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Sunday, April 22, 2018

A Learning Organisation



Definition for Learning Organisation

According to Senge (1990), the learning organization is a type of company that facilitates learning and development of its members and continuously transforms the organization itself. The learning organization can be able to gain competitive advantages into the business environment.
Cunningham et al. (2000) say the term of “learning organization” is not similar with “organizational learning” was popularized by Peter Senge. Learning organization describes the organization with a better learning environment that aims to perfect achievement of organizational objectives as well as individual objectives of its people. According to Senge (1990), the learning organization is a place where people/ employees expand their knowledge/ skills to create the result they truly desire, where there are new thinking patterns and where people are continually learning to see reality together. According to the definition of Peter Senge, there are two basic understandings;
  1. According to Davis (2009), the ideal organization that encourages continues learning, knowledge management (KM) and innovation can be identified as “learning organization”.        
  2. The perfect leadership models/ characteristics are essential to promote learning organizational environment.
Hodgson (2010) the learning organization can acquire knowledge and innovations from the external environment very fast, create a culture that encourages continues learning, development, critical thinking and risk-taking with new ideas/ innovations. The learning organization always allow to learn from experience and experiments and gain knowledge through doing different activities that incorporate into daily business activities.

According to Parker (2010), the learning culture is the collection of conventions, values, practices, and process that encourage employees and organization to develop their knowledge, skills and capabilities. The organizations with a learning culture always encourage learning of their member in order to create an opportunity for the establishment to transform continually.  



Characteristics of Learning Organisation

There can be able to see common five characteristics of learning organizations;

System Thinking

According to Davis (2009), the identification of the learning organization develops from a body of work is calling as system thinking. The system thinking has support to the organisation to distinguish patterns instead of conceptualizing changes as isolated events. According to Senge (1990), learning organization uses system thinking when assessing the company and has the information system that measures the performance of the organization with different components.

Personal Mastery

It means the commitment/ contribution of each individual to the process of learning/ development. When workforce can learn quickly/ faster, it will generate competitive advantages for the organization. As per Hodgson (2010), individual learning can be encouraged through staff training, development and continue self-development. The individual learning/ development can transform into organizational learning.

Mental Models

According to Parker (2010), the perspective of individual and organization regarding the learning culture can be identified as a mental model. The personal perspectives are the challenge for the learning system of the organization since differentiation of thinking pattern, attitudes, and personal behavior.

Shared Vision

Cunningham et al. (2000) say develop a common vision is difficult in learning organizational structure because followers’ vision is always differing from leader’s vision. Therefore, development of shared vision is important to focus on common goals/ objectives in order to give energy for a learning process.

Team Learning

The individual learning constitutes team learning. Team learning increases the value of learning the culture and improve problem-solving capacity, facilitate cross-culture learning and build team bonds to face the changes and challenges in the business environment. 


Applications of Learning Culture in Nestle Sri Lanka

Nestle Sri Lanka is Sri Lankan subsidiary of well-known “Nestle Company” which is the food processing multinational company. Nestle was started at 1866 in Switzerland and now it is world largest food and beverage company with more than 2000 brands. Nestle is operating in 191 countries around the world (Nestle Lanka, 2018).

Hodgson (2010) the organization always encourage learning culture within their business environment through personal learning of individuals as well as team learning process. The business facilitates to their employees to engage with continues learning in order to promote innovation, shared vision, group thinking for the strategic view of the business. Nestle always promote learning organization which is able to change its behavior and mindset as a result of experience and business experiments (Catt and Miller, 1991). To gain new knowledge, the management encourages the participation of their employees in order to gain competitive advantages. According to Davis (2009), the management encourages the employees to change their behavior and mindset as a result of experience and learning. Nestle Sri Lanka is an organization that actively create, capture, transfer, and mobiles the knowledge to adapt to the changing environment. 

