Regardless of which measurement approach is employed, the results of these evalu¬ations must be communicated by appropriate means to the appropriate stakeholders so that the organisation can determine whether to (1) take steps to change the practices that are preventing the achievement of its objectives or (2) accelerate their change efforts, or (3) maintain the status quo.
The learning organization
The concept of the learning organization’ was popularized in Australia in the early 1990s when the appearance of Peter Serge’s book, The Fifth Discipline, coincided with an intensive policy drive by the Commonwealth Government to improve Australia’s skill base. The idea of organizational learning is much older. Argils and Scion published Organizational learning : A They of Action Perspective in 1978, using a multidisciplinary fusion of sociology, social psychology, information theory and other areas.
Organizational learning also draws on many older approaches to management and training. From organization development, it take the concept of ‘participative management’ asking what skills are needed to make it work. From various learning theories, it absorbs ideas about ‘learning by observing’ and reinforcement behaviors, and then asks how an organization can become a learning environment.
From systems theory, it takes the lesson that every aspect of an organization is interconnected.
Models of organizational learning are built on two central assumptions. The first is that knowledge (skill) is an important resource that determines process can be improved by attention to the learning process. In particular, the determines organizational knowledge can be improved by attention to the learning process. In particular, the learning process can be linked to organizational as a process of trial and error in which goal-setting and feed back are the critical variables. Field and Ford identify three types of organizational learning
1. Haphazard learning. The objectives of learning are unclear and there is no process to reinforce positive lessons. Consequently, organizational errors can be learned and perpetuated. Fiddle and Ford give the example of a car service Centre (Car Car) where the mechanics’ routine includes replacing rather than repairing parts, ignoring complicated problems and ticking off routine checks that have not to the mechanic. Consequently, the mechanists receive no feedback about their work and are unaware of customer satisfaction as an organizational goal, or of the customer’s role in a feedback process that guides their learning. What learning occurs may or may not be useful.
2. Goal-based (single-loop) learning. This introduces both goal-setting and simple include a standard measure of right first time’ quality reinforced by performance targets for each mechanic. Feedback can be business-wide quality data (conveyed on a noticeboard), admeasure of team performance (passed on via team briefings) or individual performance information (communicated through performance appraisals.) There is a single feedback step, so this process is called ‘single-loop’ learning.
3. Double-loop learning. In a dynamic environment, the messages conveyed by goal-based learning swiftly become out of date. The quality targets, for example, set one year will eventually fall behind competitors’ performance and need to be revised. As customer expectations, market pressures, product ranges and standers keep shifting, people in the workplace can respond by questioning old goals through a process of critical questioning. This dynamic process may coincide with goal-based learning- the two processes each providing feedback to the individual or team. Thus, two feedback loops may exist, with one involving learning from the pursuit of established goals and the second involving learning by questioning those goals. Because there are two feedback loops, the expression ‘double-loop learning’ was coined. A learning organization is one that engages in double-loop learning.
Waddell, Cummings and Worley argue that single-loop learning reinforces the status quo whereas double-loop learning it. For this reason, double-loop learning can lead to a model of organizational change. By itself, however, double-loop learning tells us little about the full agenda for organizational change in a learning organization. What is the wider organizational context in which double-loop learning can function?
McGill, Slocum and Lei provide a conventional answer, identifying five characteristics of the learning organization. These include a flat organizational structure emphasizing teamwork; two-way information systems based on benchmarking and continuous improvement measures; human resource practices that develop skills and cooperative attitudes; an organizational culture that promotes innovation and creativity; and a counseling or democratic style. This formula has much in common with TQM, best practice and other generic change tools.
Field and Ford present the elements of a learning organization through the device of the ‘propeller’ that drives organizational learning (figure 4.4) The four blades of the propeller represent aspects of the organization that need to be integrated with the vision of a learning organization, which they place at the hub of the propeller. The four blades are an enterprise-based employee relations strategy that promotes cooperation; a work organization system that empowers semi-autonomous work teams to make full use of double-loop learning; a skill-forming, training and learning strategy that equips the workforce to implement double-loop learning full; and a technology and information system with hardware, software and ‘social software’ that are consistent with the requirements of a learning organization. The Field and for model of a learning organization is essentially an organization development intervention framework.