The Learning Organization

To be successful in the new global environment, twenty‐first century leaders must increase their ability to function in seven key roles, namely, as a systems thinker, change agent, innovator, servant, polychronic co‐ordinator, teacher‐mentor and visionary. Action learning has quickly emerged as one of the most effective and powerful tools in developing the necessary competencies and experiences to carry out these roles. In this article, the author describes how the elements of action learning (i.e. real problems, fellow leaders in the action learning team, a reflective inquiry process, commitment to action, and focusing on learning) contribute to the building of each of these critical leadership skills.

This paper is concerned with the formulation of a framework for understanding the development and change of the competences of firms. Today, there is near universal agreement that the competitiveness of firms rests on the (core) competences that firms possess. However, little attention has ...

Purpose – The purpose of this study is to investigate the role of organizational learning culture as an enabler of knowledge-sharing behaviours and workplace spirituality. A model is proposed to examine the mediating role of knowledge-sharing behaviours between organizational learning culture and workplace spirituality. Design/methodology/approach – Employees from various Thai industries participated in the study, and structural equation modelling was used to test hypothesized relationships. Findings – Results suggest a positive relationship between organizational learning culture and workplace spirituality, partially mediated by knowledge-sharing behaviours. Research limitations/implications – The study was limited to Thailand, and is a cross-sectional design. Further investigation into the causality of relationships and cultural disparities is needed. Practical implications – Friendly learning environments enable both knowledge sharing and change organization members’ views regard...

Purpose This paper aims to examine multiple learning cycles across a UK housebuilder organization following changes made to their quality management routine at the organizational level, through to subsequent understanding and enactment at the level of the individuals involved. Design/methodology/approach This study uses a qualitative case study methodology based on an analysis of six-weeks of participant observation, semi-structured ethnographic interviews and documentation within three of the organization’s regional offices. Through an abductive process, it draws on gathered data and extant literature to develop a multi-level learning model. Findings Four levels of learning cycles are observed within the model: individual, team (within which inter-organizational relationships nest), region and organization. Three inter-related factors are identified as influencing feed-forward and feedback across the levels: time, communication and trust. The impact of these levels and factors on t...

Purpose In accordance with Latour, this paper aims to respond to the call for a “down-to-earth” post-learning organization approach to sustainability, which is critical of Senge’s conception of learning organization (LO). Design/methodology/approach “Gaia storytelling” is used to define a LO that is “down to earth.” Findings Gaia is understood through the notion of a critical zone, which foregrounds the local and differentiated terrestrial conditions in which life on Earth is embedded. Practical implications Gaia storytelling implies perceiving LO as a network of storytelling practices enacted and told by unique creative citizens. Such an organization sustains and grows through several entangled storytelling cycles that allow Gaia to shape learning. Social implications The article distinguishes five different storytelling cycles as a way to explore how the Gaia theater cycle connects to other cycles. The four other cycles are called Gaia thinking, explorative, creative and Gaia trut...

Purpose – This study aims to examine the influence of relational capital quality on client loyalty, comprising both behavioral and attitudinal, in the pharmaceutical industry of Pakistan. Design/methodology/approach – The partial least squares technique is used to test the relationship using a sample of 111 pharmaceutical firms. We applied a non-parametric procedure, the bootstrapping method, to estimate the coefficient path of the relationships. Appropriate construct measures were used based on past studies to measure the dimensions of relational capital quality and client loyalty. Findings – The findings suggest that relational capital quality significantly affects client loyalty. All three dimensions of relational capital quality, commitment, satisfaction and trust, have a significant and positive influence on both attitudinal and behavioral loyalty. However, client satisfaction is found to exert the strongest impact on behavioral and attitudinal loyalty. Practical implications –...