They follow five characteristics of learning the culture as mentioned below;
                        
                            Figure 1: Characteristics of learning culture (Senge, 1990)

According to Parker (2010), the business learns to their employees to adapt to “learning” pattern of the business which leads to overall organizational goals. They promote the business environment which links with each other (inter-department linkage) as the method of expanding learning opportunities. Management encourages each individual to participate in the learning process, and it is main KPI that apply to measure their performance at the end of the year. The employees who actively participate in the learning process consider as strategic partners of the business. The nature of organizational environment encourages personal learning as well as team learning within the business.  As the importance of learning the culture, Nestle Lanka increases their investment to create and promote learning organization. Below graph shows how Nestle Lanka invest in their learning process yearly (Nestle Lanka Annual Report, 2016).
                             Figure 2: Investment on training and development of Nestle Lanka
(Nestle Lanka Annual Report, 2016)
Nestle identifies some advantages from learning the organizational culture. Mainly the learning organization increase efficiency, productivity in order to the profitability of the business. According to Parker (2010), the employees who engage in continuous learning process, explore new knowledge and skills and increase their experience. Therefore, employees in learning organization can deliver the best result more than competitions. When the organization provides opportunities for learning, development and active participation as the strategic partner, it may be a reason for increasing their loyalty, commitment, and satisfaction. The employees retain with the organization for long-term as well as reduce labor turnover. The learning organizational culture improves the employees’ mindset to accept changes and challenges come from internally and externally. The employees share their knowledge with others in order to promote overall learning culture to gain competitive advantages. Therefore, it is easy to the organization to manage their changes and transform the business for the more effective level. According to Davis (2009), the organization can produce formal/ professional and ethical work behavior among the employees with their experience and knowledge. It can be able to continue improvement of employees’ performance with their new knowledge and experience in learning the organizational culture.
The link between Learning Organisation and Training and Development in Nestle Lanka
Drucker (2006) says Human Resource Development (HRD) is systematic approach/ set of activities that help employees to develop their personal knowledge, skills, and capabilities.  Human resource development can be identified as the formal set of activities that aim to develop people’s knowledge and behavior.
According to Hodgson (2010), Human resource development considers as one of most significant HRM concept because it motivates to the employee to continue personal development in order to the overall productivity of the organization. HRD includes different opportunities such as employee training, career development process, performance management, coaching, and mentoring and organization development. Tomlinson (2004) explains all of these aspects focus to the superior workforce, both of employer and employee work together to accomplish one shared goal. It does not just offer a training event, but development is the long-term process and required facilitating from the organization itself. Today’s organization applies “learning organization” model in their business culture which promotes long-term people’s development within the organization. According to Parker (2010), learning organization always encourage continue training and development activities which aim for individual development in order to overall business development.
Learning organization just not offer training activities to develop technical aspect of the employees. Nestle Sri Lanka’s organizational culture has the tendency to continue development of its people more than offering training event (Nestle Lanka Annual Report, 2016). The business environment provides learning facilities and opportunities for all employees according to their job roles and operation levels. Also, the business environment encourages/ motivates employees to deal with learning facilities always. Therefore, employees can follow the formal training as well as self-managed learning process to gain new knowledge in order to develop personal abilities and skills.
Nestle Lanka offers different training and development programs that link with learning the organizational culture of the business. They expect each of their employees (currently there is 800+ employee in Nestle Sri Lanka) should have the opportunity to apply their maximum potential. Therefore, Nestle management encourages lifelong learning and personal development programs for employees (Nestle Lanka Annual Report, 2016).
Tomlinson (2004) explains that basically, they designed on-the-job training and off-the-job training methods for their employees. On-the-job training means the type of training which has an offer within an actual working environment with necessary tools and equipment. Here, an employee has an opportunity to perform actual job role while doing the training program. Drucker (2006) says job rotation is most common on-the-job training method which teaches to employees how to perform different jobs/ task in the organization. The employee rotates from one job to another and learns to perform various jobs/ task. According to the information Nestle Lanka, the employees are also given periodical job rotations and opportunities to work on short-term missions and expatriations assignment in overseas as the method of increasing their exposures to leadership and strategic thinking abilities.  
