Professional Documents
Culture Documents
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Organizational Learning
Defined as organizations where people continually expand their capacity to create the
results they truly desire, where new expansive patterns of thinking are nurtured where
collective aspiration is set free and where people are continually learning…
Peter Senge
Senge (1990) argues that often it is failure that provides the richest learning experience,
which is something that organizations need to understand and use more effectively. He
criticizes the way we reward success and look down upon failure as something that can be
detrimental to the long-term health of the organization. Levitt and March (1996) further
argue that success is ambiguous and depends on how it is interpreted. This interpretation
may not only vary significantly between different groups within the organization but may
change over time as success indicators and levels of aspiration change.
Levitt and March (1996) also discuss superstitious learning. This occurs when positive or
negative results are associated with the wrong actions. Success and failure can both
generate superstitious learning. If a firm does well, the routines that they followed are
linked to this success and are subsequently reinforced. The opposite is true for failure. In
such cases, the organization thinks that it has learned when in fact it has not. Real
organizational learning would have resulted from the examination of the information
generated from their actions rather than from relatively arbitrary success or failure criteria.
Some, for example, believe that behavioral change is required for learning; others insist that
new ways of thinking are enough. Some cite information processing as the mechanism
through which learning takes place; others propose shared insights, organizational routines,
even memory. And some think that organizational learning is common, while others believe
that flawed, self-serving interpretations are the norm.
It is important that the organization ensures that the knowledge gained from this process is
retained within the organization and is transferable. Knowledge retained by individuals
cannot be properly retained, as individuals can leave, taking their knowledge with them.
Embedded knowledge can be kept within the organization and shared with all individuals.
Instead of focusing on individual issues, systems thinking reflects the observational process
of an entire system. Managers have to understand that every action and consequence is
correlated with another. Many times it happens that managers focus on individual actions,
and therefore, forget about seeing the big picture. When the correlation is understood, it
enables us to see interrelationships and patterns of change in particular situations.
Managers will be able to determine cause and effect.
A framework for seeing inter-relationships that underlie complex situations and interactions
rather than simplistic (and mostly inaccurate) linear cause-effect chains. It enables teams to
unravel the often hidden subtleties, influences, leverage points and intended/unintended
consequences of change plans and programs and leads to deeper, more complete
awareness of the interconnections behind changing any system. Leaders learn to use
'Systems Thinking Maps' and 'Archetypes' to map and analyse situations, events, problems
and possible causes/courses of action to find better (and often not obvious) change
options/solutions.
Companies are the sum of many sub-systems including R&D, production, sales, human
resources, and so on. If these functions are not working in harmony and do not have an
integrated view of what they are doing, the organization may find itself operating at a lower
level than it would have been had it integrated these functions.
2. Personal Mastery
Organizations learn only through individuals who learn. Individual learning does not
guarantee organizational learning. But without it no organizational learning occurs’
(Senge 1990: 139)
- Develop capacity to clarify what is important to us in term of personal vision
and purpose
- Supported by individual commitment to one’s own growth and supportive
environment of organization
the discipline of continually:
- is not something you possess. It is a process.
- clarifying & deepening our personal vision
- focusing energies
- seeing reality objectively
- empowering learning culture & attitude
- a commitment to truth
- Spiritual growth
- “People with a high level of personal mastery are acutely aware of their
ignorance, their incompetence, their growth areas, and they are deeply self-
confident.
- Paradoxical? Only for those who do not see the ‘journey is the reward’.
(Senge 1990: 142)
Personal mastery occurs when an individual has a clear vision of a goal, combined with an
accurate perception of reality. The gap between the vision and reality drives the employee
to practice all necessary related activities to realize the vision. This creative tension depends
on a clear understanding of current reality. For this reason, for personal mastery and the
related discipline of a shared vision, looking at, and sharing the truth is a crucial
fundamental. However, employees could believe they lack the competencies to achieve
their goals. A vicious circle might have established and could be difficult to remove.
According to Peter Senge, we should train our subconscious mind because it can handle
more complex problems quicker than what our consciousness can. When people believe in
their own powerlessness, it will hold them back from realizing their vision. For this reason,
we should train the subconscious mind to tackle the stress and problems in reality.
Centrally to do with ‘self-awareness’ – how much we know about ourselves and the impact
our behaviour has on others. Personal mastery is the human face of change – to manage
change relationships sensitively, to be willing to have our own beliefs and values challenged
and to ensure our change interactions and behaviours are authentic, congruent and
principled. Leaders learn to use tools like 'Perceptual Positions' and 'Reframing' to enhance
the quality of interaction and relationship in and outside their teams.
