Creating learning organization 2.0: a contextualized and multi-stakeholder approach

Trust and learning are topics that have attracted a great deal of recent attention. However, there is an important link between the two that has not been explored fully. In this paper, we seek to examine two key empirical questions: how does organisational trust influence learning? How can a firm's organisational context help improve trust and learning? The paper is based on a survey of 109 profit centre managers in a leading European multinational company. The paper seeks to explore the relationships between their organisational context, trust and learning within their profit centres. The findings of the study suggest that organisational context has an indirect influence on organisational trust, via the unit's operating performance. Stronger the performance, better the trust. Trust was also influenced by the procedural fairness within an organisational unit. Organisational trust in turn would appear to have a significant influence on organisational learning. Despite the small sample and other limitations of the study, the paper points to a useful way in which organisational trust and learning can be influenced. The administrative practices of an organisational unit, especially its resource support and procedural fairness, have an important influence on trust and learning.

The convergence of social and environmental crises has urged organizations and institutions to apply systems-thinking principles as a way to better attend to ongoing issues and their inherent complexity. This qualitative empirical study inductively investigates the types of organizational-level cognition apparent in 20 sustainable wine producers in California applying different agricultural and organizational practices. We offer developments in the organizational cognition and learning literatures by presenting systems-thinking in the face of complexity as a unique empirical contribution. We differentiate between holistic (systems) and particularist (linear) cognition and dynamic ways of learning in organizations. Through semi-structured interviews, field observations, and secondary data from their website communications, we elaborate upon emergent findings and generalize a model of enacted cognition and organizational learning in a bidirectional manner with institutions. By focusing on producers with sustainable orientations, many implications related to responding to complex social and environment issues by applying holistic ontologies arise for further contemplation. Our insights serve as a foundation for understanding how organizations think in while dealing with ongoing complexity and long-term challenges, including climate change, biodiversity loss, and social inequality.

From the late 1990’s onwards, the concepts and domains of organizational learning (OL) within an organizational setting and management practice have become the most debated topics among both management researchers and practitioners. At the same time, non-profit organizations endure a rapid organizational growth and re-structuring which provoke significant organizational changes in return, making the way how they learn and what they do with gained knowledge crucial for their development. However, up until now, OL remains a research area where theoretical and operational definitions fluctuate, and it is, generally, insufficiently empirically explored by both private and non-profit sectors. The role of OL in non-profits remains vague in particular, and it is yet to be fully discovered what the main barriers to OL are, or how exactly OL practices impact capacity building, performance and other important organizational areas. By using a case study approach and by focusing on working environment and operations in a single international non-profit organization, this study provides a holistic picture of OL processes by considering and integrating various important dimensions: sector to which an organization belongs, an organizational context and influence of various organizational factors. The goal is to assess the employees’ awareness of the OL concept, to explore the social context and the system levels within which the learning occurs in the subject organization, and to identify the main OL challenges.

Learning organisation literature has widely discussed the connections between “double-loop” learning and its significance to organisational performance, but paying little attention to tools and systems that can operationalise “double-loop” learning in organisations. This paper investigates the impact of applying a systems approach for service operations design, expressed as the Vanguard Method (Seddon, Freedom from command and control: a better way to make the work work, 2003), in order to activate “double-loop” learning in service organisations. Two case studies were conducted in the banking mortgage operations and adults’ social care services in the UK, using the dimensions of the learning organisation questionnaire (DLOQ), semi-structured interviews, observations, and documents. The findings of the cross-case analysis support the link of applying the Vanguard Method with operationalising “double-loop” learning through three main factors, namely systematic-operations improvement, organisational capacity development, and outside-in mode of work; that are all embedded into the seven dimensions of the DLOQ. The value of this paper is the introduction of a service operations design tool that can activate “double-loop” learning performance in the fast changing knowledge era. It also provides an impetus for service organisations to creatively influence employees’ competencies to effectively improve internal systems.

