Lecture 5 organisational learning

Jashapara, Knowledge Management: An Integrated Approach, 2nd Edition, © Pearson Education Limited 2011
Slide 5.1
Analysis 1: Evidence and the Nature of
Knowledge in the Digital Age
Topic: Organisational Learning
Topic Number: 5

Slide 5.2
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
• To explain common theories on how we learn
as individuals
• To describe the difference between discussion
and dialogue in team learning
• To distinguish between processes of knowledge
acquisition, information distribution,
information interpretation and organisational
memory
• To assess the role of politics in organisational
learning

Slide 5.3
Questions to Think During the Session
• How do you learn best as an individual?
• Have you ever explored your learning style?
• If so, how would you describe your optimal
learning?

Slide 5.4
KOLB’S (1984) LEARNING CYCLE
Figure 5.1 The Lewinian experiential learning model (Kolb 1984)

Slide 5.5
HOW DO WE LEARN IN ORGANISATIONS?
‘There is something paradoxical here. Organizations are
not merely collections of individuals, yet there are no
organizations without such collections. Similarly,
organizational learning is not merely individual
learning, yet organizations learn through the
experience and actions of individuals. What then, are
we to make of organizational learning? What is an
organization that it may learn?’

Slide 5.6
ORGANISATIONAL LEARNING
SINGLE- AND DOUBLE-LOOP LEARNING
• Behavioural learning – ‘single-loop learning’ involves
maintaining an organisation’s ‘theory-in-use’
• Cognitive learning – ‘double-loop learning’ involves
questioning assumptions and values

Slide 5.7
SUCCESS & FAILURE:
WHAT DRIVES OL?
Figure 5.3 Success and failure in organisations

Slide 5.8
SENSEMAKING
• Making sense of ambiguous situations of high
complexity and uncertainty e.g. nuclear attack
• Involves process of ‘situational awareness’ to
understand linkages between people, places
and events
• Allows inferences to be made of future scenarios
• Lack of situational awareness is primary factor
affecting human error

Slide 5.9
SENSEMAKING (CONTINUED)
• Use mental models from previous experiences
• ‘Cognitive gap’ between mental models and new
observations or circumstances
• World is different from expectations
• Meaning arises from labelling and characterisation –
socially defined
• Not about truth or accuracy but updating plausible
stories through dialogue
• Identity shapes our mental models and actions

Slide 5.10
SENSEMAKING (CONTINUED)
Figure 5.4 Sensemaking and situational awareness

Slide 5.11
ORGANISATIONAL LEARNING
Huber (1991)
• Knowledge acquisition
• Information distribution
• Information interpretation
• Organisational memory

Slide 5.12
KNOWLEDGE ACQUISITION
• Congenital learning
• Experiential learning (experiments, self-appraisal,
unintentional, learning curve)
• Vicarious learning
• Grafting
• Searching and noticing (scanning, focused search,
performance monitoring)

Slide 5.13
INFORMATION DISTRIBUTION
• Links with organisational communication
• Probability that A will rout information to B (member or
unit)
• Probability of delay in routing information by A to B
• Probability and extent of information distortion by A
when communicating to B

Slide 5.14
INFORMATION INTERPRETATION
• Cognitive maps and framing
• Media richness – variety of cues medium can convey
and rapidity of feedback
• Information overload – detracts from effective
interpretation
• Unlearning – discarding obsolete and misleading
knowledge

Slide 5.15
ORGANIZATIONAL MEMORY
• Personnel turnover results in loss of organisational
memory
• Non-anticipation of future needs means that memory
may not be stored
• Who has the information I want?
• Storing and retrieving information
• Computer-based organisational memory

Slide 5.16
REALIST CONCEPTION OF OL
• Gunpowder has the ‘necessary power’ to explode but
does not explode. Needs ‘contingent condition’ of a
spark to explode
• Necessary power : Experiential learning, vicarious
learning, congenital learning, organisational memory,
learning curves
• Contingent condition: Unlearning, information
interpretation, information distribution,
experimenting organisations

Slide 5.17
UNLEARNING (Hedberg, 1981)
• ‘Unlearning is a process through which learners
discard knowledge. Unlearning makes way for new
responses and mental maps’
• Challenge and negate processes to unlearn world
views
• Challenge and negate connections between stimuli
and responses
• Challenge and negate connections between responses

Slide 5.18
ORGANISATIONAL ROUTINES
(Cohen & Bacdayan, 1994)
• ‘Organizational routines-multi-actor, interlocking,
reciprocally triggered sequences of action are a major
source of the reliability and speed of organizational
performance’
• Sub-optimal performance when applied to
inappropriate situations
• Link to procedural memory and skill and habit
• Example of ‘single-loop’ learning?

Slide 5.19
ORGANISATIONAL ROUTINES (CONTINUED)
Figure 5.10 Organisational routines (adapted from Cohen and Bacdayan 1994;
Feldman and Rafaeli 2002)

Slide 5.20
DYNAMIC CAPABILITY
(Zollo & Winter, 2002)
• ‘…is a learned and stable pattern of collective activity
through which the organisation systematically
generates and modifies its routines in pursuit of
improved effectiveness’
• Double-loop learning?
• Learning mechanisms (experience, knowledge
articulation and codification) lead to dynamic
capabilities which, in turn, lead to evolution of
operating routines

Slide 5.21
SOCIAL PERSPECTIVE OF OL
(Gherardi & Nicolini, 2001)
• Learning takes place through interactions between
people shaped by cultural norms
• Social and political processes impact on
organisation’s ability to absorb new knowledge and
practices
• Similarities with social capital?

Slide 5.22
ABSORPTIVE CAPACITY
• Ability of organisations to absorb and apply new
knowledge
• Capacity to learn and solve problems
• Knowledge capacity driven by high previous
experience, diversity and commonality
• Knowledge capability driven by problem solving and
knowledge transfer abilities
• Gatekeepers important to transfer knowledge across
boundaries

Slide 5.23
ABSORPTIVE CAPACITY (CONTINUED)
Figure 5.11 Absorptive capacity processes

Slide 5.24
POLITICS & OL
Figure 5.12 Politics and organisational learning (adapted from Coopey and Burgoyne
2000; Jashapara 2003; Vince 2001)

Slide 5.25
Reading and preparatory work to be done
Read:
• Jashapara, A. (2011) “ Knowledge Management:
An Integrated Approach” Pearson Education,
Chapter 5
Work to be done before the seminar:
• Carry out all the reading above
• Answer the questions on the handout
• Bring your work to the seminar
25

Slide 5.26
Essential work for next week
• Please consult the OLE for details of:
– Essential readings*
– Seminar/workshop preparation work*
– Recommended further readings
– Any additional learning
* Essential readings and preparation work must always be completed in time
for the next session
26

Lecture 5 organisational learning

More Related Content

What's hot (20)

Viewers also liked (20)

Similar to Lecture 5 organisational learning (20)

More from moduledesign (20)

Recently uploaded (20)

Lecture 5 organisational learning