From ideas to action: Creating a learning organization

Discussions of learning organizations too often end up intangible and obscure. While organizational learning is easy to recognize, it is often difficult to describe and dissect. Here, emphasizing the pragmatic rather than the abstract, the authors offer a solid strategy for creating a learning organization. Their extensive research suggests that at least five elements are essential for companies to become learning organizations. Together, these elements provide a formula for creating a learning organization. By closely examining each element within that formula, managers can measure and increase the rate of learning within their organizations. © 1995 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Enhancing continuous learning: Diagnostic findings from multiple companies

This article describes, both conceptually and empirically, how salient aspects of an organization's work environment can influence whether continuous learning will occur. Survey results from over 500 people in seven organizations, coupled with data from diagnostic interviews, revealed that each organization has a unique learning profile and relies on different sources of learning to develop individual competencies. Those organizations with stronger learning environments appeared to demonstrate greater organizational effectiveness. Several common learning environment factors were empirically identified. These factors were found to be related to perceived competence and satisfaction with development across organizations. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Evolving to organizational learning

To transform in stride with the business changes, organizations need to think of development as "organizational learning" rather than "training." Companies need to manage learning as a strategic competitive advantage for current and future business rather than as a perk for individuals. To position themselves for success in a dynamic business environment, companies need to reframe their concept of learning and development to a mindset of organizational learning.     

Assessing the impact of organizational learning and innovation on performance in cultural organizations

• Product innovation, technological innovation and organizational innovations are the key to helping cultural organizations achieve their social mission and achieve efficiency. This innovation strategy and the outcomes depend on introducing learning orientation into the organization. The current work analyses the relationship between learning orientation, innovativeness and performance for the case of 386 British, French and Spanish museums. Findings indicate that learning orientation significantly influences both innovativeness and performance. Further, whereas technological and organizational innovations are related to economic performance, product innovations have a greater impact on social performance.

Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Flexible learning systems and obsolete organization structures: steps towards bridging the gap

This study explores the mismatch between existing learning systems and the members’ needs for learning in a large international organization. It responds to recent research which argues that members’ learning modes need to be understood and catered for in modern age organizations. Rather than arguing from “what should be”, however, it explores “what is”, by analysing the mismatch developing in a classical organization. Based on the findings, an instrumental model is elaborated, which combines structural and cognitive factors. A main argument is that learning systems and organization structure inhibit one another mutually, which prevents lasting change from taking place. The key to resolving mutual inhibition is to engage in a process of inquiry which focuses on the overall structure and also the learning systems. Three characteristics of such a process of inquiry are proposed as requirements for the resolution of mutual inhibition: social context, setting and proximity.     

我国核电站创建学习型组织探析

随着学习型组织研究的兴起,各企业纷纷提出创建学习型组织的构想。本文将学习型组织理论应用于核电站建设,从学习型组织的内涵与特征以及核电站创建学习型组织的必要性出发,对核电站创建学习型组织的环境进行分析,提出了核电站创建学习型组织的路径,为我国核电站创建学习型组织提供参考及借鉴。     

行动学习在物流企业创建学习型组织中的应用

在介绍了学习型组织和行动学习的理论之后，对我国物流企业在创建学习型组织中如何应用行动学习和标杆学习提出了建议，为我国物流企业创建学习型组织提供了一种新的思路。     

Transforming your manufacturing organization into a learning organization.

Many experts believe the only sustainable advantage an organization will have in the future is its ability to learn faster than its competitors. This competitive advantage can be achieved by transforming the organization into a learning organization. This article describes the basic elements of a learning organization and how to transform an organization to focus on learning. The article also describes methods for evaluating the training and learning that occurs within the organization to ensure that training dollars are wisely spent. Finally, the article describes what individuals can do to focus on their own learning and personal development within an organization.     

Situating gender in situated learning

This article discusses the situated learning approach to the study of organizational learning (based on Lave & Wenger) in the light of the ‘doing gender’ approach in the study of gender in organizations (based on West & Zimmerman). It claims that studies of situated learning have not taken sufficient account of gender aspects. Gender appears to be highly relevant to the situated learning approach whereby learning is perceived as socialization in the context of a community of practice, because, according to the doing gender approach, all socialization implies learning to ‘do gender’ in an appropriate way. The present article discusses how and why gender is neglected in studies of situated learning in organizations and exemplifies ways in which the inclusion of gender aspects could affect the basic assumptions and conclusions of the approach.     

The interplay between learning strategy and organizational structure in predicting career success

The institutionalization of management development and the money spent on it is in sharp contrast to the importance attached to what we know about how managers learn and whether it helps them to get promotion, given the specific organizational context in which they work. We therefore examined career success as a complex positive or negative function of the individual's learning strategy and the organization's structure. One hundred and twenty-seven managers from three government-related organizations completed a questionnaire. A deep learning strategy, characterized by a focus on meaning and relations, fosters career success, especially in a lowly specialized context. In contrast, a surface learning strategy, characterized by a focus on instructions and facts, hampers career success, especially in a highly integrated context. The findings strongly suggest that management development programmes need to be made to measure, taking into account both how the manager learns and how the organization is structured.     