PurposeThis study aims to explore the relationships between learning organisation dimensions, institutional characteristics and knowledge performance among Malaysian private higher learning institutions.Design/methodology/approachThe researchers sought managers' responses to the dimensions of the learning organisation questionnaire (DLOQ) together with perceived measures of private higher learning institutions' knowledge performance to determine relationships.FindingsIt was discovered that there were positive, medium to high, and significant relationships between the seven dimensions of the learning organisation and the dependent variable, perceived knowledge performance. The three dimensions that demonstrated strong relationships were team learning, embedded systems and provision of leadership. The institutional characteristics that jointly affect the private higher learning institutions' performance were perceived level of institutional commitment to institutional/prof...

Purpose – This paper aims to present a solution that enables organizations to monitor and analyse the performance of their business processes by means of Big Data technology. Business process improvement can drastically influence in the profit of corporations and helps them to remain viable. However, the use of traditional Business Intelligence systems is not sufficient to meet today ' s business needs. They normally are business domain-specific and have not been sufficiently process-aware to support the needs of process improvement-type activities, especially on large and complex supply chains, where it entails integrating, monitoring and analysing a vast amount of dispersed event logs, with no structure, and produced on a variety of heterogeneous environments. This paper tackles this variability by devising different Big-Data-based approaches that aim to gain visibility into process performance. Design/methodology/approach – Authors present a cloud-based solution that leverage...

Purpose This paper aims to consider middle managers’ influence on organizational learning by exploring how they cope with demands and tensions in their role and whether their practice affects available team energy. Design/methodology/approach In total, 43 managers from three large organizations involved in major change assessed their group’s energy using a tested and validated instrument, the OEQ12©. This generated six distinct categories of team energy, from highly productive to corrosive. Thirty-four of these managers, spread across the six categories, completed a Twenty Statements Test and a follow-up interview to explore their cognitive, affective and behavioural responses to coping with resource constraints and tensions in their role. Findings The research provides preliminary insights into what distinguishes a middle manager persona co-ordinating teams with highly productive energy from those managing groups with less available energy to engage with knowledge and learning. It ...

ABSTRACT Purpose – This paper aims to peruse theories and practices of agile and lean manufacturing systems to determine whether they employ sustainability, complexity and organizational learning. Design/methodology/approach – The critical review of the comparative operational similarities and difference of the two systems was conducted while the new views and issues of emerging vital scenarios were analyzed in detail. Findings – In spite of their differences, the two systems of agile and lean manufacturing can co-exist in one system. The concepts of sustainability, complexity and organizational learning for agile and lean systems highlight outputs of differences in the output of operationalization but there can be substantial alignment in the input of intentions. The two excel at the three areas of consideration. Practical implications – The organizations of today must consider the applicability of designing both agile and lean systems within one organization for the purposes of achieving fast response time, high levels of productivity and better efficiency. Originality/value – The paper defines the relationship between agile and lean systems.

Purpose This paper aims to reflect on the opportunities and challenges of the learning process in practice and explores the case of a local authority school Pilot Wellbeing Programme (PWP) intervention. The aim of the PWP was to create the best workplace conditions and circumstances for people to flourish and mature, both individually and collectively. Findings show that the socio-physical environment plays a significant and leading role in supporting this work, as does the consistent modelling of higher level behaviours including integrity, respect and acceptance by intervention managers and school leadership teams. It was also important that the change processes were continually tailored and nuanced to meet the evolving needs of the staff and organisation throughout the intervention. Emphasis was also placed on encouraging individual involvement and commitment by implementing inclusive measures that fostered trust and openness. Design/methodology/approach The intervention worked t...

PurposeAims to investigate the way that the semantic web is being used to represent and process social network information.Design/methodology/approachThe Swoogle semantic web search engine was used to construct several large data sets of Resource Description Framework (RDF) documents with social network information that were encoded using the “Friend of a Friend” (FOAF) ontology. The datasets were analyzed to discover how FOAF is being used and investigate the kinds of social networks found on the web.FindingsThe FOAF ontology is the most widely used domain ontology on the semantic web. People are using it in an open and extensible manner by defining new classes and properties to use with FOAF.Research limitations/implicationsRDF data was only obtained from public RDF documents published on the web. Some RDF FOAF data may be unavailable because it is behind firewalls, on intranets or stored in private databases. The ways in which the semantic web languages RDF and OWL are being used...