Tomlinson (2004) explains mentoring and coaching is other significant methods in the on-the-job system. Here, team leader or senior employee teaches to the particular employee to perform the job effectively with his/her own experience and experiments. This method is effective for knowledge transfer; however, it required ensuring perfect knowledge of mentor, coacher. In addition to these methods, Nestle Lanka continue “internship” program for fresh graduates to empower their talents and discover their true potentials and succeed in their careers. The internship program continues throughout 18 months and they put through a rigorous cross-functional, multi-location training program and at the end of training, they have been absorbed to particulate departments according to their capabilities.
As per Hodgson (2010), off-the-job training method means employee taken-away from their actual workplace and train. The most common off-the-job training event is seminar and conference. Here a lecturer or specialist give knowledge/ speak regarding subjective knowledge. Classroom methods, case study, workshops, leadership camps are popular off-the-job training methods for Nestle Sri Lanka.
Nestle Lanka truly value the employees training and development in order to empower the learning organizational culture. Their organizational structure benefited to personal learning through real working experience and participation of decision-making process (Nestle Lanka Annual Report, 2016). There are few layers of authority and control as well as more responsibilities is delegated among different layers/ levels. Therefore, employees can actively participate in decision-making process, team working, innovation and individual learning process. Nestle expects to create career ladders for professional developments of employees and more frequently complement career ladders.
The learning and development philosophy of Nestle Lanka is centered on the 70:20:10 principle as their Headquarter is doing. 70:20:10 principle means where intervention on experiential learning (70%), relationship-based learning (20%) and educational or classroom based learning (10%) are followed (Nestle Lanka Annual Report, 2016). According to their training principle, more than 50% is depending on experiential learning that means they give priority to practical learning more than classroom activities. As per figure, Nestle increases their investment in training and development yearly sue to the importance of training activities. According to the annual report information of Nestle Lanka (2016), they were able to expose over a third of their white collar employees overseas. Also, they provide local in-house training/ external program to build leadership, teamwork, and behavioral competencies. Nestle Lanka completed 29 training hours per person in 2016 which is the remarkable achievement of Nestle in term of people management (Nestle Lanka Annual Report, 2016).
Self- Managed Learning Process
Cunningham et al. (2000) say Self-Managed Learning is another important learning aspect that followed by Nestle Lanka. Self- Managed Learning (SML) means the learning process that individual/ employees can take responsibility for the decision regarding their learning such as what are they learn, methods that use for learning and where they can learn. According to SML process, the employee/ individual have the responsibility to continue learning process properly and organization provides facilities and guidelines. Jasper (2006) says most of the organization apply SML process as a method of training and development because of it emphasis importance of learning on employee’s mindset. There are different methods of SML. Nestle apply research and development, internet and social networks (e-learning), library facilities, knowledge sharing groups. However, E-learning is most popular and effective method which used by high numbers of employees as their learning method.  Therefore, Nestle provides facilities for employees to continue e-learning.
E-Learning
Cunningham et al. (2000) say E-learning can be identified as utilizing electronic technology to contact learning outside of a traditional classroom method. Most of the times, it refers to course or program or diploma or any other learning idea delivered completely online. Its method is the most common method for Nestle Lanka to engage in training sessions that facilitate from their mother company.
Drucker (2006) says self-study (most common method which is allow to personal learning through blogs, wiki, pdf files and other learning materials), video/ audio tape (use video to train learners) CBT; computer-based training (offers e-courses through computer), WBT; web-based training (internet based learning platform such as learning management system), mobile learning (availability and affordability of mobile devices has created space for mobile-enabled learning), social learning (employees collaborate and network on social medias/ social platform to discuses problem, issues, and experience) are most common e-learning methods of Nestle Sri Lanka like their mother company. Most of the e-learning courses have been offered by Nestle headquarter to increase the capacity of employees in their business chain (Nestle Lanka Annual Report, 2016).
However, Nestle identify some issues of e-learning methods as follows (Jasper, 2006);