3. Mental Model
Deeply ingrained assumptions, generalizations, or even pictures and images that
influence how we understand the world and how we take action’ (Senge 1990: 8).
- Is the deep beliefs and assumptions that hold about how the world works.
- Involves surfacing and testing peoples deepest assumptions and beliefs and helping
others do the same.
- Learn new skills & expand new point of reference
According to Peter Senge, the employees must identify the values of the company and what
the business is all about. A correct understanding of who we are will enable us to visualize
where to go and how to develop further. The organization has to be flexible in accepting
changes to new mental models and a new image of the company. The most successful
companies are those who can learn and adapt to new models to become faster than its
competitors.
One key to change success is in surfacing deep-seated mental models - beliefs, values, mind-
sets and assumptions that determine the way people think and act. Getting in touch with
the thinking going on about change in your workplace, challenging or clarifying assumptions
and encouraging people to reframe is essential. Leaders learn to use tools like the 'Ladder
of Inference' and 'Reflective Inquiry' to practise making their mental models clearer for each
other and challenging each others' assumptions in order to build shared understanding.
Ideo shares information widely, even solicits employee opinions on what decisions it should
make concerning cost cutting, for example, and allows employees the freedom to contribute
in a way that best matches their own capabilities with the needs of the firm. This
transparent, team-based, non-hierarchal model embraces most of Senge’s disciplines and
has resulted in successful outcomes in record time.
The key vision question is ‘What do we want to create together?’. Taking time early in the
change process to have the conversations needed to shape a truly shared vision is crucial to
build common understandings and commitments, unleash people’s aspirations and hopes
and unearth reservations and resistances. Leaders learn to use tools such as ‘Positive
Visioning’, 'Concept-shifting’ and ‘Values Alignment’ to create a shared vision, forge
common meaning/focus and mutually agree what the learning targets, improvement
strategies and challenge-goals should be to get there.
Apple’s success, for example, is centered on its strengths in design and in creating simple
user interfaces. By having this clear understanding of what makes them different and what
makes them successful, they have moved from being simply a computer company to one
where whatever it makes or does is embraced by consumers.
5. Team Learning
- Experiences of a group of people working in something together.
- People need to act together
- Involves all the composition of the organization to accomplish the discipline practice
Team Learning happens when teams start ‘thinking together’ – sharing their experience,
insights, knowledge and skills with each other about how to do things better. Teams develop
reflection, inquiry and discussion skills to conduct more skillful change conversations with
each other which form the basis for creating a shared vision of change and deciding on
common commitments to action. It’s also about teams developing the discipline to use the
action learning cycle rigorously in change-work. Leaders learn to use tools like the 'Action-
Learning Cycle' and 'Dialogue' to develop critical reflection skills and conduct more robust,
skillful discussions with their teams and each other.
Cisco Systems and Ideo, a Palo Alto-based design firm, have deeply embraced Senge’s
discipline of team learning. They have integrated functions as disparate as human resources,
engineering, design, sales, and software development into a single team where leadership is
shared and communication is open. By doing this they have created products that not only
beat the competition, but that are clearly superior in design, construction, and function.
ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE
- The ability of an organization to learn, develop memory and share knowledge is
dependent on its culture.
- Culture is a pattern of shared basic assumptions (Schein, 1997)
Organizational culture affects all aspects of your business, from punctuality and tone to
contract terms and employee benefits. When workplace culture aligns with your employees,
they’re more likely to feel more comfortable, supported, and valued. Companies that
prioritize culture can also weather difficult times and changes in the business environment
and come out stronger.
4. Critical incidents :
the use of rationalizations on historic events in order to develop best practice for the group.
The danger of continuing to use outdated and inappropriate knowledge or technology
1. Strategic Vision
2. Shared Fate
3. Appetite for Change
4. Heart (spirit)
5. Alignment and Congruence (the structure, systems and rules)
6. Knowledge Deployment
7. Performance Pressure
Strategic Vision
- Organisation needs theory, Concept, Organizing principle
- ‘Why do we exist?’
- ‘why should the world accept, appreciate and reward us for what we do?’
- leaders can articulate and evolve a success concept, and that they can reinvent it
when and as necessary.
Shared Fate
- Sense of common purpose
- Understanding roles
- Culture
- "We're all in the same boat" creates a powerful sense of community and esprit de
corps.
When all or most of the people involved in the enterprise, including associated stakeholders
like key suppliers and business partners, and in some cases even the families of its
members, know what the mission is, have a sense of common purpose, and understand
their individual parts in the algebra of its success, they can act synergistically to achieve the
vision. This sense that "We're all in the same boat" creates a powerful sense of community
and esprit de corps. Conversely, when they have no vision or shared concept of success,
they cannot hope to contribute their individual efforts to steer the boat in the desired
direction. Without a sense of shared fate, the psychological tone of the culture degenerates
into a "Look out for number one" spirit.
