LEARNING OF ORGANISATION

Learning of Organization Definition Background Why a learning Organisation? How to create a Learning Organisation Why Learning Organisation works The future Summary

Learning of Organization The Definition An organisation that learns and encourage learning amongst its people.It promotes exchange of information between employees hence creating a more knowledgeable.This produces a very flexible organisation where people will accept and adapt to new ideas and changes through a shared vision. "A Learning Organisation is one in which people at all levels, individuals and collectively, are continually increasing their capacity to produce results they really care about." In an open system, an organization takes in resources from its external environment and converts or transforms them into goods and services that are sent back to that environment, where they are bought by customers. The activities of most organizations can be modeled using the open-systems view. Consider asking students to apply the open systems model to a company’s processes. The system is said to be open because the organization draws from and interacts with the external environment to secure resources, transform them, and then sell the products created to customers.

Three broad questions What is Learning ? What is Organization ? What is Learning Organization ?

What is Learning ? Learning is the acquisition and development of memories and behaviors, including skills, knowledge, understanding, values, and wisdom. It is the product of experience and the goal of education.

What is Organization ? An organization is a social arrangement which pursues collective goals, which controls its own performance, and which has a boundary separating it from its environment. Company, corporation, firm, enterprise, authority or institution, or part or combination thereof, whether incorporated or not, public or private.

What is Learning Organization ? The Learning Organization is a concept that is becoming an increasingly widespread philosophy in modern companies, from the largest multinationals to the smallest ventures. What is achieved by this philosophy depends considerably on one's interpretation of it and commitment to it .

Learning of Organization Background The importance of Learning was put forward by a Chinese Philosopher, Confucius (551-479BC). He believed that everyone should benefit from Learning. "Without learning, the wise become foolish; by learning, the foolish become wise." "Learn as if you could never have enough of learning, as if you might miss something."

Learning of Organisation Why a Learning Organizations? A Company that perform badly is easily recognisable.Can you spot the sign ? Do your employee seem unmotivated or uninterested in their work ? Does your workforce lack the skill & knowledge to adjust to new jobs ? Do you seem to be the only one to come up with all ideas? And does your workforce simply follow orders ? Do your team argue constantly and lack real productivity? or lack communication between each other? If any of these points sound familiar the answer for you could be Learning Organisation. ` Figure 1.1 illustrates how organizational behavior concepts and theories allow people to correctly understand, describe, and analyze the characteristics of individuals, groups, work situations, and the organization itself. 4

Learning of Organisation How to Create a Learning Organisation The Building Blocks Implementation Strategies The Golden Rules People Behaviour Organizational behavior can be examined at 3 levels: organizational, group, and individual. OB is particularly important to managers.

Learning of Organisation The Building Blocks Before a learning organisations can be implemented , a sole foundation can be made by taking into account the following: Awareness Environment Leadership Empowerment Learning Figure 1.3 illustrates how the text covers the three levels of organizational behavior. Part I includes chapters 2-9. Part 2 includes chapters 10-15. Part 3 includes chapters 16-18.

Learning of Organisation Awareness Organisation must be aware that learning is necessary before they can develop into a Learning organisation.This may seems to be strange statement but this learning must be take place at all levels, not just the management level. Environment Centralised, mechanistic structures do not create a good environment. Individuals do not have a comprehensive picture of the whole organisation and its goals. This causes political and parochial systems to be set up which stifle the learning process.

Learning of Organisation Leadership Leaders should foster the Systems Thinking concept and encourage learning to help both the individual and organisation in learning. It is the leader's responsibility to help restructure the individual views of team members. Empowerment The focus of control shifts from managers to workers. This is where the term Empowerment is introduced. The workers become responsible for their actions; but the managers do not lose their involvement. They still need to encourage, enthuse and co-ordinate the workers

Learning of Organisation Companies can learn to achieve these aims in Learning Labs. These are small-scale models of real-life settings where management teams learn how to learn together through simulation games. They need to find out what failure is like so that they can learn from their mistakes in the future.

Learning of Organisation Implementation Strategies Any organisation that wants to implement a learning organisation philosophy requires an overall strategy with clear, well defined goals. Once these have been established, the tools needed to facilitate the strategy must be identified. It is clear that everyone has their own interpretation of the "Learning Organisation" idea, so to produce an action plan that will transform groups into Learning Organisations might seem impossible. However, it is possible to identify three generic strategies that highlight possible routes to developing Learning Organisations . The first challenge is the changing social and cultural environment. Forces in the social and cultural environment are those that are due to changes in the way people live and work – changes in values, attitudes, and beliefs brought about by changes in a nation’s culture and the characteristics of its people. National culture is the set of values or beliefs that a society considers important and the norms of behavior that are approved or sanctioned in that society. Over time, national cultures change and this affects the values and beliefs of each nation’s members. Ethics scandals have hit many companies recently including Tyco, Adelphia, Enron, and Arthur Andersen. An organization’s ethics are the values, beliefs, and moral rules its managers and employees should use to analyze or interpret a situation and then decide what is the most appropriate way to behave. Ethical organizational behavior affects the well-being (happiness, health, and prosperity) of a nation, an organization, citizens, and employees. Metabolife International’s use of ephedra in its supplements is used as an example in the text. Ethics also define an organization’s social responsibility – its obligations toward people or groups outside the organization that are directly affected by its actions.

