Page 177 - Managing Change in Organizations

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10 The learning organization

Introduction

Ideas and concepts such as ‘organizational learning’ and ‘the learning organiza-
tion’ are widely used by human resources management practitioners. Senior man-
agers express the wish to create ‘learning organizations’. At various points
throughout this book we argue the view that effective change necessarily involves
learning. What does this mean? Can we claim that organizations learn? Does it
matter? It is clear that managers may learn as part of the process of change either
about themselves or about the company, its environment and so on. This much is
illustrated by the previous chapter. But can an organization learn?
Not least of the reasons for interest in the question is the observation that busi-
ness techniques appear suddenly, rather like fashion. Moreover, the use of such
techniques ebbs and flows, waxes and wanes. Often one can also readily conceive
today’s latest technique as comprising old ideas recycled, repackaged and pro-
jected as novel to gain attention, or so it seems. In reality it appears that organi-
zations adopt fashionable techniques but are unable to incorporate them as a
sustained way of doing business.
At one level, organizational learning clearly is of interest. If only individuals

learn then when people leave an organization the learning they have achieved
goes with them. This happens a great deal in practice. On the other hand, learn-
ing is often reflected in changing procedures, patterns of behaviour, evolving cul-
tures and so on. Some would argue that these do change and that therefore
learning is ‘captured’. In that sense organizations learn.
The central point is whether or not we can observe systematic changes in behav-
iour and culture over time. If we can there is clearly a basis for arguing that while the
process of learning may be individual, the consequences may be more wide reaching.
Thus if the individual processes lead to enduring changes in behaviour and
culture (in teams and throughout an organization) then the learning is ‘captured’
at the broader level. So we might refer to ‘organization’ as opposed to individual
learning, and organizations which seek to encourage the ‘capture’ of learning
could be said to be ‘learning organizations’. However, there is no accepted model
of organizational learning and, moreover, not everyone agrees about whether an
organization can learn.

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