Purpose This paper aims to go through all Peter Senge’s books since his influential book The Fifth Discipline: The Art and Practice of the Learning Organization in 1990 and see what kind of ideas he has developed and the impact his books have created. Design/methodology/approach The author uses book review method to identify prominent ideas in those books that not only have significantly challenged but also contributed to transforming the world of business and management in both academia and practice. Findings Among many great ideas that Senge has developed, spirituality, mental models, systems thinking, and a sustainability mentality are prominent ones, which have set up trends for both researchers and practitioners in business and management. Originality/value Those ideas are interwoven, intertwined and have powerfully shaped new ways to see the world and act upon.

PurposeTo highlight the relevance of management control in action learning programs that aim to foster organizational learning.Design/methodology/approachLiterature review plus case study. The latter consists of archival analysis and multiple interviews.FindingsWhen action learning programs are built around singular learning experiences, it can be questioned that organizational learning will materialize. This may be overcome by using action learning as a form of management control.Research limitations/implicationsThe issue whether organizational learning can be achieved by connecting management control and action learning has as of yet not been acknowledged in the action learning literature, even though it is in line with the goals of the approach. Alas, it may be that our results are not easily applicable in other organizations. More research is necessary to assess this.Practical implicationsWe show that when action learning is used as a form of management control, organizational l...

As a learning theory, the continuous improvement (CI) discourse has benefited countless manufacturing enterprises to improve and adapt their methods of production. As one of the pillars of total quality management, it has generally included a range of dynamic concepts from high involvement teamwork and production enablers, to other social and technical capabilities such as innovation techniques. Such methodologies have been promoted in the literature as potential manifestos that can transform existing capabilities from simple representations of capability, to dynamically integrated ones (often labelled “full CI capacity”). The latter term in particular deserves more attention in the literature. Since CI techniques cannot be separated from organisational learning methodologies, it follows that CI methods should underpin holistic learning. This paper explores whether CI methodologies have advanced far enough to be considered as integrated and holistic in their own right. If not, it fo...

Purpose This paper is focused on team learning, the fourth discipline proposed by Senge (1990) in his seminal book The Fifth Discipline: The Art and Practice of the Learning Organization. This paper aims to provide a reflection upon the journey that this construct has made since this book’s publication, in terms of conceptualization, research and its link to organizational learning and learning organizations. Design/methodology/approach This paper is based on a review of Senge’s (1990) conceptualization of team learning and on a literature review of team learning research that has been produced since then. Findings Since the first edition of Senge’s book in 1990, team learning has been growing as an autonomous research topic with numerous papers centered on learning at this level of analysis. Senge’s proposals concerning team learning remain present in the way team learning is now conceptualized, but this research stream has led to advancements in its conceptualization and on the un...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper was to contribute to the clarification of the conditions under which teams can be successful, especially those related to team learning. To attain this goal, in the present study, the mediating role played by team members’ motivation on the relationship between team learning conditions (shared learning beliefs and team learning support) and members’ satisfaction with the team was analysed. Design/methodology/approach – An empirical study with a multilevel design was carried out. Data concerning learning conditions, motivation and satisfaction were obtained from a survey among 398 employees working in 71 teams that perform complex tasks from 24 companies. A multilevel analysis was conducted. Findings – Overall, the results showed that both team learning conditions – shared learning beliefs and team learning support – had a significant positive effect on members’ satisfaction, which was mediated by members’ motivation. Originality/value – The prolif...

Purpose – This aim of the current research is to provide empirical evidence for the relationships among several organizational factors affecting team performance improvement, including the learning organization and employee engagement. In addition, the mediating effect of employee engagement was assessed to explain team performance improvement within the supportive learning organization. The target sample consisted of major Korean for-profit firms, and a total of 309 cases were used for data analyses. Structural equation modeling was used along with basic descriptive and multivariate research assumption tests. Results support that cultural aspects of the learning organization in Korean for-profit firms positively and directly affect the employee engagement, whereas cultural aspects of the learning organization positively affect team performance positively and indirectly only through employee engagement, and employee engagement plays a full mediating role in explaining the relationsh...

