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Organizational Learning

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Organizational Learning:
Organizational Learning is the Organization-wide continuous process that enhances its
collective ability to accept, make sense of, and respond to internal and external change.
Organizational learning is more than the sum of the information held by employees. It requires
systematic integration and collective interpretation of new knowledge that leads to collective
action and involves risk taking and experimentation.
Organizational learning is the process of creating, retaining, and transferring knowledge within
an organization. Organizational learning focuses on recording knowledge gained through
experience and subsequently making that knowledge available to others when it is relevant to
their work. Organizational learning refers to individual learning within the organization, the
entire organization learning as a collective body, or anywhere in between these extremes
(Source Wikipedia) 1. When an organisation lives in a turbulent, unpredictable and challenging
world, the Organisation should learn to be, capable of handling change, uncertainty and
complexity. The Organisational response to changes requires better and faster learning by more
people.
Some Definitions of Organizational Learning by eminent Authors: -
 Organisational learning is adaptive behavior of organisation over time (Cyert and
March, 1963)2
 Organizational learning consists of a series of interactions between adaptation at the
individual, or subgroup level and adaptation at the organisational level (Cangelosi and
Dill, 1965)3
 Organisational learning is the process by which organisational members detect errors
or anomalies and correct them by restructuring organisational theory in use – (Argyris
and Schon, 1977)4
 Organizational learning means the process of improving one’s action through better
knowledge and understanding – (Fiol and Lyles, 1985) 5

 Organisations are seen as learning by encoding inferences from history into routines
that guide behavior - (Levitt and March, 1988)6
 Organizational learning occurs through shared insights, knowledge, and mental models,
and builds on past knowledge and experience - (Stata, 1989)7
 An entity learns if, through its processing of information, a range of potential behavior
is changed – (Huber, 1991)8
Organizational learning is referred to the capacity of the organization to acquire the knowledge
necessary to survive and compete in its environment. Organizational Learning refers to learning
associated with individual, teams and Organizational level.
Individual Learning: Individual learning is a cognitive or behavioral activity between an
individual and their environment. Individual learning is achieved by study, observation,
cognition, experience, practice and developing effective mental models in the mind. Since,
Individual create organisations, it is they who establish the standards, process and relationships
that enable team and organisational learning.
Group Learning: Group learning occurs when groups learn to interact, share their knowledge
and act collectively in a manner that maximizes their combined capacity and ability to
understand and take effective action.
Organizational Learning: Organizational Learning is a collective process dependent upon
relationships and interactions among individuals such that learning occurs primarily through
the interaction of the participants. Organizational learning requires a sharing of language,
meaning, objectives and standards that are significantly different from individual learning.
When an organisation learns, it generates a social synergy that creates knowledge adding value
to the firm’s knowledge workers and to its overall performance. When such a capability
becomes embedded within the organization’s culture, the organisation may have the core
competency. The core competency is usually unique to each organisation and can rarely be
replicated by other firms. The Knowledge behind a core competency is built up over time
through experiences and successes and rests in the relationships and spirit among the
knowledge workers that is the sum of each worker’s knowledge. The Organizational learning
is more than the sum of individual learnings (A Bennet & D Bennet)9.
1.16 Process of Organizational Learning: Learning is a social phenomenon, which is related
to, or occupied with matters affecting interactions, discourse and human welfare. The social
phenomenon of learning is not only among individuals, but among any individual and the
environment, whether that environment consists of people, places, processes or things, whether
it is silent or active, whether it is defined in terms of the individual with a negative or positive
influence (Brown and Duguid, 2000)10. Learning is considered as the way to fill the repository
of knowledge. Learning is the process whereby knowledge is created through the
transformation of experience (Kolb, 1984)11.
The specific ways that organisations learn include: Single loop learning, Double-loop
learning, Deutero learning. Single loop learning occurs when mistakes are detected and
corrected, and then organisations carry on with their present policies and goals. Double-loop
learning occurs when, in addition to detection and correction of errors, the organisation is
involved in the questioning and modification of existing norms, procedures, policies and
objectives. Double loop learning involves changing the organization’s knowledge base or
organisation specific competencies or routines. Deutero learning is the process of learning
about improving the learning system itself. This is composed of structural and behavioural
components which determine how learning takes place. Essentially Deutero learning is
therefore, "learning how to learn" (Argyris and Schon, 1996)12.
There are three critical factors that are essential for organisational learning. The first
one is meaning. For learning to be meaningful organisational goal must be widely understood,
have application to the work being performed, and be supported by the organisational
leadership. A key means of support is the tolerance of mistakes or failures. The organisational
culture must embrace reasonable risk-taking such mistakes or failures become learning
opportunities that can be spread throughout the organisation. Second is Management. The
generation of new ideas does not necessarily indicate an organization’s ability to learn. Until
those new ideas, or knowledge are accompanied by a change to the way an organisation
performs work, then only improvement is taking place. For an organisation to learn, a change
must take place and that newly gained knowledge must be intentional and managed. The third
one is Measurement. Measurement must effectively guage the stages of organisational
learning: Cognitive – where members are exposed to new ideas or knowledge; behavioral
changes -where members actually alter their behavior based on new learning; and finally,
performance improvement-where behavioral changes actual lead to positive business results
(Garvin, 1993)13.
Organisational Learning describes processes such as imitation and trial and error
experimentation that explain how organisations behave and evolve over time. Behavior in
organisations is routine driven by the lessons of the Past – embodied in current routines –
dominate organizational life. Organisational routines, in which ‘action stems from logic of
appropriateness more than from a logic of consequentiality or intention (Levitt & March,
1988)14.
The organisations cannot learn unless the individuals within them learn, individuals
must continuously learn to stay relevant and competitive in a fast-paced, dynamic, global
environment characterized by high levels of uncertainty, ambiguity and change. This
environment requires exploration, invention, experimentation and adaptation, all of which
require learning. In a more volatile environment, Organisations need institutionalized learning
processes to enable speedier adaption (Edward D Hess, 2014)15.
 The Organisational learning will enable the Individual to adapt to the changing
environment.