Learning of Organisation The three strategies are: Accidental For many companies, adopting a learning organisation philosophy is the second step to achieving this Holy Grail. They may already be taking steps to achieve their business goals that, in hindsight, fit the framework for implementing a Learning Organisation. Subversive Once an organisation has discovered the Learning Organisation philosophy, they must make a decision as to how they want to proceed. This is a choice between a subversive and a declared strategy. Figure 1.6 illustrates the characteristics used to define the bases of diversity. `

Learning of Organisation Declared The other option is the declared approach. This is self explanatory. The principles of Learning Organisations are adopted as part of the company ethos, become company "speak" and are manifest openly in all company initiatives. Diversity is differences resulting from age, gender, race, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, and socioeconomic background, and capabilities/ disabilities. The increasing diversity of the work force presents three challenges for organizations and their managers: a fairness and justice challenge, a decision-making and performance challenge, and a flexibility challenge. A goal to increase diversity can strain an organization’s ability to satisfy the aspirations of at least part of its work force. Actively recruiting and promoting minorities can lead to difficult equity issues. How can organizations benefit from the attitudes and perspectives of people with diverse backgrounds? The third diversity challenge is to be sensitive to the needs of different kinds of employees and to try to develop flexible employment approaches that increase their well-being. Examples include new benefits packages customized to needs of different groups of employees (e.g., domestic partner benefits), flextime, job sharing, and mentoring.

Learning of Organisation The Golden rules 1. Thrive on Change Don’t be scared Learning Organisations feed on change. Go all the way (no half-way house) Committed :focused Know objectives; plan

Learning of Organisation 2. Encourage Experimentation experimentation is a necessary risk individual input rewarded. encourage throughout the company 3. Communicate Success and Failure review assessment (continuous/self) 4. Facilitate learning from the surrounding Environment find internal & external source of information learn form experience from other companies (open your eyes). above all discuss customer needs Diversity is differences resulting from age, gender, race, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, and socioeconomic background, and capabilities/ disabilities. The increasing diversity of the work force presents three challenges for organizations and their managers: a fairness and justice challenge, a decision-making and performance challenge, and a flexibility challenge. A goal to increase diversity can strain an organization’s ability to satisfy the aspirations of at least part of its work force. Actively recruiting and promoting minorities can lead to difficult equity issues. How can organizations benefit from the attitudes and perspectives of people with diverse backgrounds? The third diversity challenge is to be sensitive to the needs of different kinds of employees and to try to develop flexible employment approaches that increase their well-being. Examples include new benefits packages customized to needs of different groups of employees (e.g., domestic partner benefits), flextime, job sharing, and mentoring.

Learning of Organisation 5. Facilitate learning from Employees encourage participation and experimentation (linked to point 2) invest in training - multiskilling (getting most from employees), morale empowerment/responsibility remove hierarchy 6. Reward Learning everybody's wants their work to be appreciated - boost morale benchmarks for performance appraisal rewards

Learning of Organisation 7. A proper Selfishness clear goals/objectives hints on clarifying objectives 8. A Sense of Caring care for the individual ways of implementing this care Information is a set of data, facts, numbers, and words that has been organized in such a way as to provide its users with knowledge. Knowledge is what a person perceives, recognizes, identifies, or discovers from analyzing data and information. IT consists of the many different kinds of computer and communications hardware and software and the skills designers, programmers, managers, and technicians bring to it. IT is used to acquire, define, input, arrange, organize, manipulate, store, and transmit facts, data, and information to create knowledge and promote organizational learning. Organizational learning occurs when members can manage information and knowledge to achieve a better fit between the organization and its environment. Intranets are networks of IT inside an organization that links its members. Creativity is the generation of novel and useful ideas. Innovation is an organization’s ability to make new or improved goods and services or improvements in the way they are produced.

Learning of Organisation People Behavior Behaviour to Encourage There are five disciplines (As described by Peter Senge) which are essential to a learning organisation and should be encouraged at all times. These are: Team Learning Shared Visions Mental Models Personal Mastery Systems Thinking

Learning of Organisation Behaviour to Discourage An organisation which is not a learning one also displays behaviours, however these should definitely not be encouraged. Rosabeth Moss Kantar studied a range of large American corporations and came up with rules for stifling initiative : Regard any new idea from below with suspicion because it is new and because it is from below Make decisions to reorganise or change policies in secret and spring them on people unexpectedly (that also keeps people on their toes). Downsizing is the process by which organizations lay off managers and workers to reduce costs Empowerment is the process of giving employees throughout an organization the authority to make important decisions and be responsible for their outcomes. Self-managed team are work groups who have been empowered and given the responsibility for leading themselves and ensuring that they accomplish their goals. Contingent workers are people who are employed for temporary periods by an organization and who receive no benefits such as health insurance or pensions. Outsourcing is the process of employing people and groups outside the organization to perform specific jobs or types of work activities that used to be performed by the organization itself. This is accomplished sometimes by freelancers – independent individuals who contract with an organization to perform specific tasks.

Learning of Organisation Why Learning Organisation Works The People Develop Greater Motivation The workforce is more flexible People are more creative Improved social Interaction 2. Teams and group work better Knowledge sharing Interdependency

Learning of Organisation Why Learning Organisation Works 3. The Company Benefits Breakdown of traditional communication barriers Customers relations Information resources Innovation and creativity

Learning of Organisation The Future In the future the following areas will become increasingly more important. Investment in Learning Technology Information Highway Knowledge is the key Unemployment Learning Culture Customer-Client Relationship Conclusion

Learning of Organisation Summary The perfect Learning Organisation is not an attainable goal ,it is merely a desirable concept: there is no correct implementation of the Learning Organisation. Every company can continuously adapt and adjust and some will be better Learning Organisations than others, but every one of them has something new to learn. Finally it should be mentioned that the Learning Organisation is just a means to a business goal, created to improve productivity and most importantly profit. Quite how long this philosophy will remain fashionable is unknown. What is certain is that for any company in today's global marketplace continuous change and adaptation is the only way to survive.

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