  • Distinguish between trainer and trainee - Therefore, it can’t be able to build two-way communication between these two parties.
  • Lack of Lerner motivation and engagement in e-learning method; therefore, the learning session become boring and most of the learning courses has been failed.
  •  Technical issues
  • Required computer literacy
  • Unethical behavior – Most of the time, this situation can be able to see in social learning method. Employees will share unethical behavior, workings, attitudes while sharing knowledge and it may harmful to organizational reputation.
  •  Issues with time management


Recommendation for increasing the capacity of Learning Organisation
According to Davis (2009), the visionary leaders of the organization should take the initiative to implement learning culture/ learning models within the business. According to Senge (1990), implementations of learning culture or change the model of the learning culture is related to change management process. Therefore, top management has to identify the strategic vision for change management in term of learning organizational model. However, maintaining of learning culture is not the easy task for leaders without the support of subordinators. Therefore, it is essential to clearly communicate the purpose of learning the culture and gain active participation of employees to continue learning the culture. According to Hodgson (2010), management can implement quiz, offer rewards and recognition for employees who actively participate to realize the vision of learning culture in the organization. It is essential to maintain flexible, flatter organizational culture within Nestle as they are maintaining currently to gain expected benefit from learning the culture. Jasper (2006) says management can encourage the participation of all level of employees to actively participate for the learning process, support to decision-making system, accept the changes and risk face to challenges relating with learning organizational model.
References
Armstrong, M.  (2012). Armstrong’s Handbook of Human Resource Management Practice, 12th ed., Kogan Page.
Beck, C. and Kosnik, C. (2006). Innovations in Teacher Education, A Social Constructivist Approach, Albany, NY: State University of New York Press.
Catt, S. and Miller, D. (1991). Supervision: Working with People, 2nd ed., Irwin:  Homewood.
Cunningham, I., Bennett, B. and Dawes, G. (2000). Self Managed Learning in Action, 1st ed., United States of America: Gower.
Davis, S. (2009). Ten Interesting Things about Human Behaviour, 2nd ed., Mindgame Books Publication.
Drucker, P. (2006). The Practices of Management, 3rd ed., Harper Business.
Goetze, R. (2011). The Art of Reading People, 1st ed., Magpie Publishing Company.
Gupta, S. & Guptha, S. (2005). Human Resource Development, Concepts and Practice. New Delhi: Deep & Deep Publications (Pvt.) Ltd.
Harrison, R., Reeve, F., Hanson, A. and Clarke, J. (2002), Supporting Lifelong Learning, 1st ed., United Kingdom: Routledge Falmer.
Hodgson, A. (2000). Policies, Politics and the Future of Lifelong Learning, 1st ed., United Kingdom: Kogan Page Limited.
Jasper, M. (2006). Professional Development, Reflection, and Decision-Making, Oxford, Blackwell Publishing.
Lawler, E. and Mohrman, S. (2000). Beyond The Vision: What Makes HR Effective? Human Resource Planning, 23(4), pp.10-20.
Neil, A. (2006). The Now Habit, A Strategic Program for Overcoming Procrastination and Enjoying Guilt- Free Play, New York, Penguin Group.
Nestle Lanka Annual Report, (2016). Nestle Sri Lanka, [Online], Available from: https://www.nestle.lk/asset-library/documents/annual-reports/nestle-annual-report-2016.pdf [Accessed on 29/04/2018]
Nestle Website, (2018). Nestle Sri Lanka, [Online], Available from: https://www.nestle.lk/en [Accessed on 28/04/2018]
Parker, J. (2010). Effective Practice Learning in Social Work, 2nd ed., United Kingdom: Learning Matters Ltd.
Robbins, S. (2003). Essential of Organizational Behaviour, 7th ed., New Jersey: Person Education Inc.
Senge, P. (1990). The Fifth Discipline: The Art and Practice of the Learning Organization. New York: Doubleday/Currency.
Speck, M. & Knipe, C. (2005). Why Can't We Get It Right: Designing High-Quality Professional Development for Standards-Based Schools, 2nd ed., Thousand Oaks, Corwin Press.
Streumer, J. (2006). Work Related Learning, 1st ed., Netherlands: Springer.
Throop, R. and Castellucci, M. (2011). Reaching Your Potential - Personal and Professional Development, 4th ed., United States of America: Cengage Learning.
Tomlinson, H. (2004), Educational Leadership - Personal Growth for Professional Development, 1st ed. United Kingdom: SAGE Publications Ltd.

55 comments:

  1. Learning organizations and the people in these organizations are learning constantly and continuously. Employees of these companies use their own experience and that of others to improve their performance, effectiveness and knowledge (Marquardt,2011). Not only are these individuals constantly learning from successes of others but also from the failure of others. Continuous development and learning is built into the organization’s infrastructure as well as its DNA. In companies that practice this type of culture, there is almost a certainty that every employee of the company has a mind set for continuous learning. In 2014, International companies such as Coca Cola, UPS and IBM Corporation were awarded BEST Companies for “Talent Development and Learning”. Companies such as these are an example of how learning and development organization ensures that they develop a talent base that has technical skill, knowledge and a leadership mindset to deliver new innovative ideas to keep these companies ahead of their competition and also build stronger business relationships with their current clientele.

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  2. In today’s world, many organizations provide training and development programs continuously for their employees with a view to achieve optimum results from them by improving their knowledge, skills and attitudes. The organization which I work for (Hatton National Bank PLC) also provides a lot of invaluable training programs for its employees annually which resulted many employees been equipped with necessary knowledge and skills in par with the latest technology and ever changing environment. Due to success of its training delivery methods, the bank won the award for ‘Excellence in Training & Development’ at the Asia’s Training & Development Excellence Awards 2016 (HNB annual report 2016, p.68). HNB is a real learning organization which proves the definition provided by Pedler et al (1997) for learning organizations. According to him, learning organisation is a company which enables the learning of all its followers and constantly transforms itself’.