Purpose This paper aims to study the impact of increasing number of competitors on the organisational learning (OL) in tourism small and medium-sized enterprises. The focus of this study is the tourism and travel agencies (TTAs) of the City of Ahvaz where the OL was studied within TTAs insofar as increasing the number of competitors is concerned. The underlying question in this paper is whether or not the increasing number of competitors affects OL in TTAs of the City of Ahvaz. Design/methodology/approach Using a longitudinal survey, OL was studied at individual, group and organisational levels. The research is based upon quantitative and qualitative methods. Owing to the small number of samples, in addition to questionnaire and quantitative analysis, authors made use of in-depth interviews. The first research was conducted in 2012, while the second one was done in 2014. Findings It was found that in 2012, with its limited number of competitors in the market, learning in these organisations was desirable at individual level and not at group or organisational levels. On the other hand, both the quantitative and qualitative methods in 2014, with the increased number of TTAs, suggested that the quality of learning were desirable in all organisational levels in that year. Research limitations/implications Care should be taken in generalising the results of the research to other TTAs because the size of the sample in this study was small. Moreover, structure and performance of TTAs may be different among various regions. In addition to the said limitation, it must be noted that some variables such as experience, education and gender were not consider in analysing the results of the study. Furthermore, OL in the TTAs might be affected by other variables that were not considered in this study. Originality/value Originality of the study is to link “OL” to the “competition”. There is not any study with special focus on OL with approaching to competition, neither in travel and tourism literature nor in OL literature, and this study can be a starting point to raise further and future research and debates.

Purpose The purpose of this paper and the contribution to this special issue is to build on Kim and Watkins’ (2018) recent finding that ‘leaders mentor and coach those they lead’ is the item in the Dimensions of the Learning Organization Questionnaire (DLOQ) that is most highly-correlated with performance. Given the criticality of providing strategic leadership for learning and, more specifically, the consistent associations between leaders who mentor and coach and work-related performance outcomes, a better understanding of the associations between the learning organization concept and managerial coaching is warranted. Watkins and Kim (2018, p. 22) contend that ‘future directions for learning organization research include a search for the elusive interventions that would create a learning organization’. In response to this call for research, a research agenda for assessing managerial coaching as a learning organization (LO) intervention is proposed. Design/methodology/approach This conceptual paper briefly reviews literature on the learning organization and the DLOQ instrument, followed by a more in-depth review of the managerial coaching literature and suggestions for how future research could be conducted that more closely integrates these two concepts. Findings Existing literature suggests that to ‘provide strategic leadership for learning’, a dimension in the DLOQ, is one of the most pivotal dimensions for creating learning cultures that build learning organizations. Specifically, an item within this dimension, ‘leaders who mentor and coach’ has been recently identified as one of the most critical aspects associated with strategic leadership for learning. Originality/value The extant managerial coaching literature offers a solid foundation for more closely integrating and mainstreaming the developmental intervention of managerial coaching into learning organizations. Directions for future research that identifies fine-grained perspectives of the discrete facets of managerial coaching in learning organization contexts are suggested.

Purpose The paper aims to explore how cognitive biases influence the way organizations learn and adapt. Design/methodology/approach This paper adopts a viewpoint methodology to explore the influence of behavioral biases on organizational learning. It synthesizes insights from behavioral science, psychology, and organizational learning theories to provide a conceptual discussion. The paper identifies and discusses key biases that impact decision-making and learning processes within organizations. Findings This work synthesizes the different biases that hinder organizational learning. The different steps that an organization can take to mitigate or decrease the impact of these biases are also discussed Research limitations/implications The paper focuses on key cognitive biases only in an organizational context while ignoring other organizational and individual factors such as individual experiences, cultural background, size of the organization. Practical implications Organization must recognize and address the cognitive biases which promote learning and adaptability. Failure to it can lead to flawed decision-making, resistance to change and hinder organizational growth. Implementing corrective mitigation strategies is crucial for fostering a culture of interdependency, exploring newer avenues in tackling situations and efficient use of resources. This helps an organization to adapt to the dynamic business environment and maintain competitive advantage. Originality/value This is the first study in which key biases and organizational learning are discussed, which is beneficial for the organization to understand and implement for better organizational success on time.

