Organisational Learning I

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Organisational Learning I

• The Acquisition of ExpertiseA Primer to
  Learning in Organisations

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Lecture Agenda

• Session 9 (Morning)
• Theoretical foundations to learning in
  organisations
• Session 10 (Afternoon)
• Learning in Indian companies

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What is Organisational Learning?

• "the detection and correction of error" (Agyris
  and Schön, 1978 2).
• "the process of improving actions through better
  knowledge and understanding" (Fiol and Lyles,
  1985 803).
• "the way firms build, supplement, and organize
  knowledge and routines around their activities
  and within their cultures and adapt and develop
  organizational efficiency by improving the use of
  the broad skills of their workforces" (Dodgson,
  1993 377).
• "if through its processing of information, the
  range of its organization's potential behaviors
  is changed" (Huber, 1991 89).

A "learning organization" is a firm that
purposefully constructs structures and strategies
so as to enhance and maximize organizational
learning
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Why is Organisational Learning needed?

• To increase competitive advantage, innovation and
  effectiveness
• To become more adaptable to change
• Important for the growth and development of
  organisations
• Learning increases information sharing,
  communication, understanding, and the quality of
  decisions made in organisations
• The greater the uncertainty in the environment
  the greater the need for learning

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What does Organisational Learning comprise?

• Learning form the bulk of an organisation but
  organisational learning is more than the sum of
  the parts
• Individuals form the bulk of the organisation
  they must establish the necessary forms and
  processes to enable organisational learning
• Learning systems not only influence immediate
  members but also future members due to the
  accumulation of histories, experiences, norms,
  and stories

Managing Organisational Learning comprises
striking a balance between the exploration and
the exploitation of knowledge
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How Individuals LearnIndividual Learning
Capabilities/Types of Knowledge

• Verbal or declarative knowledge e.g. facts and
  organised information
• Intellectual skills e.g. the ability to apply
  rules to specific instances
• Cognitive strategies e.g. practices of
  retrieving and thinking
• Attitudes e.g. factors influencing personal
  decisions towards knowledge assets
• Motor skills e.g. muscular movements enabling
  the precise execution of procedures

Source Dodgson, 1993
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How Organisations LearnTypes of Organisational
Learning I

• Single-Loop Learning
• Occurs when errors are detected and corrected and
  firms carry on with their present policies and
  goals
• Activities that add to the knowledge-base or
  firm-specific competencies or routines without
  altering the fundamental nature of the
  organisation's activities

Source Argyris Schön, 1978
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How Organisations LearnTypes of Organisational
Learning II

• Double-Loop Learning
• Occurs when, in addition to detection and
  correction of errors, the organization is
  involved in the questioning and modification of
  existing norms, procedures, policies, and
  objectives
• Involves changing the organization's
  knowledge-base or firm-specific competencies or
  routines

Source Argyris Schön, 1978
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How Organisations LearnTypes of Organisational
Learning III

• Deutero Learning
• Occurs when organizations learn how to carry out
  single-loop and double-loop learning
• The first two forms of learning will not occur if
  the organizations are not aware that learning
  must occur
• Awareness of ignorance motivates learning - this
  means identifying the learning orientations or
  styles, and the processes and structures
  (facilitating factors) required to promote
  learning.

Source Argyris Schön, 1978
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How Organisations LearnTypes of Organisational
Learning IV

• Double-loop and deutero learning are concerned
  with the why and how to change the organization
• Single-loop learning is concerned with accepting
  change without questioning underlying assumptions
  and core beliefs
• The type of organizational learning also depends
  on where in the organization learning occurs
• Learning can occur in different functions of the
  organization such as research, development,
  design, engineering, manufacturing, marketing,
  administration, and sales

Source Argyris Schön, 1978
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Organisational Learning Process
Knowledge Acquisition
Information Distribution
Information Interpretation
Organisational Memory
Source Huber, 1991
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Knowledge Acquisition Collective Learning