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    Replies
    1. thank you for sharing your view about your company training and development practice

      Delete
  3. There's a link between learning and continuous improvement says Ray Stata of Analog Devices, Gordon Forward of Chaparral Steel, Paul Allaire of Xerox and they have taken steps in order to use these concepts in their organizations (Garvin, 1993). Gravin also have stated that learning and continuous improvement is most important for the fast moving or rapidly changing organizations.
    Gravin (1993) puts up an argument on the concept of learning organizations. His argument is that the concept does not provide a framework for action. Further, he states that the suggestions which are provided in the concept are far too theoretical, and that it doesn’t provide answers to many questions which are under discussion. As per Gravin (1993) following are some of the questions,
    • Will managers know when their companies have become learning organizations?
    • What concrete changes in behavior are required?
    • What policies and programs must be in place?
    • How do you get from here to there?
    He further states that three critical issues are not being answered by the concept. First is the question in the meaning of learning Organizations. He states that the meaning needs to be more legal and easy to apply. Second is the question in Management He says in order to manage or practice the concept we need clear guidelines and operational advice. Finally the third question he has in on the measurement. Here he questions the tools of measurements and how to know whether the organizations have actually gained the results out of the concept. He strongly states that the Three M’s which are meaning, Management and Measurement is important for management to have a steady base of the concept of the Learning Organizations and if these are not been addressed that progress of the concept will be questionable even for simple reasons. Gravin States ‘For learning to become a meaningful corporate goal, it must first be understood’.

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    Replies
    1. thanks for for sharing this information and i agree with this

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  4. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  5. Well regulated organizations have short term and long term training agendas and these programs are conducted without any agreement to the business operations. If training programs are conducted without a prior layout, then there could be a disruption in some areas of the business operation.

    Training is an investment in the organization since the trained employees could perform useful with newly gained sets of skills. It is also a consider situation what type of training is provided. However, different organizations maintain different policies on training and development. Some policies are convenient for the employee point of view but some are for the employer. Again this would apply to the employee and employer expectations as explained https://peirismelan.blogspot.com/

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    Replies
    1. most of the companies there are maintaining internal learning and training team to provide continuos' training to employees

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  6. The term “Leaning Organization” was first used in the 1980s Richard Pascal. However, it was the publication of Peter Senge’s best seller, The Fifth discipline, in 1990s that the popularize the phrase.
    • Learning Organizations are committed to a cycle of continuous learning and improvement
    • Promote a culture that enables and accelerates individual and group learning.
    • Are continuously testing their assumptions are transforming new knowledge in to actions.
    However, in Learning Organizations, not everyone agrees on what constitutes learning, many workers consider learning simply “the act of acquiring new information” , for some, learning means “picking up new behaviors and skills, others look on learning as ‘gaining new insights through personal experience”.
    As per Peter Senge, there are 5 Disciplines,
    • Systems thinking (comprehending the big picture)
    • Personal Mastery (doing the job well)
    • Team Learning (critically questioning old assumptions)
    • Mental models (arriving at a collective purpose)
    • Shared vision (working together collaboratively)

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  7. In organizational learning, learning processes are manipulated in order to improve science and organizational and individual understanding, but in a learning organization, an organization plan is emphasized in order to facilitate members’ learning and improve the power of team accordance. These concepts are too near because using organizational learning requires a set of characteristics in the organization, which provides performing learning processes and implementation of learning process makes the organization purposeful and learning (Allameh & Moghadami, 2010).


    Eyesight, strategy, leadership, values, structure, processes and experiences all should be evolved in order that people’s learning is improved and it accelerates organizational learning (Masudi Nadushan & Javan Shargh, 2005).

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  8. There are various models and features of a learning organization. These features are used to measure whether it is a learning organization or not. Learning organization is a learning company which enables learning activity for all associates. According to Pedler, Burgoyne and Boy dell model of learning organizations, there are eleven characteristics of learning organizations (Pedlar et al., 1991)
    They are as follows.
    1. A Learning approach to strategy
    2. Informing
    3. Participative policymaking
    4. Internal exchange
    5. Formative accounting & control
    6. Boundary workers as environmental scanner
    7. Enabling structur
    8. Reward flexibility
    9. Inter company learning
    10. Self development for everyone as well as,
    11. Learning climate

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  9. All institutes study, whether they knowingly decide to or not, it is a essential requirement for their sustained existence. Some companies deliberately progress organisational learning, increasing capabilities that are consistent with their objectives; others make no determination effort and, therefore, acquire habits that are counter productive. However, all organisations learn (Daniel, 2009).

