to surface, utilize and integrate bits and pieces of relevant knowledge that reside within and outside the organizational boundaries to address emerging challenges. Grappling with this issue and based on a longitudinal study with a biopharma company, this paper offers the notion that insider action research coupled with the design and management of learning mechanism tapestry can enhance continuous organizational learning and improvement. The institutionalization of the learning mechanism tapestry provided new capability that enhanced the organization’s agility as well as a way to stabilize insider action research role and practices.

P.1.a.031 Lifetime stress accelerates epigenetic aging

Instead of viewing imitation and innovation as two opposite extremes, this research views firms’ new product development as a continuous spectrum in which pure imitation at the one end and original innovation at the other. Firms change their position gradually by means of continuous organizational learning and systematic improvement in R&D capability during the imitative innovation process. Novelty and originality of innovations were increased gradually, and finally firms are able to carry out original innovations with good novelty. This case study investigates how the Chinese manufacturing SMEs go through this process. Drawing upon a multiple case study approach, this research in particular addresses the following questions: How do Chinese firms transit from pure imitation to original innovation through imitative innovation? What barriers may firms encounter in each stage of the transition? What competences do firms need to develop in order to make the transition successfully? Through appropriate Chinese manufacturing SMEs design they may improve their innovation capability to enable support to governmental policy making.

Case analysis of imitative innovation in Chinese manufacturing SMEs: Products, features, barriers and competences for transition

Instead of viewing imitation and innovation as two opposite extremes, this research views firms’ new product development as a continuous spectrum in which pure imitation at the one end and original innovation at the other. Firms change their position gradually by means of continuous organizational learning and systematic improvement in R&D capability during the imitative innovation process. Novelty and originality of innovations were increased gradually, and finally firms are able to carry out original innovations with good novelty. This case study investigates how the Chinese manufacturing SMEs go through this process. Drawing upon a multiple case study approach, this research in particular addresses the following questions: How do Chinese firms transit from pure imitation to original innovation through imitative innovation? What barriers may firms encounter in each stage of the transition? What competences do firms need to develop in order to make the transition successfully? Through appropriate Chinese manufacturing SMEs design they may improve their innovation capability to enable support to governmental policy making.

Patient safety culture among nurses.

Patient safety is considered to be crucial to healthcare quality and is one of the major parameters monitored by all healthcare organizations around the world. Nurses play a vital role in maintaining and promoting patient safety due to the nature of their work. The purpose of this study was to investigate nurses' perceptions about patient safety culture and to identify the factors that need to be emphasized in order to develop and maintain the culture of safety among nurses in Oman. A descriptive and cross-sectional design was used. Patient safety culture was assessed by using the Hospital Survey on Patient Safety Culture among 414 registered nurses working in four major governmental hospitals in Oman. Descriptive statistics and general linear regression were employed to assess the association between patient safety culture and demographic variables. Nurses who perceived more supervisor or manager expectations, feedback and communications about errors, teamwork across hospital units, and hospital handoffs and transitions had more overall perception of patient safety. Nurses who perceived more teamwork within units and more feedback and communications about errors had more frequency of events reported. Furthermore, nurses who had more years of experience and were working in teaching hospitals had more perception of patient safety culture. Learning and continuous improvement, hospital management support, supervisor/manager expectations, feedback and communications about error, teamwork, hospital handoffs and transitions were found to be major patient safety culture predictors. Investing in practices and systems that focus on improving these aspects is likely to enhance the culture of patient safety in Omani hospitals and others like them. Strategies to nurture patient safety culture in Omani hospitals should focus upon building leadership capacity that support open communication, blame free, team work and continuous organizational learning.

Knowledge Growth Measurement and Formulation for Enhancing Organizational Knowledge Capital

This paper offers a conceptual framework for those details with the main component features for modeling knowledge growth. It has been contributing to important insights to future studies in the field of knowledge management to design a theoretical and operational model of knowledge growth in enhancing organizations’ knowledge capital. This study approach considers three important issues: such as the categories of knowledge for measurement, the elicitation and measurement of organizational knowledge growth by designing a knowledge growth elicitation and measurement tool (KGEMT), and formulating a model for knowledge growth measurement. The review and analyses show that knowledge growth measurement and elicitation is an active research spanning from the concepts that include the stages of knowledge growth; evolutionary theories that involve continuous organizational learning; knowledge growth elicitation to capture the component features of a knowledge growth process from users formulation of knowledge growth; and formation of knowledge capital. From these findings, the study conceptualized a framework for modeling and measuring organizational knowledge growth. The study developed the knowledge elicitation and measurement tool, which captures work episodes of knowledge workers in organizations; organizing the knowledge into explicit and tacit knowledge, and enumerating such knowledge to produce a measure of knowledge growth within the duration of measurement. While the results of the enumeration may be subject to criticism, the tool does provide an indication of the knowledge growth in organizations.

Use of Performance Information as an Organizational Routine in Management Control

Based on a review of research and the realities of performance information utilization in public organizations, this article defines the use of performance information as an organizational routine in management control. The theoretical implications require scholars to focus on organizational routines in performance measurement research. To practitioners, it suggests that they should focus more on daily performance information use and view it as continuous organizational learning and an organizational behavior modification process.

