Learning Organisations and Organisational Learning
This page has been kept for reference.
It will no longer be updated by ICVET.
Reviewed: January 2008
A Learning Organisation is an organisation which facilitates the learning of all its members and continuously transforms itself (Peddler, Boydell, Burgoyne, 1988). Organisational leaders are designers, stewards and teachers and are responsible for building organisations where people continually expand their capabilities to understand complexity, clarify vision, and improve shared mental models. (Senge 1990)
Organisational Learning is a process in which an organisation strives to improve its performance, to detect and correct errors and to adapt to its environment through evolving knowledge and understanding. Learning is the key characteristic as it enables the organisation to sense changes (both internal and external) and to adapt accordingly in the face of an increasingly discontinuous environment .
The crucial issues at the heart of a learning organisation are:
- Social - What beliefs about society are reflected in organisations themselves?
- Ethical - How and why do organisations operate and how do they establish an environment and ethos in which people can grow and mature into effective human beings.
- Organisational - What are the different learning and change contexts within the organisation (as well as the impact and management of these learning and change contexts)?
Websites
Learning Organisations – Where the Learning Begins
A straightforward look at why and how a learning organisation is created. This site is a good starting point for understanding the concepts behind learning organisations, with topics including why learning organisations work, risk analysis and case studies of learning organisations.
Organizational Learning and Knowledge Management
A virtual library of links to resources, readings and corollary sites. You will need more than a few spare hours to read through all the information linked from this website!
SCIE - Learning Organisations: A Self-Assessment Resource Pack
The resource pack is a series of ‘cards’ designed to allow organisations to assess whether they are a learning organisation, that is, an organisation that uses evidence-based practice and informed decision-making. The ‘cards’ include key characteristics of a learning organisation (see Downloads section for printing the ‘cards’ as handouts). While written from a social care industry perspective, the information can be adapted for educational organisations.
InFocus, the Practice Learning Taskforce E-Newsletter.
Encyclopaedia of Informal Education - Peter Senge and the Learning Organization
A discussion on the five disciplines Peter Senge sees as central to learning organisations and issues and questions concerning the theory and practice of learning organisations.
Wikepedia - Organizational Learning
Want to get involved in a discussion on organisational learning? Here at Wikepedia (free web-based online encyclopedia), you can read articles written collaboratively by volunteers, join in a discussion on organisational learning or edit the article if you have something to add.
Organizational Learning and Information Systems
A discussion is presented on how information systems can support organisational learning processes such as knowledge acquisition, information distribution, information interpretation, and organisational memory. Here you will find an insight into the types of organisational learning, the organisational learning process and influences on organisational learning.
Themanager.org - Management - Learning Organization/ Organizational Learning
Located on this management portal is a wealth of readings on learning organisation and organisational learning. Articles include: A Practice Theory for Organizational Learning, A Simple Introduction to Organizational Learning and How to Optimise Organizational Learning.
Centre for Organizational Learning and Leadership (COLL)
The Centre for Organizational Learning and Leadership combines a focus on leadership with harnessing organizational expertise. The Centre’s commitment to enterprising organisations is to maximize internal workplace knowledge and practice amongst all employees. Here you will find links to Australian and international websites belonging to academic and other organisations interested in the fields of Knowledge Management and Organisational Learning.
Publications
RAMSAY, Sheryl, Utilising an Organisational Learning Model to Improve Student Retention at Griffith University.
An organisational learning model (Dixon, 1999) is used to frame a systematic approach to organisational change and to breaking down of perceived ‘silos’, with the aim of improving information exchange and learning across different areas of the university. Outcomes, along with theoretical and practical implications for retention, are discussed.
MULFORD, B & Silins, H, Leadership for Organisational Learning and Improved Student Outcomes (LOLSO) Research Project
With a focus on secondary schools, questions researched in this paper include how is the concept of organisational learning defined in Australian secondary schools, what leadership practices promote organisational learning in schools, does school leadership and/or organisational learning contribute to student outcomes?
HOBSON, Raelee & Meacheam, D 2004, Master Foods Australia: Lessons in Successful Organizational Learning Practice, Asia Pacific Journal of Human resources, Vol. 42, No 3
Master Foods, one of the largest privately owned businesses in the world, has maintained a dominant presence for more than 50 years in the highly competitive fast moving consumer goods market. Through interviews with key members of the Master Foods organisation, the authors assess how well the company fits the profile of a learning organisation, and point to aspects of Master Foods' practice that might explain their success in developing internal learning.
ARGYRIS, C & Schon, D A 1996, Organisational Learning Theory Method and Practice, Addison-Wesley, New York
This book identifies the practice of double loop learning which can be applied to organisational learning. Double loop learning is the change that is incorporated such as a new practice or innovation or different system as a result of learning and reflection on the learning.
SENGE, P M 1990, The Art and Practice of the Learning Organisation, The Fifth Discipline, Vision Business Book Summaries, Vision Publishing, North Sydney
Peter Senge articulates learning organisations as those organisations that continuously test experience and transform that experience into knowledge that is accessible to the whole organisation and relevant to its core purpose. The five disciplines are Personal Mastery, Mental Models, Shared Vision, Team Learning and Systems Thinking.
STEPHENSON, J 1999, Corporate Capability: Implications for the Style and Direction of Work-Based Learning, International Centre for Learner Managed Learning, Middlesex University Research Centre for Vocational Education and Training
Professor John Stephenson describes capability as the ability to apply competencies to unfamiliar and unknown contexts and that capability is about imagining the future and bringing it about.
FIELD, L & Ford, B 1995, Managing Organisational Learning: from rhetoric to reality, Longman, Australia
Specifically Australian in its context and examples and concerned primarily with the work place and work organisation. A sound practical coverage of issues of organisational learning.