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    Replies
    1. your comment not clear can you please explain little bit more

      Delete
  10. The objective of our authoritative learning instrument is to advance discourse, not scrutinize. Every one of the associations we considered found that auditing their review scores was an opportunity to investigate a mirror. The most beneficial talks were those where chiefs grappled with the ramifications of their scores, particularly the relative measurements, rather than essentially evaluating execution brutally or positively. These directors tried to comprehend their associations' qualities and shortcomings and to paint a legit photo of their societies and authority. As anyone might expect, we trust that the learning association study is best utilized not simply as a report card or primary concern score yet rather as an analytic instrument—as such, as a device to cultivate learning (David A.,2008).

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  11. Learning and development have grown enormously by training employees on their current jobs and
    Focusing on development – preparing employees for future roles and responsibilities by organizations these days.

    Following is extracted from AMANA annual report 2016 regarding approaches Bank taken to develop employee knowledge and requirement.
    During the latter part of 2014 and the beginning of 2015, the required training was identified via Training Need Analysis (TNA), focused groups via Heads of Departments, Branch Managers and Senior Management Staff that paved the way to develop the training calendar covering all the required areas. All programmes are directed and are in line with the Bank’s overall strategy.

    Amana key area of focus on training and development for 2015 was on Career Development, which is an ongoing process of enhancing skills and knowledge including job mastery and professional development coupled with career planning activities such as:
    • Career Development and Guidance Training
    • Core-Banking System and Excel Workshops
    • Individual Development Counseling

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  12. According to Argot (2013), organizational experience interacts with the context to create knowledge. Because different types of experience affect organizational learning processes and outcomes differently, a fine-grained characterization of experience was advocated. The context was conceived as having both a latent component and an active component through which learning occurs. The latent component affects the members and tools that perform the organization’s tasks and learn from task performance experience. Knowledge results from the organizational learning processes that interpret experience. These processes can vary in their “mindfulness,” in the extent to which they are distributed over many organization members versus concentrated in a few, and in the extent to which they are planned or improvised. Knowledge both flows out of the organization into the environment and also is embedded in the organization. Knowledge embedded in the organization affects future learning.

    Argot, L, 2013, Organizational Learning, Creating, Retaining and Transferring Knowledge.

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  13. Peter M. Senge (1947- ) was named a ‘Strategist of the Century’ by the Journal of Business Strategy, one of 24 men and women who have ‘had the greatest impact on the way we conduct business today’ (September/October 1999). While he has studied how firms and organizations develop adaptive capabilities for many years at MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology), it was Peter Senge’s 1990 book The Fifth Discipline that brought him firmly into the limelight and popularized the concept of the ‘learning organization’. Since its publication, more than a million copies have been sold and in 1997, Harvard Business Review identified it as one of the seminal management books of the past 75 years.

    According to Peter Senge (1990: 3) learning organizations are:
    "organizations where people continually expand their capacity to create the results they truly desire, where new and expansive patterns of thinking are nurtured, where collective aspiration is set free, and where people are continually learning to see the whole together."

    http://infed.org/mobi/peter-senge-and-the-learning-organization/

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  14. The term of learning organization and continues improvement has been broadly used in many organizations both in services and productions. Especially in IT service based companies are more focused in to maintaining a learning organization culture. The characteristics of learning organization are useful for solving many complex problems of today’s IT firms. The most essential idea of learning organization is that “each goal has to do with how we think, what we truly want, and how we interact and learn with one another” (Senge, 1990, p. 11). Human resource management (HRM) can play an important role in transforming traditional firms to the new looks with the characteristics of learning organization. Human resource management (HRM) positively helps some of today’s most successful organizations to hold these ideas by using several strategies, and to see the individuals are the most valuable resource in their organizations.

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    1. thank you for the point out this information as you mention most of the training are now carried out via help of IT

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  15. Continuous training and development would increase the productivity level in a company.In companies like HSBC there are a certain amount of time which you have to spend on learning and development which will also affect employee performance which encourages the employees to develop there skills and the areas they are weak.On the other hand the company benefits due to the facts that the employee is not afraid to admit on the skills that he is lacking because the company itself is helping him/her to develop them and they feel more secured and satisfied.