Management accounting systems and organisational culture

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to explore the nature, roles and dynamics of change of management accounting systems (MAS), in processes of continuous organisational learning and transformation. By studying the interaction between the accounting (and finance) function and the implementation of a Six‐sigma initiative, as the engine for organisational change, the authors seek to uncover the potential of measurement‐based systems of management for aligning business processes with corporate strategies. Such systems sustain continuous processes of transformation by infusing organisational culture with financial and non‐financial metrics of accountability.Design/methodology/approachThe research is based on a longitudinal case study in which one of the authors had the opportunity to exercise what Schein called the clinical perspective; i.e. combining the role of researcher with that of helper‐consultant. There is mutual interdependence in the relationship between the authors' theoretical framework and the authors' longitudinal case study. While, on the one hand, the case research contributed to the search for an institutional explanation of the evidence experienced and collected, on the other hand, the empirical data are illuminated by the theoretical insights gained from that framework.FindingsAfter first discussing cultural change, the authors rely both on the “clinical” position of one of the authors as researcher/helper‐consultant and on the insights provided by Schein's work on organisational culture and Giddens' structuration theory to develop an institutional framework for interpreting the ways in which routinised systems of accountability bind the ongoing processes of cultural transformation across time and space.Research limitations/implicationsPossible limitations are: the conceptualisation of organisational culture as a shared and institutional phenomenon does not take account of wider anthropological aspects (such as the influence of national culture); the role of helper‐consultant as well as researcher may have influenced some of the authors' interpretations; the authors' analysis does not consider macro‐economic variables; and only a small percentage of shop‐floor workers were interviewed.Originality/valueThe paper sheds light on the role of management accounting within organisational processes of transformation far beyond their mere visible enactment. As a result, the authors develop an institutional framework to interpret the linkages between the cognitive dynamics which characterise organisational culture (viewed as shared cognitive schemas) and the behavioural and structural modalities through which they are drawn upon and reproduced by organisational members.

Benchmarking: A Process for Learning or Simply Raising the Bar?

Benchmarking has been a credible approach to quality improvement and program evaluation for more than 30 years. However, the term has been used and abused so much since the 1970s that now an author might be describing anything from the establishment of performance indicators, to competitor ranking, or gap analysis, through to a continuous quality improvement process. Equally confusing is the plethora of different benchmarking models published. A literature review was conducted in which 65 publications from 1998-2008 were analysed and synthesised in order to untangle the confusion surrounding the contemporary theory and practice of benchmarking. This article clarifies the terminology and concepts of benchmarking, attempts a concise practical definition, examines various approaches in the current theory and application of benchmarking, and explicates the features most consistent with the goal of continuous quality improvement and organisational learning.

Voices from the field: Evaluation as part of a learning culture

AbstractThe authors present the argument that evaluation as currently practiced is failing the needs of the social sector, if the goal is to help organizations achieve their mission. Three case studies are presented in which evaluation played a key role in the development of a learning culture within the organization. Each case highlights the positive potential for evaluation to foster continuous organizational learning and improvement, build relationships, and facilitate organizational development. The authors find that although capacity building efforts by funders were important, the commitment of organizational leadership was critical in transforming the role of evaluation from one of basic reporting and accountability to a true process of continuous organizational learning. This transformation requires leadership commitment to development of an evaluative learning culture and an infrastructure to support it. © Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Continuous Learning in Organizations: Individual, Group, and Organizational Perspectives by Valerie I. Sessa and Manuel London

Personnel PsychologyVolume 61, Issue 2 p. 462-464 Continuous Learning in Organizations: Individual, Group, and Organizational Perspectives by Valerie I. Sessa and Manuel London First published: 12 May 2008 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1744-6570.2008.00119_6.xCitations: 2Read the full textAboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditWechat Citing Literature Volume61, Issue2Summer 2008Pages 462-464 RelatedInformation

Intelligence strategy: The integrated 3C-OK framework of intelligent human organizations

As humanity immerses deeper into the knowledge-intensive era, the mindset for leading, managing and structuring human organizations has to be transformed. Attention has been shifting from tangible to intangible assets. Human thinking systems, the sources where the world's most intense intrinsic intelligence originates become the key focal center. Intelligence and its dynamic are nonlinear. Arising from human consciousness are the two vital mental functions of awareness and mindfulness. These functions determine the quality of the mental state of the interacting agents. In addition, a high level of intelligence facilitates faster learning. All competitive human beings learn continuously to enhance the quality of their knowledge structures. Consequently, the bio-logic and human decision-making process improve. These activities constitute a critical component of the evolution dynamic. Similar to any intelligent biological organisms, all human organizations as composite complex adaptive systems must also nurture their own orgmind and collective intelligence to ensure their relevance and survival in the new context. Concurrently, activities such as continuous organizational learning, facilitating effective knowledge management processes, and building quality corporate knowledge structures must be cultivated. A mindful culture manifesting collaborative and sharing characteristic is crucial for sustaining the integrated dynamic. Recognizing the interdependency of the attributes involved is a key requirement. The 3C-OK framework to be conceptualized in this analysis is an attempt to enhance the new mindset.