Environmental management systems,communicative action and organizational learning

In recent years, an increasing number of private as well as public organizations have been engaged with implementation and use of environmental management systems (EMSs). This raises questions as to the reasons for implementing an EMS and, not least, about the roles and contributions of an EMS in an organization. Based in particular on research on contemporary municipal environmental management in Sweden, and also drawing on EMS research and experiences in other countries, this paper argues that an EMS may be understood not only as a technical tool for analytical management, as is traditionally done, but also as a tool for communicative action and organizational learning. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.     

学习型组织的再认识以及学习型高校建设的思考

“学习型组织”既是社会发展的重要指标,也是社会发展的有效途径。文章对“学习型组织”的本质内涵做出进一步的剖析,指出其发展由低到高呈现出四个水平、四种明显特质并遵循五大核心定律,论述了“学习型组织”构建对于个人和社会发展的深远意义以及对“学习型高校”建设的有益启示。     

The learning organization: adapted from The fifth discipline by Peter Senge

In his book The Fifth Discipline, Peter Senge presents a system of thinking and acting that can be the basis for reducing the "learning disabilities" in an organization. In an article, written from the perspective of a multidepartmental health care manager, the author reviews Senge's disciplines and how they relate to running a department today.     

Believing Is Seeing: Joint Ventures and Organization Learning*

This paper develops a conceptual framework for the study of organization learning and applies it to learning in joint ventures (JVs). the framework presents a multilevel view of the phenomenon, suggesting that learning in organizations occurs at the individual, group and organization levels. the framework integrates behavioural and cognitive perspectives of organization learning and delineates both learning processes and outcomes. Four key elements of organization learning are addressed: the nature of managerial learning experiences, the sharing and integration of managerial learning within an organization, the insti-tutionalization of learning, and the relationship between organization learning and performance. In applying the framework to a study of learning and JVs, we observed firms with explicit learning objectives unable to put into place the appropriate mechanisms and systems to transfer knowledge from the JV to the parent. While individual managers in the JVs were often enthusiastic and positive about their learning experiences, integration of the learning experience at the parent firm level was problematic, limiting the institutionalized learning. the fundamental position in this paper is that a rigid set of managerial beliefs associated with an unwillingness to cast off or unlearn past practices can severely limit the effectiveness of organization learning.     

高等教育中的组织学习——以浙江大学城市学院为例(英文)

组织学习是一个关于在组织学习和适应的知识领域。这种类型的组织都能够从内部和外部环境的变化作出相应的调整。双循环学习为主要模式,首先介绍了组织的价值观的问题,假设和政策,然后据此改进策略。本文以浙江大学城市学院为例来讨论如何组织学习及应用双循环学习。     

Microworlds and Simuworlds: Practice fields for the learning organization

Management is one of the few professions, the authors note, in which members have no formal “rehearsal space” for honing their skills. In response to this need, organizations such as The Center for Creative Leadership, MIT's Learning Center, and The Stern School of Business at New York University have created a brave new world of management simulations—“practice fields” for the learning organization. Some of these new games (“simuworlds”) use computer programs to replicate an entire industry and give participants an opportunity to play out one company's strategy in that setting. Other simulations (“microworlds”) engage participants in complex behavioral role playing, based on scenarios that typically develop within a company. Still other simulations combine both approaches. The authors take their point of departure from Peter Senge's definition of the “learning barriers” that develop in any organization: solving fragmented “problems” rather than dealing with systemic issues; overemphasis on competition at the expense of cooperation; and a failure to innovate until forced to do so. The new simulations, the authors argue, are particularly useful in helping managers learn how to overcome these barriers.     

企业微型学习的设计研究

随着计算机网络技术和移动通信技术的飞速发展,越来越多的企业机构期望更高效地组织员工学习新的技能和专业知识,以此提升企业的竞争力。而此时移动学习和娱乐学习的理念出现并广为流行,企业的学习者也越来越关注学习方式和知识管理的便捷性和实时性,企业微型学习的发展正是顺应了这一理念的需求,它是继数字化学习之后出现的一个新型的学习模式。     

Power learning: racing ahead of your competition

Adhering to accepted practices, not wanting to rock the boat, and squelching dissenting opinions sentence organizations to a repetition of their mistakes. To be successful, organizations must continually learn. Organizations that learn are competitive. They are on the leading edge. They create their own futures instead of being created by their futures. The objective of this article is to present a new approach to learning that greatly enhances the quality of training and educational programs. The key subjects include learning styles, left and right brain processing, and the 4MAT System. In addition, two brief case studies are presented.     

虚拟团队的学习研究

近年来虚拟团队作为一种新的组织形式受到越来越广泛的关注。文章对虚拟团队的学习问题进行了分析说明,指出了虚拟团队学习的过程和特点,以及面临的问题和挑战,并提出了提高虚拟团队学习效率的主要途径。     

基于学习型组织的企业核心能力形成机理分析

从基于学习型组织的视角,分别从学习、组织、人员、知识和技术五个方面系统分析其对核心能力的作用,得出学习型组织的建立是企业核心能力形成的重要机理。企业核心能力与学习型组织中的学习、组织、人员、知识、技术"五要素"具有内在的联系,学习型组织系统的这"五要素"作用于核心能力能产生1+1>2的效果。