This means that the staffs are able to cooperatively step towards their visions and reach a
feeling of “being on the same boat.” This gives them a sense of unity and oneness.
Alternatively, when members and employees lack a common out- look and concept of
success, there is no hope for that boat to reach its destination (Albrecht, 2003).
Some organizational cultures, usually led by their executive teams, have become so firmly
set in their ways of operating, thinking, and reacting to the environment that change
represents a form of psychological discomfort or even distress. In others, change represents
challenge, opportunity for new and exciting experiences, and a chance to tackle something
new. People in these environments see the need to reinvent the business model as a
welcome and stimulating challenge, and a chance to learn new ways of succeeding. The
appetite for change needs to be big enough to accommodate the kinds of changes called for
in the strategic vision.
In some organizational cul- tures, the way of functioning, thinking, and reacting to the
surrounding environment is stabilized to the extent that any change is a considered an
illness or a riot. On the other hand, in some others, the word “change” refers to gaining new
experiences and it is an exciting term, and in other words it is “a chance to start a new
activity.” People in this second kind need the recreation of models of business as an ex-
citing challenge and see the change as an opportuni- ty to learn new methods. This
parameter is the driv- ing force for the strategic vision (Albrecht, 2003).
Heart (spirit)
- Willingness to give more than expected
- discretionary effort as the amount of energy the members of the organization
contribute over and above the level they have "contracted" to provide.
- Leader managed to learn from employees.
This dimension is the willingness to cooper- ate over the standard. Each and every member
of the staff has to be responsible to cooperate in the affairs of the organization. The amount
of energy over your regu- lar responsibility is call optional attempt by social psy- chologists.
In organizations with little or no emotional bonds, staffs only do what they have to. In
organizations with high rate of love of work, members will cooperate more than what they
are expected to (Albrecht, 2003).
Any group of more than a dozen people will start bumping into one another without a set of
rules to operate by. They must organize themselves for the mission, divide up jobs and
responsibilities, and work out a set of rules for interacting with one another and for dealing
with the environment. Any organizational structure you can imagine will impose limits and
constraints as well as provide for cooperation. It's hard to work intelligently and perform
effectively with crazy systems. Sometimes the organization itself — the configuration of
roles, goals, rules, and tools — changes from a solution to a problem in and of itself. When
the design of the organization and its structures, systems, methods, processes, policies,
rules and regulations, and reward systems push people in directions away from the
achievement of the mission, a chiropractic adjustment is in order. Unvoiced policies, norms,
values, and expectations also play a part in shaping human effort either toward or away
from the value proposition that justifies the organization's continued existence. In an
intelligent organization the systems, broadly defined, all come together to enable the
people to achieve the mission. Its designers and leaders have eliminated most of the
structural contradictions to the core value proposition, and have promoted the alignment of
individual energies toward the common purpose.
Any group of over 12 people will clash without a determined system of rules. They have to
organize, divide responsibilities, and set rules for interaction and response to environ- ment.
In short, in intelligent organizations, organiza- tional system and structure and rules and
regulations are in the direction of group learning and coopera- tion of the employees and
eventually, creation of val- ues and getting the mission done (Albrecht, 2003).
Knowledge Deployment
- effective use of knowledge, information, and data
- Ability to create,
- transform,
- organize,
- share and apply knowledge
More and more these days, enterprises succeed or fail based on the effective use of
knowledge, information, and data. Almost every business organization these days depends
heavily on the acquired knowledge, know-how, judgment, wisdom, and shared sense of
competency possessed by its people, as well as the wealth of operational information that
flows through its structure every minute. The capacity to create, transform, organize, share,
and apply knowledge is becoming an ever more critical aspect of competing in complex
business environments. Going well beyond the current IT formulas for "knowledge
management," knowledge deployment deals with the capacity of the culture to make use of
its valuable intellectual and informational resources. In this respect, knowledge deployment
probably deserves to be conceived of as an anthropological proposition rather than a
technological or structural one. OI must include the free flow of knowledge throughout the
culture, and the careful balance between the conservation of sensitive information and the
availability of information at key points of need. It must also include support and
encouragement for new ideas, new inventions, and an open-minded questioning of the
status quo.
Today, more than ever, suc- cess and failure of organizations are based on their ef- fective
use of data, information and knowledge. Capac- ity of creation, transference, organization,
sharing and deploying knowledge is a vital and significant aspect of competition in
complicated environments. The factor “knowledge deployment” shows the capacity that the
culture and atmosphere creates to use valuable mental and information resources
(Albrecht, 2003). In this regard, knowledge deployment is better to be considered a
humanistic factor than a structural or technological one. Organizational intelligence in-
cludes free flow of knowledge all over the organization and making a balance between
maintaining invaluable information and access of key people to it when it is due.