Purpose The purpose of this study is to extend the knowledge on sustainable organisational learning (OL) in sustainable companies. Design/methodology/approach Sustainability is examined from an OL perspective and was based on Edward’s integral cycle of learning. An in-depth analysis of the literature was carried out, and a list of OL characteristics, such as openness to new ideas and participative policymaking, were compiled. To identify which OL characteristics are used for sustainability, a multiple-case study was designed for sustainable companies operating in the food and beverage industry. Findings This study found a wide variety of sustainable practices, such as experimentation and information-sharing systems, related to learning processes, and learning leadership appears to be the least developed dimension. It was also found that sustainable companies learn through social rather than reflective learning, in relationships with internal and external stakeholders, and by concret...

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore the concept of self-transcending knowledge as one of P. Senge’s common themes underpinning his five disciplines approach. It will be shown that the notions of vision, purpose and transcendence, especially self-transcendence are closely related to each other. However, the aspect of self-transcendence has not been covered well yet in the existing literature. That is why this paper is guided by the following research question: What does a consolidated, integrative and interdisciplinary concept of self-transcending knowledge look like, and what are its defining and unifying features and characteristics with respect to learning organizations? Design/methodology/approach This conceptual paper draws on (both theoretical and empirical) interdisciplinary evidence from a wide variety of fields, such as organization studies, psychology, philosophy, learning organizations, cognitive science and innovation studies. Key authors from the field of sel...

PurposeIdentifying the impact of organizational structure on knowledge management (KM) is the aim of this study, as well as recognizing the importance of each variable indicator in creating, sharing and utility of knowledge.Design/methodology/approachFor understanding relationships between the main variables (organizational structure‐KM), the authors used statistical analysis and a structural model. A questionnaire was designed based on a literature review. The correlation between variables was examined, then the effects of independent variables on dependent variable were recognized, and finally a structural equation approach was used to perform path analysis, and to examine the effect of exogenous variables on endogenous variables.FindingsThe results suggest that organizational structure is positively related to knowledge management. The findings extend theoretical implications for organizational factor effects on knowledge management. In general, if the characteristics of organiza...

Purpose Despite an increasing number of publications focusing on the phenomenon of entrepreneurial learning, it is still unclear how this learning process differs from wider organizational learning. This paper aims to address this gap by highlighting four key processual dimensions unique to entrepreneurial learning: intuiting, scanning, internalizing and routinizing. Design/methodology/approach Drawing on various conceptual and empirical papers published in this area over the past 20 years, common threads in the literature are identified, which point towards these four key dimensions of entrepreneurial learning. Findings It is thus argued that the ability of the entrepreneurial team to learn form and adapt to changes in the external market involves all four dimensions of intuiting, scanning, internalizing and routinizing. Intuiting involves drawing on prior knowledge to create new opportunity sets, and skills. These ideas and skills are then tested in the market, through scanning an...

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to describe how organizational members became storywriters of an important process of organizational change. Writing became a practice designed to create a space, a time and a methodology with which to author the process of change and create a learning context. The written stories produced both the subjectivity of practical authors and reflexively created the con/text for their reproduction. Design/methodology/approach A storywriting workshop inspired by a processual and participatory practice-based approach to learning and knowing was held in a research organization undergoing privatization. For six months, 31 organizational members, divided into two groups, participated in writing one story per week for six weeks. The written story had to refer to a fact that had occurred in the previous week, thus prompting reflection on the ongoing organizational life and giving a situated meaning to the change process. Findings Storywriting is first and fore...

PurposeThe purpose of this research is to examine the impact on organizational performance of the application of management and human resource practices, and to attempt to outline key elements and assess development of the learning organization (LO) concept in Jordan.Design/methodology/approachThe tool described in this article assesses relationships between LO practices and financial and operational performance measures. The empirical research aims at deconstructing the LO formation through the development and validation of a conceptual model. A total of 41 companies belonging to large industrial sectors in Jordan participated in a survey by responding to a research questionnaire.FindingsThe outcomes of the study indicate that the LO concept can be explored in Jordanian industry using eight constructs. These constructs were found to be strongly correlated. In general, this study identifies basic steps in the process of transformation into a learning organization in Jordan.Originali...