• Congenital learning the knowledge brought into
  an organisation at its conception and foundation
• Experimental learningthe knowledge accumulated
  through experience and / or experiments
• Vicarious learningthe knowledge acquired through
  second hand experience
• Graftingthe knowledge brought into an
  organisation through hiring new employees or even
  taking over complete companies
• Searching and Noticingknowledge developed
  through screening the external and internal
  context and sensing actual problems

Source Huber, 1991
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Knowledge AcquisitionExperiential Learning

• Organisational Experiments
• Organisational Self-Appraisal
• Experimenting Organisations
• Unintentional or unsystematic learning
• Experience-based learning curves

Source Huber, 1991
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Knowledge AcquisitionSearching and Noticing

• Scanning
• Focused Search
• Performance Monitoring

Source Huber, 1991
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Organisational Learning Process
Knowledge Acquisition
Information Distribution
Information Interpretation
Organisational Memory
Source Huber, 1991
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Information DistributionIssues Arising in
Organisations

• Organisations often do not know what they know
• Except for systems that store hard information,
  organisations tend to have weak systems to
  retrieve soft (tacit) knowledge within the
  organisation
• The more widely such information is distributed
  within an organisation
• More likely to be retrievable
• More likely that organisation learns

The distinct feature of organisational level
information activity is sharing (Daft and
Weick, 1984, p.285)
Source Huber, 1991
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Information DistributionIssues Arising in
Organisations (contd)

• Combining information from different subunits
  leads not only to new information but also to new
  understanding
• Information distribution is a precursor to
  aspects of organisational learning that involves
  information interpretation

Source Huber, 1991
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Organisational Learning Process
Knowledge Acquisition
Information Distribution
Information Interpretation
Organisational Memory
Source Huber, 1991
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Information Interpretation

• Cognitive Maps and Framing
• Cognitive maps (or belief structure/mental
  representation/frame of reference) will shape a
  persons interpretation of information
• How an information is framed or labeled affects
  its interpretation
• Media Richness
• Determinant of the extent to which information is
  given common meaning by the sender and receiver
  of a message
• Information Overload
• Overload of information distracts from effective
  interpretation
• Unlearning
• Process through which learners discard obsolete
  and misleading knowledge

Source Huber, 1991
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Organisational Learning Process
Knowledge Acquisition
Information Distribution
Information Interpretation
Organisational Memory
Source Huber, 1991
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Organisational Memory

• Storing and Retriving Information
• Standard operating procedures define how a large
  part of the organisational knowledge is stored
• Knowledge sharing barriers through
  specialisation, differentiation and
  departmentalisation -gt Management Information
  Systems
• Computer-Based Organisational Memory
• Case-by-case foresight, smart indexing or
  artificial intelligence can facilitate retrival
  of information
• Automatic capturing and sophisticated retrieval
  of such information result in computer-resident
  organisational memories which can be superior to
  human components of the organisational memory

Source Huber, 1991
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Organisational Learning and its Context
Strategy
Environment
Structure
OrganisationalLearning
Technology
Culture
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Influences on Organisational Learning

• Strategy
• Structure
• Centralised, machanistic structures tend to
  reinforce past behaviours and singe-loop learning
• Decentralised structures promotes double-loop
  learning
• Environment
• For learning to occur, organisations must align
  themselves with the environment as to remain
  competitive and innovative
• Learning can occur only when there is a balance
  between change (the new) and stability (the old)
• Technology
• Culture

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Readings

• Dodgson, M. (1993). Organizational Learning A
  Review of Some Literatures, Organization
  Studies, 14 (3), pp.375-394.
• Huber, G.P. (1991). Organizational Learning The
  Contribution Process and the Literatures,
  Organization Science, 2 (1), pp.88-115.
• March, J.G. (1991). Exploration and Exploitation
  in Organizational Learning, Organization
  Science, 2 (1), pp.71-87.