Encouraging and protecting new ideas and ques- tioning the current conditions are other
features of this facet of organizational intelligence (Albrecht, 2003).
It's not enough for executives and managers to be preoccupied with the performance of the
enterprise, i.e. its achievement of identified strategic objectives and tactical outcomes. In
the intelligent organization, everyone owns the performance proposition, i.e. the sense of
what has to be achieved and the belief in the validity of its aims. Leaders can promote and
support a sense of performance pressure, but it has the most impact when it is accepted by
all members of the organization as a self-imposed set of mutual expectations and an
operational imperative for shared success. When people hold one another accountable for
their contributions to the mission, a performance culture takes shape, and every new
member who joins can feel the shared sense of imperative.
This is not correct that only managers get involved with the performance and in other
words, reaching the strategic goals and results.In an intelligent organization, each person is
responsible about their own performance. When each person is asked questions about their
share of responsibility the culture of performance pressure is shaped and any new member
can feel this common sense (Albrecht, 2003).
Today's organizational leaders must think systemically and create mentoring cultures rather
than opting for the more expedient route of running a program. A resilient mentoring
program requires cultural scaffolding to support its implementation, fully embed it in the
organization, and secure organizational investment in the enterprise. A mentoring culture is
a learning and development culture. It deepens the ways employees manage their own
growth and development, strengthens how they relate to one another, and facilitates
organizational learning. An organization with an existing learning and development culture
has a distinct advantage when creating a mentoring culture. The signs of a mentoring
culture include the following hallmarks.
At the beginning, roles and responsibilities for all the key players (e.g., supervisors and
mentoring coaches, mentors, mentees) and mentoring goals are clarified.
Alignment
Successful mentoring programs also are tied to something larger than just a program. When
mentoring is aligned within an organizational culture, it is not perceived as an add-on to
what is already in place; rather, it is part of the association's DNA. Business reasons abound
as to why associations should engage in mentoring, and such reasons are tied directly to
results and communicated regularly. A shared understanding and vocabulary of mentoring
practice exist that fits in naturally with the organization's values, mission, and goals.
Communication
In mentoring cultures people talk about mentoring. Leaders have identified stakeholders
and the key messages that need to be communicated to them by certain people and at
certain times. But communication is not just one way. The most critical communication
establishes mechanisms for two-way feedback about what is working and what isn't. This
ensures a constant flow of information for making process improvements.
Demand
People are enthusiastic about participating in mentoring relationships. They voluntarily seek
out mentoring opportunities, formally and informally. Some mentors and mentees are
involved in simultaneous mentoring relationships. When mentoring partners complete
learning goals, they continue to seek mentoring relationships to work on new goals.
Mentors are mentees, and mentees become mentors.
Safety Net
Support is always available to coach and counsel mentors, mentees, departments, and
teams. Confidentiality is honored, and a positive learning outcome is reached when a
mentoring relationship doesn't work out.
When multiple safety nets — proactive and reactive — are put in place to address potential
stumbling blocks, setbacks are minimized and mentoring efforts keep moving forward.
Multiple Venues
Opportunities to engage in mentoring include formal and informal opportunities. These
include but are not limited to group mentoring, long-distance mentoring, cross-cultural
mentoring, e-mentoring, one-on-one mentoring, and mentoring networking sessions.
Technologically based resources such as videoconferences, chat rooms, and Web sites are
accessible, easy to use, and up to date.
Infrastructure
Resources, both human and financial, are in place in meaningful ways. Proper budgets and
time are ensured; mentoring "has a home" within the organization (i.e., someone "owns" it,
and it is well-anchored within multiple layers of the organization framework); sponsorship is
guaranteed; and specific individuals are tasked with spending dedicated time on
communication, training, mentor coaching, partnership support, and administration.
Dedicated time for engaging in mentoring relationships is set aside and honored.
Role Modeling
Leaders enable others to act by continuously raising the bar for themselves. This means they
go first when it comes to mentoring. They share their stories and their best practices and
encourage mentoring excellence. Champions regularly advocate mentoring, not just by
being mentors themselves but by keeping current. Champions and advocates are given
resources and tools to increase their effectiveness. Mentoring success stories are
periodically shared in public forums and communications.
Conclusion
- Organization learning become important towards organization development
- It will urge an organizations society to enhance their capacity & values (Knowledge,
Skills, Ability) as to become competitive market leader.