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  16. McGill (1992) define the Learning Organization as "a company that can respond to new information by altering the very "programming" by which information is processed and evaluated."According to Serrat (2009) four aspects of learning organizations are organization, people, knowledge, and technology. Each subsystem supports the others in magnifying the learning as it permeates across the system. Organization- A learning organization values the role that learning can play in developing organizational effectiveness. It demonstrates this by having an inspiring vision for learning and a learning strategy that will support the organization in achieving its vision. People- A learning organization needs people who are intellectually curious about their work, who actively reflect on their experience, who develop experience-based theories of change and continuously test these in practice with colleagues, and who use their understanding and initiative to contribute to knowledge development. In short, it needs people who are. Knowledge- Knowledge is a critical asset in every learning organization. Because learning is both a product of knowledge and its source, a learning organization recognizes that the two are inextricably linked and manages them accordingly. Technology- Learning organizations know how to harness the power of information and communication technologies—without these technologies constraining knowledge management and learning. In a learning organization, information and communication technologies are used, among other purposes, to strengthen organizational identity; build and sustain learning communities; keep staff members, clients, and others informed and aware of corporate developments.

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  17. Learning is essential for sustainable growth, for organizational and personal development. It is a set of practices and perspectives, which views all aspects of life as inter-related and playing a role in some larger system. The idea is on reinforcing and balancing.
    It is about learning to expand our personal capacity to create results we most desire, and creating an organizational environment which encourages all its members to develop themselves towards the goals and purposes they choose.
    According to Senge, “Great teams are learning organizations – groups of people who, overtime, enhance their capacity to create what they truly desire to create.”
    Continuous state of change is Senge’s vision for the productive, competitive, and efficient.

    The learning starts with each person. For organizations to learn and improve, people within the organization must learn to reflect on and become aware of their own core beliefs and visions. Personal Mastery covers the area of individual development and learning. It covers the self-growth and self-improvement.

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  18. The primary responsibility of management and the focus of management practices in a learning organization is to generate and encourage an environment that promotes learning. According to Yadav & Agrawal, (2000) , in order to build learning organizations, there is a need to unlearn several roadblocks that prevent learning, and adopt new practices which concern to: Learning Culture, Continuous Experimentation, Information Systems, Reward Systems and Human Resource Practices primary responsibility of management and the focus of management practices in a learning organization is to create and encourage a environment that promotes learning.

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  19. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  20. Learning and development involve facilitating the acquisition by individuals and teams of knowledge and skills through experience, learning events and programmes administered by the organization, guidance, and coaching provided by line managers and others, and self-directed learning activities carried out by individuals (M.Armstrong, 2014).

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  21. The specific first thing expected to make a learning organization is effective leadership, which did not depend on a conventional hierarchy, yet rather, is a blend of various individuals from all levels of the framework, who lead in various ways (Senge 1996).

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  22. The specific first thing expected to make a learning organization is effective leadership, which did not depend on a conventional hierarchy, yet rather, is a blend of various individuals from all levels of the framework, who lead in various ways (Senge 1996).

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  23. Leadership has a close binding with a learning organization. Mainly the leaders obligation is to create an environment for a learning Organization. Such leaders are treated as advisors and facilitators (Senge, 2004). In addition, the role of a leader in a learning organization is similar to a designer architect and a tutor who lifts the mentality of followers to a shared challenging vision. A crucial milestone of such leader is the commencement of developing employees around him. It is imperative that leadership style, along with the other skills and confidence of the leader, may have a tremendous impact on a learning organization (Cecil & Gobinath, 2005)

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  24. According to (Lockley, 2012). an important motivational strategy that can be used by employers in motivation is training, Training is an investment to the organisation since the trained employees could perform better with newly acquired skills. It is also a point to consider what type of training is provided. However, different organizations maintain different policies on training and development.
    An employee with efficient training is able to perform their allocated task much effectively. They would be aware of the safety practices and the efficient way to carry out their roles. This also enhances the employee's confidence in themselves because they are armed with a stronger understanding of their responsibilities at work. This confidence pushes the employees to reach higher levels at work. Continuous training also keeps the employees updated on the industry developments.
    Well managed organizations have short term and long term training schedules and these programs are conducted without any compromise to the day to day business operations. If training programs are conducted without prior plan, then there could be disruption in some areas of the day to day business operation.

