Abstract As organizational learning takes a clear presence in today’s workplaces; I am analyzing various case studies to better understand the intentions and impact of such organizational changes. Who benefits from organizational learning? What impact does it have on the economy? Studies suggest the outcome of organizational learning is not guaranteed to result in a win-win situation for all parties and the outcomes differ from one organization to the next. Furthermore education is still designed to instill compliance. There is a danger society will continue to further segment into a class society if top CEO’s continue to heavily benefit from organizational initiatives. Such outcomes suggest organizational learning is not built on firm foundations. The Foundations of a Learning Organization On the job education has arguably become a prime aspect of most jobs. While it’s hard to ignore the presence of organizational learning; the concept has many pros and cons which coincide with organizational initiatives. The outcomes of such changes are not guaranteed to result in a win-win situation for all parties and differ from one organization to the next. Companies need to consider an employee’s education entering the workforce, the nature of the work being performed at the time and after the organizational changes, and the current economy. External factors such as global competition, continues to affect the decisions organizations make, and the learning that occurs
If an organization is already established and wants to become an “effective learning organization” they have to take into account their relationship with their employees at the time they make this decision. If the employees who currently work for management are not “self-energized, committed, responsible and creative beings” (Kinicki, 2012) (or any combination thereof) like McGregor assumes, they will not be able to jump in to some of the activities that leading organizations are doing. Managers will need to understand that if they developed an environment where management is superior and the employees are workers, any part of the human relations theory will not benefit them quickly. Managers will need to gain the trust of their employees and actually listen to their emotions.
As companies continue to try to come up with a plan for remaining profitable, some are overlooking one of their best opportunities due to their short sightedness and obsession for short term gain. It is the very asset which most firms claim is their most important and the one which provides them their competitive advantage. It is also, in some companies, the asset which is most mistreated and neglected as it is the most costly. It is the company’s employees. I don’t know of any company which would not state that employees and their knowledge of the company, its products and services, processes,
Some company pays educational institutions directly for expensive, intense training programs that require payment up front (O’Reilly, Brendan 2001). Today, nearly 15 percent of our domestic workforce is enrolled in college and university coursework, more than half seeking advanced degrees. Our participation rates are three times the national average for companies with similar programs. And, participants' retention rate is double that of all employees (Cassidy, John F. 2004).
Due to the ever changing landscape of the business world many employers often send their employees to attend trainings and seminars. Though this specialized training sessions are costly the return a company gets from it is worth the investment. A company that constantly sends its employees to school to acquire a fresh and new ideas has a greater advantage than a company that do not offer such benefit.
Today’s corporations are highly advanced in communication, operations, and productions. The need for highly educated people is in great demand for both white and blue collar workers. With the continuing evolution of technology, companies will need to train and educate their employees to upgrade their level of knowledge. This is being accomplished through company training or
Many companies are very keen and ready to clinch Work Base Learning in an organization, not mainly because it provide you with lifelong learning, but also it is an important ingredient of what Senge (1990) has termed as the ‘learning organization’. A learning organization is a place in which the learning and flair of persons is backed and promoted so that the organization itself be able to form its future and it also very important to gain competitive advantage.
For most companies, identifying what a learning organization should be and actually becoming one is tricky at best, impossible at worst. One way that manager's and companies can promote the concept of being a learning organization is to assess whether the company is in need of a short-term fix or whether it is more focused on long-term results. Organizational learning is a long-term activity that will build competitive advantage over time and requires sustained management attention, commitment, and effort. Learning organizations maximize their competitive positions during strong economic times and they prudently train their employees and prepare for change even in turbulent times. As a result, learning organizations and learning
Byron, I enjoyed reading your posted. Your comment Learning organizations are able to transform industry changes through constant learning of its members, is an important statement. When you have an organization that invest in their employees have some of the strongest employees throughout the industry. Organization that doesn’t invest in the training of their employee experience different controversial within the company because of the untrained employees that doesn’t have the ability to make wise decision in their job function.
Organizational learning promotes: adaptability, participation and information openness. Consequently, not only employee performance will be enhanced, but also the increase of organizations effectiveness and efficiency.
An organization’s capability to learn and convey that learning into action quickly, is the supreme competitive advantage. The learning organization is the structure that eases the realization of such competitive advantage, it empowers employees, it deepens and enhances the customer experience and cooperation with main business partners and eventually improves business performance. Organizational learning is considered as the suitable process to develop knowledge resources and capabilities/core competencies (human capital, social capital and organizational capital) that engender ongoing values; which in turn yield persistence superior performance; which lead to sustainable competitive advantage within the context of the strategic management.
Organization Development (OD) is a deliberately planned, organization-wide effort to increase an organization's effectiveness and/or efficiency, and/or to enable the organization to achieve its strategic goals (2015, Wikipedia).
In view of the increasing global competition, an in increased in customer sophistication and the lowering of the potential to maintain competitive advantage through technology or economics, and the need for organization to survive in a changing global environment, organizations are now conscious that the only source of competitive advantage is the ability of such organizations to learn faster and smarter than their competitors. The concept of ‘learning organisation’ fits in the context and is more apt to bring the desired change. An organization facing uncertain, changing or ambiguous market conditions need to be able to adopt learning concepts. They must continuously learn to survive and adapt in this dynamic and competing environment in which they are operating. Organizations adopting this concept will be able to adapt to the rapid and continuous change. Consequently marked improvements on the competitive performance of the organization will be visible.
Employing professionals and engaging them in organizational learning not only strengthens their skills and mastery of their professions, but also creates a competitive advantage. Organizations do not magically develop into learning organizations. As organizations mature over time, they often lose their ability to be innovative as their structure and ways of thinking become set. Changes developed to remedy problems more often than not become temporary only to re-emerge in the future. In order to create competitive advantage, organizations must learn faster than their competition and develop an environment that is ready to respond to customer requirements. This paper defines the concept of organizational learning and applies it to a real
learning organizations (LO) May also be outlined as businesses where persons continually spread out their capability to fully grasp the outcome they truly want, the place new and wide configurations of considering are developed, the place cooperative ambition is emancipated, and where individuals are constantly finding out to see the entirety collectively. The major groundwork for such firms is that in instances of quick change best these which can be flexible, adaptive and productive will be successful. For this to take position, corporations have got to detect how you can exploit people’s dedication and ability to be trained in any respect stages (Senge,1990).
Peter Senge argues that not only we humans learn, but organizations also. However, learning itself may not be enough for the organization to survive in this ever-challenging era. In his book, The Fifth Discipline, Senge introduced five ‘disciplines’, namely systems thinking, personal mastery, mental models, building shared vision, and team learning, that characterizes an organization as a learning organization.