References:

1. Wikipedia available at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Organizational_learning

2. Cyert, Richard, and James March. 1963. A Behavioral Theory of the Firm. Englewood
Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall
3. Vincent E. Cangelosi and William R. Dill Administrative Science Quarterly Vol. 10, No.
2 (Sep., 1965), pp. 175-203
4. Chris Argyris and Donald Schon, (1977), Double Learning in Organisations available at
https://hbr.org/1977/09/double-loop-learning-in-organizations
5. C. Marlene Fiol and Marjorie A. Lyles, (1985) The Academy of Management Review,
Vol. 10, No. 4 (Oct., 1985), pp. 803-813
6. Barbara Levitt and James G. March, (1988) Organisational Learning, Annual Review of
Sociology, Vol. 14 (1988), pp. 319-340
7. Stata R (1989) Organizational Learning - The Key to Management Innovation, Sloan
Management, Review, 63, Spring 1989.
8. George P. Huber (1991), Organizational Learning: The Contributing Processes and the
Literatures, available https://doi.org/10.1287/orsc.2.1.88
9. Bennet, Alex and Bennet, David 2004. Hand book on Knowledge Management, Springer
Pp-15-18
10. Brown, John Seely & Duguid, Paul, (2000) The Social Life of Information, Harvard
Business School Press
11. Kolb, D.A. (1984): Experiential learning: experience as the source of learning and
development Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.
12. Argrys, C.,& Schon, D., (1996) Organizational Learning II - Theory, Method, and
Practice, Addison-Wesley Publishing Company.
13. Garvin A David, (1993), Building a learning Organisation, Harvard Business Review,
July-August, 1993
14. Levitt, B and March J, (1988), Organisational Learning, Annual Review of Sociology 14.
15. Edward D. Hess (2014), learn or Die, using Science to build a leading-edge learning
organisation, Columbia Business School PP 50-65.

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