This slide introduces the concept of organizational learning, which describes the process of gathering, creating, and applying knowledge. Most students will be surprised that organizations learn, and others will provide many examples of organizations which refused to learn anything.
In organizational learning, knowledge becomes the driver of new behavior – decision making, new products and services, new business processes. This might be seen also as organizations sensing and responding to their environment. Give the students examples of organizations, such as a school, hospital, bank, clothing manufacturer, and ask them to provide examples of how that business might demonstrate organizational learning. How well do students think the Big Three automakers in the U.S. learned in the past twenty years?