Organizational Learning discussed in class October 18, 2012.

Our text defines organizational learning as “a process involving human interaction, knowledge claim formulation, and validation by which new organizational knowledge is created.  The ability of an organization to learn from past behavior and information and improve as a result.  The capture and use of organizational knowledge to make organizational decision making more efficient and effective” (Dalkir 472).  We discussed in class how Organizational Learning (OL) is significant because it can give an organization competitive advantage, early recognition of mistakes, personal development, and helps achieve change, creativity and innovation. 

Organizational learning is defined by the lessons learned or key success and failures of an organization and its capture and reuse (Dalkir 377).  Organizations learn from the top down, when management passes down important knowledge, and from the bottom up, or lessons learned when actual tasks are accomplished and the results are good or bad (Dalkir 378). In class we discussed the process of organizational learning which includes knowledge acquisition, information, distribution, information interpretation, and organizational retention.  Organizations must learn and remember.  Organizations are composed of individuals that learn and the organization learns from all individuals.  It is hard to learn across different cultures within the organization such as operators, engineers, and executives that don’t understand each other. 

Peter Senge wrote a book on OL and founded The Society for Organizational Learning that has publications and workshops (Senge Fifth Discipline).   He believed that organizations capable of learning will be more efficient, effective, competitive and more viable than those who cannot learn.  His Five Disciplines are core competencies of a learning organization; mental models, shared vision, personal mastery, team learning, and systems thinking (Dalkir 368).  I watched a short video that previewed the Systems Thinking in Action that mentions how important systems thinking is to world health and education (Senge 2010).  I think it is interesting that he is applying his principles beyond corporations to larger world problems.  “Organizational learning is the process of applying knowledge from the past to present day challenges” (Dalkir 390) so OL should be able to be applied  in a global world problem context.  I also find it interesting to discuss how organizations learn as compared to individual learning theories as discussed in my User Instruction class. 

Works Cited

Dalkir, Kimiz.  Knowledge Management in Theory and Practice.  Cambridge: MIT Press, 2011. Print.

Senge, Peter.  The Fifth Discipline: The Art and Practice of the Learning Organization. New York: Doubleday, 1990.  Print.

Senge, Peter. "Peter Senge: 2010 Systems Thinking in Action Conference Preview." Online video clip. YouTube. YouTube, 15 Apr. 2012. Web. 20. Oct. 2012.