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  25. it is not possible to transform a bureaucratic organization by learning initiatives alone.
    It believes that by referring to the notion of the learning organization it was possible to make change less
    threatening and more acceptable to participants. 'However, individual and collective learning, which has
    undoubtedly taken place, has not really been connected to organizational change and transformation'. Part of the
    issue, it suggest, to do with the concept of the learning organization itself

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  26. Communication is open in true learning organizations and they believe that “every person needs to know”, hence employees across the organization are involved in most communications. Senior management make others aware of what they are learning through constant communication. Employees are appreciated and encouraged for learning, through promotions, bonus and recognition. Learning organizations dominates the market, their product quality and brand value is impossible to achieve and are immensely praised for their accomplishments. Even though many organizations try to become learning organizations most of them fail to achieve this state because, to become one and to sustain as a learning organization a lot of hard work and commitment is required. Pizza hut, Microsoft, Johnson & Johnson and Apple are identified as true learning organization. Their long term success proves the importance of continuous learning(Wilhelm,2017).

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  27. Senge(1990) describes learning organizations as those where people are continually learning how to learn together.
    According to Garrett (1995) the key ideas about the learning organization were already developed immediately after world war II.It has taken much longer,however,before they were actually applied.The concept came of age underthe impact of a rapidly developing world of work and organization.
    Pedler et al (1991) trace back the history of the concept as stemming from earlier approaches such as organization development,individual self development, action learning.
    Growing competition,technological changes, new work methods,financial constraints , globalization, reorganizations,mergers and the like,gave rise to a need for organizations to learn and adapt more quickly to changing circumstances. McCarthy (1997) these processes necessitated continuous improvement both in people and in organizations.

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  28. According to Wang X., 2005 the term used for the learning organizations in the cultural context is referred as organizational learning culture. Thus the theoretical framework of (Watkins, K.E. and V.J. Marsick, 1997) is the base for present study. According to Song, J.H., B. Joo and T.J. Chermack, 2009, the dimensional questionnaire developed by Watkins, K.E. and V.J. Marsick, 1997 encourages learning process at two levels i.e. employee’s collaborative learning level and organization’s learning level. According to Marsick, V.J. and K.E. Watkins, 2003 seven sub dimensions of organizational learning culture includes (a) continuous learning (b) strategic management (c) inquiry and dialogue (d) embedded system (e) team learning (f) connection to environment and (g) empowerment.

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  29. The learning organization concept is a culture that is appreciated and uplifted by the corresponding employees of the organization. While improving the stakeholder value of the business, it is important to seek for opportunities to for continual improvement. In fact, some organizations have dedicated resources to manage continual service improvement, as they have figured out the value of such an entity. This will not only help to increase the quality of the work they do, but also pave the way to minimize potential risk of operations and provide great opportunities for employees to break rather monotonous activities which will produce good level of job satisfaction for the workers.

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  31. According to Dr.Senge,A learning organization is an organization that encourages and facilitates learning in order to continually transform itself to survive and excel in a rapidly changing business environment.The highly complex, interrelated, and integrated global economy of the 21st century presents new challenges to managers and employees attempting to effectively compete in such a dynamic business environment.The characteristics of a learning organization will help managers and employees meet these challenges by provided them tools to pursue a creative vision,learn and work together effectively, and adapt to change. Training and development is really important as training would provide the employees with necessary knowledge of how to do work more efficiently and in a better way which help the organisation to be efficient and giving training to workers make them feel that they are valued in the organization which would increase their motivation and they would do a job well done. Training and development of employees tend be a asset to the organisation.

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  32. Build learning organization is not an overnight process. Its continuous process slowly and steadily cultivates attitudes, management processes and commitments. It begins by taking few simple steps based by creating an environment that causal to learning. Brainstorming, experiments, problem solving, improve learning skills are essential. Meanwhile open up boundaries and cross functional project teams ensure to generate fresh ideas. Strategy of the cornerstone “bounderylessness” is considers a powerful stimulant of change (Jack Welch, General Electric CEO, 1990).

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  33. Watkins and Marsick (1993) emphasise that systems to capture and share individual learning must be put in place before organisations can learn.
    Nonaka and Takeuchi (1995) describe such a system of knowledge creation in companies. They distinguish four types of knowledge conversion among people, which can be combined to form processes in time:

    1. Socialisation, tacit knowledge reproduced as tacit knowledge. People learn from each other by sharing experiences, imitation, trial and error, and so forth.

    2. Externalisation, tacit knowledge made explicit. People learn by systematising and codifying their implicit knowledge, making visible what is hidden inside them.

    3. Combination, explicit knowledge reproduced as explicit knowledge. People learn by using materials and other resources specifically aimed at teaching people.

    4. Internalisation, explicit knowledge made tacit. People learn by practising skills, automatising procedures, acquainting themselves with tasks by doing them.

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