Organizational Learning

A learning organization is one that is skilled at creating, acquiring, interpreting, transferring, and retaining knowledge, and at purposefully modifying its behavior to reflect new knowledge and insights.

David Garvin,
Learning in Action

 

 

 

 

 

http://www.conferenceboard.ca/topics/humanresource/lpi/deliverables.aspx

 

 

 

 How can an organization be clasified as a learning one?

Well, as you can see, at The Conference Board of Canada, they have a tool for organizations to know how well are they doing at learning. The Lerning Performance Index consists on five (5) variables: Vision, Culture, Learning Dynamics, Infrastructure and Training Investment. And this is rather important for nowadays companies, because a learning organization, tends to be an innovative and competitive one, always having at hand the last tools and knowledge to deliver true benefits for their uses at the right time.Then, to explain a little bit about what it consists on, and why are these variables important, let us analyze more deeply what does it measure.

Vision: Ranges from the development of the company's vision, to the different approaches that management and employees reflect. In this issue, the most important aspect resides on how does management transmits the importance of learning to the organization as a whole.

Culture: How is company structured, and how much importance they deliver to having a strong organizational culture (topic that has already been studied). The most important aspect of Culture is "how much does the management encourages the employees to see problems as opportunities, and learn from them. It is critical also the change as a promoted value, as the learning implies (not always but is rather common) changes.

Learning Dynamics: This aspect studies if the company is sharing and having a good process of teaching so that all the organization, or at least the section that will be issuing with the new process, understands the advantages and also the processes without many problems. The most important aspect of the Dynamics is about if the new work processes are shared among the employees.

Infrastructure: In this aspect, the mechanisms, and the institutions of learning are focused. The most important thing about this is if the employees are encouraged to upgrade their knowledge and education or not. Just by encouraging this, the company is shifting towards a more competitive future. When employees learn, they can confront new situations with tools that they didn't knew before.

Training Investment: As for training investment, it is studied the effects of capital involvement on the employees. It doesn't only include the investment, but the quality and the effectivity of it. It is very important for organizations to acknowledge the importance to invest in education and training as its future depends on it.

Having seen this, I think I don't have to explain why learning among organizations is a "must" in today's world. The competitivity of organizations rests on the cathegorization of the organization as a learning or not learning one. So you should expect that a non learning organization will be damaged as other organizations use this new knowledge effectively.

Bibliography

The Conference Board of Canada (2011) Learning Performance Index. The Conference Board of Canada (webpage). Access 11/05/2011. Retrieved from: http://www.conferenceboard.ca/topics/humanresource/lpi/default.aspx