Purpose While many approaches in the field of unlearning aim at describing, understanding or explaining the “what” and/or “how” of unlearning, this paper aims to focus on the “where-to” and the goal of unlearning. In many cases, unlearning starts off with a specific result or goal in mind. This paper suggests that such an approach has to be challenged in the context of a highly complex and uncertain world and to introduce a mode of unlearning following a strategy of future-oriented open-endedness. Design/methodology/approach This conceptual paper draws on (both theoretical/philosophical and empirical) interdisciplinary evidence from a wide variety of fields, such as organization studies, organizational (un)learning, systems theory, cognitive science and innovation studies. Findings It turns out that open-endedness in unlearning processes plays a central role, especially if we are confronted with high levels of uncertainty and complexity. In such an environment, following a strategy ...

Purpose In accordance with Latour, this paper aims to respond to the call for a “down-to-earth” post-learning organization approach to sustainability, which is critical of Senge’s conception of learning organization (LO). Design/methodology/approach “Gaia storytelling” is used to define a LO that is “down to earth.” Findings Gaia is understood through the notion of a critical zone, which foregrounds the local and differentiated terrestrial conditions in which life on Earth is embedded. Practical implications Gaia storytelling implies perceiving LO as a network of storytelling practices enacted and told by unique creative citizens. Such an organization sustains and grows through several entangled storytelling cycles that allow Gaia to shape learning. Social implications The article distinguishes five different storytelling cycles as a way to explore how the Gaia theater cycle connects to other cycles. The four other cycles are called Gaia thinking, explorative, creative and Gaia trut...

Purpose This paper aims to use (in)visibility as a lens to understand the lived experience of six women managers in the headquarters of a large multinational organization in the UK to identify how “gender” is expressed in the context of organizational learning. Design/methodology/approach The researchers take a phenomenological approach via qualitative data collection with a purposeful sample – the six female managers in a group of 24. Data were collected through quarterly semi-structured interviews over 12 months with the themes – knowledge, interaction and gender. Findings Organizations seek to build advantage to gain and retain competitive leadership. Their resilience in a changing task environment depends on their ability to recognize, gain and use knowledge likely to deliver these capabilities. Here, gender was a barrier to effective organizational learning with women’s knowledge and experience often unseen and unheard. Research limitations/implications This is a piece of resea...

PurposeThe aim of this introduction to the special issue is to furnish a panorama on how practice‐based studies (PBS) concerned with organizational learning have developed in recent years, and to describe the topics that such studies have debated.Design/methodology/approachThe articles in this special issue were first presented at the standing working group on “Practice‐based Studies of Knowledge and Innovation in Workplaces” of the European Group for Organizational Studies, and will therefore provide the background to PBS and an idea of its methodology.FindingsThe practice‐ based approach may be useful for: a renewed conception of organization as a texture of interrelated practices which extend to form an action‐net sustained by a knowing‐in‐action which renews itself and transforms itself into being practiced; a renewed conception of knowledge as a situated, negotiated, emergent and embedded activity; a renewed conception of materiality as a form of distributed agency and an intim...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to analyse the relationship between on-the-job learning and information and communication technology (ICT). Design/methodology/approach – Action research methodology was applied to study 62 small- and medium-sized corporations, and to interview over 200 knowledge workers and managers. The qualitative, textual data collected were transformed into 16 variables and analysed by multidimensional scaling. Findings – The paper provides insights into the optimal use of ICT in intra-organizational knowledge transfer and learning. We found that it is essential to use the right combination and number of technologies, aligned with the organization’s internal processes. Four different types of organizations with sub-optimal usage of ICT and possible strategies for them to reach the optimal zone were identified. For successful organizational learning, however, more is needed: the individual must also understand the value of learning and must be motivated to ...