This paper contains an account of a small scale investigation into the usefulness of the concepts of the learning organisation and organisational learning when seeking to describe the processes of knowledge creation and deployment within the small, but growing, enterprise (SME). A review of the literature reveals a concern that the relationship between individual and collective learning in organisational settings is little understood. Focussing on this concern it is argued that when planning, leading and managing interventions to encourage and support entrepreneurial learning within organisational contexts, successful outcomes are more likely when leaders and managers have an informed appreciation of how the processes of psychological contracting can often influence people’s behaviours.

Missing in the organizational learning literature is an integrative framework that reflects the emotional as well as the cognitive dynamics involved. Here, we take a step in this direction by focusing in depth over time (five years) on a selected organization which manufactures electronic equipment for the office industry. Drawing on personal construct theory, we define organizational learning as the collective re-construal of meaning in the direction of strategically significant themes. We suggest that emotions arise as members reflect on progress or lack of progress in achieving organizational learning. Our evidence suggests that invalidation – where organizational learning fails to correspond with expectations – gives rise to anxiety and frustration, while validation – where organizational learning is aligned with or exceeds expectations – evokes comfort or excitement. Our work aims to capture the key emotions involved as organizational learning proceeds.

This research thesis offers an analysis of organizational learning as it unfolds in the context of performance management and a facilitator of strategic renewal within the LMIOP organization of Novo Nordisk. Organizational learning is, in the current context, recognized to consist of both exploitative and explorative activities for the organization to achieve a continued learning trajectory as suggested in Crossan et al’s (1999) 4I model of organizational learning. Three action research cycles demonstrate how the organization balances the use of known knowledge from the legacy systems and the new knowledge created from learning inspired by external sources. Furthermore, the research cycles illustrate how the organization benefits from the temporary event-structures to create the social context for learning to occur. The research also shows the importance of artefacts and metaphors to help integrating individual’s intuition in organizational learning. The action research cycles have practical implications for the participating members of the organization and me as leader of the LMIOP organization. The work adds to academic knowledge via the empirical evidence of the linkage between organizational learning and increased organizational performance. The work also adds to practice as the knowledge from academia is applied in practice in a real-time change organization. The research has taken place in the Danish pharmaceutical company Novo Nordisk during 2017 and 2018.

PurposeThe purpose of the paper is to introduce a systemic approach to organizational learning “triple loop learning” (TLL) that addresses processes of power. Three equally important foci in our TLL are processes of design, processes of debate and processes of power. The focus on power aims to shift “power over” (power as domination) to “power to” enact empowering designs, “power to” co-develop responsible decision-making and “power to” transform our relations with each other and with life on Earth.Design/methodology/approachThe organizational learning literature is reviewed in the context of power dynamics and its shortcomings are highlighted. The authors introduce their understanding of TLL, and how it engages with power dynamics in organizations.FindingsPeter Senge’s conceptualization of systems thinking is unable to recognize processes of power in organizations and offers limited support to transformative learning. Conceptualizations of TLL aim to enhance learning in organizations but none satisfactorily address the processes of power. The learning organization literature as a whole does not satisfactorily address processes of power or reflect our way of envisaging “looping between loops of learning” in TLL to better design, better debate and better develop relationality in the social fabric of organizations.Originality/valueThe authors introduce an original approach to TLL that directly addresses the processes of power in organizations. It offers researchers, learning facilitators and practitioners of the learning organization a way to engage with the processes of power without neglecting other important organizational and environmental issues.

The Learning Organisation literature reveals that organisations that have opted to become Learning Organisations have the ability to cope with major changes more successfully. The concept of the Learning Organisation also includes school organisations which have an increasing need to adapt to an ever-changing environment. To date, little research on schools as Learning Organisations has been documented. This research proposes a model entitled 'Learning Organisation model for school organisations' which was applied to a Taiwanese school that had not yet commenced the journey of becoming a Learning Organisation. The study established that there was significant endorsement to move towards becoming a Learning Organisation. Strong leadership was seen as pivotal. Continuous improvement, customer satisfaction, staff recognition, staff development, and rewards were perceived to be cornerstones of a Learning Organisation.

