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Learning Organization - An Overview

We have earlier discussed about "Knowledge" and "Knowledge Management" as the unique business tools for securing corporate excellence in the 21st century, the new era of Internet and World Wide Web heralding the advent of "Information Age".

We have also studied that "Knowledge Management" is the systematic process of

  • finding,

  • selecting,

  • organizing,

  • distilling and

  • presenting

information in a way that improves an employee's comprehension in a specific area of interest. It is based on the recognition

  • that knowledge is a primary resource for successful operations and achievement of business goals and

  • proceeding to capture valuable knowledge into an organized knowledge base,

  • preserving and updating the same from time to time and

  • retrieving and sharing the contents with beneficial results supporting the objectives or goals of the entity holding the same.

All these proves that "knowledge" is an asset for corporate management and the resource has to be earned or acquired to be made available for business support and operations. But "knowledge" is abstract and invisible. It is held in the minds of individuals and in records, documents and back-up storage of computers. It is not earned by trading, manufacturing or servicing. It is not secured by mobilising as a capital from the shareholders. Where then are corporate management to go for getting "knowledge resources" that are useful and needed by the corporate body?

This places "knowledge resource" as an object to be secured by the continuous process of "learning". Someone or more have to learn to carry out the process of "finding, selecting, and organising" the "knowledge base". And that some one or more persons should be duly qualified and proficient in the job. This is because knowledge is abstract and is secured only through a human agency acquiring it by learning, understanding and recognising. This leads us to the concept of "organization learning" or more aptly "Learning Organizations".

Organization learning is described as

"the process within the organization by which knowledge about action-outcome relationships and the effect of the environment on these relationships is developed"

According to Chris Argyris, "Organizational Learning is the process of "detection and correction of errors." But organization can learn only through individuals acting as agents for them. "The individuals' learning activities, in turn, are facilitated or inhibited by an ecological system of factors that may be called an organizational learning system"

The Steps for Organization Learning

  1. Individual Learning takes place in an organization that encourages continuous learning and rewards increasing competence.

  2. Team Learning means working together to share assumptions, to learn through dialogue, to build new mindsets and actively transfer learning to others.

  3. Organization Learning manifests itself in building the capability to regularly create new market opportunities.

The concept of "Learning Organization" as distinguished from "Organizational Learning" was propounded by Peter Senge. in his celebrated treatise "The Fifth Discipline".

"Learning Organizations," are defined "as organizations where people continually expand their capacity to create the results they truly desire, where new and expansive patterns of thinking are nurtured, where collective aspiration is set free, and where people are continually learning how to learn together."

The need for learning organizations is due to business becoming more complex, dynamic, and globally competitive. Excelling in a dynamic business environment requires more understanding, knowledge, preparation, and agreement than one person's expertise and experience provides. David Garvin of Harvard University says, "Continuous improvement requires a commitment to learning."

Learning Organization according to Mr.Senge is-

  1. the organization "in which you cannot not learn because learning is so insinuated into the fabric of life."

  2. Learning Organization is "a group of people continually enhancing their capacity to create what they want to create."

  3. "I would define Learning Organization as an "Organization with an ingrained philosophy for anticipating, reacting and responding to change, complexity and uncertainty."

  4. Senge further remarks: "The rate at which organizations learn may become the only sustainable source of competitive advantage."

Five disciplines are described by Mr.Senge, as the means of building learning organizations. The five disciplines are-

The first three disciplines have particular application for the individual participant, and the last two have group application. Systems thinking has the distinction of being the "fifth discipline" since it serves to make the results of the other disciplines work together for business benefit.


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[..Page Updated on 20.09.2004..]<>[chkd-appvd -ef]