The Learning Organisation

Welcome to Discuss HR, the HR blog written by Human Resources UK. 

Today we welcome back John Hepworth, who following his previous post has written an interesting take on the Learning Organisation. (Ed Scrivener)

The Learning Organisation

What is organisational learning? That is an intriguing question. Google searches often reveal ‘the learning organisation’ as well; but can an organisation learn? And is it the domain of the large corporate companies, a meaningless concept therefore for SMEs?

Regular readers of this blog will know that I like to define my terms before discussing topics. From several sources then, a learning organisation is one where the implementation of training and development activities allow it to respond to changes in the business environment. So: no great challenge intellectually there so far, more of what most organisations believe in anyway, even if their limit on ‘training’ is to keeping the company legal and safe. What is for sure and with more valid research, is that the way that jobs are designed and the way the organisation is structured influence the way that employees learn and the amount they learn (see Keep and Rainbird, 2000; Hilage et al, 2002).

We are now perhaps getting somewhere. Job design – the bit that line managers and let’s face it, HR professionals, dismiss and ignore at their peril. Job design has many forms but the most pragmatic for this author is the work of Hackman and Oldham (1980) and Parker and Ohly (2010). Jobs need to be designed so they have core characteristics, such as skill variety and task significance. Then, the psychological state has to be addressed – ensuring that employees understand their ‘meaningfulness’ to the organisation. Finally, these interventions will define the outcomes from job design: what level of motivation and performance is seen. Crucially, these will be measureable outcomes in such areas as absenteeism and turnover (easy ones for HR and line managers to track back together one would assume?).

If the learning organisation then is affected by job design, how might organisational structure affect the ability to learn as an organisation? In this author’s experience, the most successful companies have an approach to development of staff that is meaningful and sincere. The process elements – such as the appraisal - are used as crucial business tools rather than tick-box exercises. In skills-based organisations, attempts are made to empower the employees to give and receive feedback in a constructive manner, use modern technology to help and train others (see BT), and really make attempts to distinguish between doing their job well AND how they can develop for the benefit of themselves and their companies.

The skills-based organisations are often the most tricky to deal with when developing a concept of the learning organisation. “I come to work, do my job well and then go home” is a common mantra. What is in it for me to ‘develop’? On the other hand, sales professionals and lawyers for instance sometimes struggle to share knowledge and learning they have gained – as it would give a competitive edge to others in their organisations and leave them with less commission or fees.

So what is the solution? If we accept that learning is continuous and that it is in the interests of all companies that their employees are trained and developed, then the attitudinal changes need to be embedded throughout the company. It is the old favourite of ‘organisations do not perform, people do’ and so management intervention is essential to encourage learning as a culture.

This would look like: management at all levels adopting a coaching style more often with all of their subordinates; it would look like allowing mistakes to be made in a controlled environment that encourages mistakes as a way of learning; to help workers ‘on the shop floor’ – be they in a factory or an office – relate to the organisation and how their contributions over and above the ‘day job’ can improve life for all concerned (think lean here, think union training reps that have status, think workers who are motivated to get qualifications they could not get at school, and so on). These are the elements that help make an organisation learn. Crossan et al (1999) argued that learning DOES begin at the individual level. This allows for their experiences to be translated for others into possible ideas at a group or team level and this in turn influences organisational policy and philosophy. After all, how did Facebook and Google do it? And beyond IT, what about Virgin and GE?

Clear identity to the job and the structures that allow freedom to contribute – now that is a learning organisation.

Read about John and our other authors here

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Discuss HR is the HR blog written by members of Human Resources UK, the 10,000 member strong LinkedIn group dedicated to the HR professionals in the UK.  Discuss HR is published twice weekly and looks to take an insightful, informative and sometimes irreverent view on the world of HR – all with the purpose of generating a discussion.

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