I. Organizations as Learning Bodies.- Technology in Support of Organizational Learning.- Practice Cannot be Reduced to Theory: Knowledge, Representations, and Change in the Workplace.- Ethnography and Organizational Learning: In Pursuit of Learning at Work.- Organization and Cognitive Design of (Technological) Learning Environment.- Learning is an Active and Personal Process.- II. Learning and Organizations.- Mental Models of Complex Systems: When Veridicality Decreases Functionality.- Error Management in Training: Conceptual and Empirical Results.- Decision Aiding in an Organizational Context.- User Interface Design from the Viewpoint of Human Learning.- Organizational Setting and Task Complexity: Interactions with Collective and Individual Cognitive Abilities. Elements for Elaborating a Framework.- Learning Strategies and Organizations.- III. Technology for Cooperative Learning and Working.- The School as a Workplace.- Intelligent Learning by Doing Tools for Technical and Dialectical Knowledge.- The Use of Computer-Mediated Role Play in Management Training.- Organizational Learning and Hypermedia: An Action Science Perspective.- Supporting Cooperative Work with Workflow Management Technology.- Computer Support for Cooperative Work: Computers Between Users and Social Complexity.- Communicating Through Pictures.- Complex Organizations, Knowledge-Intensive Applications, Software and Systems Development: A Case Study.

This paper covers comprehensive literature analysis on organizational learning. Work on organizational learning was synthesised in systematic and chronological order. Cognitive, Social and Behavioural theories and factors in organizational context have been widely discussed to comprehend forgetting in organizational context. Moreover, historical and philosophical prospective of organization learning was also comprehended. All the theories, prevailing context and factors indicate, as evident from content analysis, have greater impact on organizational learning.

PurposeThis paper aims to highlight the nature of strategic learning in Bollywood, India's Hindi Film Industry. Film making is an art that requires continuous learning as a prerequisite to creativity and innovation. Improved competitive performance goes beyond operational organisational learning into strategic learning. This research investigates the extent to which strategic learning, as opposed to operational learning, is taking place within film making organisations operating in the Bollywood setting.Design/methodology/approachThe research was conducted through two descriptive case studies of production houses in Bollywood using semi‐structured observations and interviews with producers and directors in the case study sites. Data are analysed using techniques of interpretive “illuminative evaluation”.FindingsThe research suggests that the current frame of film making at Bollywood is stuck in a learning trap, in that organisational learning tends to be adaptive not generative and leads only to technical innovation. There has been no change in the paradigm of film making from one rooted in the past and the present, in terms of India's history, social and political context, to one looking to the future. For this paradigm shift to take place a future vision is proposed in the form of strategic learning and innovation, allowing Bollywood to go beyond the domestic Indian market and make a contribution to world cinema by breaking away from its current formulaic approach to film making. These findings also have implications for other management learning and practice contexts.Research limitations/implicationsAlthough this research is limited to Bollywood, it has implications which potentially go beyond it in the form of a new frame as described above, and also for the organisational learning literature which has tended to focus on learning in general, rather than differentiating between operational learning and strategic learning; whereas operational learning can improve production processes, strategic learning depends upon creativity and innovation as the basis of improved competitive performance.Practical implicationsThe paper concludes that the research site is trapped within its current frame of learning and, in order to break away from it, it must embrace strategic learning to move beyond the traditional loops of organisational learning. The practical implications of the paper lie in furthering the understanding of the nature of strategic learning in a creative industry, which may, in turn, shed new light on strategic learning within similar contexts.Originality/valueThe originality of the research stems from the focus on strategic learning and a new site for its exploration in the form of the Bollywood setting. Furthermore it extends understanding of the organisational factors affecting the status of strategic learning in organisations.