Organizational Learning Processes Research Papers (original) (raw)

Article analyses the conditions under which resources can be sources of SCA”, with the internal accumulation of assets, capabilities, organizational processes, firm attributes, information, knowledge; controlled by a firm that enable to... more

Adapting to Changes Through Organizational Learning

The aim of the present study is to identify the extent
to which commercial Islamic banks in Jordan pay
attention to knowledge management and to explore the
interest level with various knowledge resources in their
strategies. The other goal is to identify the part taken by
knowledge resource diversification strategy in the increase
of organizational learning levels among employees.
Participants were (220) employees selected with the
simple random method and recruited from the different
organizational levels at branch Islamic banks in Jordan
representing 20% of the whole population (N=1101). Data
collected using the questionnaires were analyzed to and
the following results were reached:
a. In general, the commercial Islamic banks employ
the diversification strategy management at high level
(M=3.93), and questionnaire areas were in the following
descendent order: organizational entities, human
resources, and artifacts made in the organization.
b. Results show that knowledge resource diversification
strategy management has a significant part at a high
level (M=4.34) in increasing the organizational learning
level among employees at the Jordanian Islamic banks
studied. Specifically, dimensions of knowledge resource
diversification strategy management were in descendant
order: artifacts made by the organization, organizational
entities, and human resources available at the organization.
c. There were no statistically significant differences
attributed to sex and experience regarding the role of
knowledge resource diversification strategy management;
whereas statistically significant differences attributed to
academic qualifications were found regarding the role of
knowledge resource diversification strategy management
excluding the knowledge resources related to artifacts
made by the organization.

This ethnographic study investigates one of the most robust youth-adult school governance model, which was found to distribute leadership and trigger organizational change. Chapters highlight youth and adult leadership practices and the supporting coursework. This book advances both the fields of student voice and distributed leadership with a thorough/extensive literature review; chapter on how to study student leadership capacity building; chapter on preparing democratic citizens; and chapters on distributed leadership. You can find this book here: http://www.amazon.com/Student-Voice-School-Governance-Distributing/dp/113885154X

- by Tibor Baráth and +2
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- Education, Educational Leadership, Teacher Education, Organizational Learning Processes

Utgangspunktet for, men samtidig hovedformålet med den følgende teksten er å bidra til en forklaring av hvordan en bestemt tilnærming til eller «modell» for organisasjonsutvikling og -læring1, utviklet over flere tiår (ca. 1980-2010), hovedsakelig ved Arbeidsforskningsinstituttet (AFI) i Oslo og i tilbakeblikk kalt «den kommunikative vending», legger opp til en håndtering av forholdet mellom makt og dialog2. Jeg forsøker å svare på hvordan, men også å vise hva man må kalle tilnærmingsmåtens historisk-teoretisk-metodologiske grunnlag eller bakgrunn. Jeg gjør dette bl.a. ved å hente frem og drøfte innsikter fra Aristoteles’ (384-322 f.Kr.) overleverte verk Corpus Aristotelicum og ved å vise hvordan tolkninger av dette ble spilt inn i en avgjørende fase i arbeidslivsforskningen på AFI. Tekstens overordnede problemutgangspunkt er om man vil, følgende generelle kommentar til Aristoteles’ verk Politikken i Eikeland (1997:301):
«Spenningen mellom filosofi eller saklighet, demokrati og makt ligger på forskjellige måter til grunn for hele den videre politiske tenkning innenfor den europeiske tradisjon».

We review the literature on how organizations learn from information system (IS) incidents. We identify three modes of learning depending on the practices that constitute the learning process, the specific actors who play roles in learning, the temporal orientation of the learning practices, and the specific contextual focus of the learning. The literature focuses primarily on learning from past experience to draw lessons for future incidents (reflective learning mode). Yet, a growing stream of literature stresses the importance of learning through engagement with present incidents (embedded learning mode), and a few studies suggest that organizations can learn prospectively to prepare for future incidents (prospective learning mode). We argue that although these three learning modes are effective, they do not adequately explain how organizations learn from IS incidents when used in isolation. Since IS incidents unfold increasingly as sets of interacting events across information systems and organizational settings, organizational learning needs to be theorized as an iterative process among these learning modes. We synthesize these three learning modes into an integrative framework and theorize about their supportive and inhibiting relations. We suggest some opportunities for future research, which would advance our understanding of how organizations learn from IS incidents

The purpose of the present research is to investigate the relationship between public and private primary school principals’ strategic leadership actions (SLA) and organizational learning (OL). The current study was conducted by employing a cross-sectional survey design with participants comprising 606 teachers, randomly selected as a stratified sample from 24 public and 6 private primary schools in İstanbul, Turkey. The quantitative data were collected using two scales; the ‘SLQ’, which measures strategic leadership actions and the ‘DLOQ’, which measures the dimensions of organizational learning. The data were analyzed with descriptive, Pearson’s correlation coefficient, and multiple linear regression statistics.
The descriptive results showed that in both public and private schools, the school principals use ethical actions most frequently. The findings also illustrated that there were positive and significant relations among the variables of SLA and OL. Transforming, political and ethical leadership actions were the significant predictors of OL. However, managing actions were not found to be a significant predictor.
We concluded that the teachers’ perceptions of OL increase as the school principals use SLA more frequently. On the theoretical side, this research makes a significant contribution to the sparse but conflicting leadership and organizational learning literature in educational contexts. On the practical side, given the importance of organizational learning in today’s environment, the findings provide specific leader actions that principals can use to increase organizational learning in their schools and transform their schools into learning organizations.

- by John Pisapia and +1
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- Organizational Learning Processes, Organizational Learning, Organizational Leadership, Strategic Management and Leadership

This paper intends to highlight the diffusion of knowledge as crucial point of transition of an educational organization to a learning organization. As a learning organization
is considered to be the one who consciously embraces practices
continuous development with the aim of achieving change and innovation, within
liquid socio-economic context.
A coupling is created in the educational unit that enhances the commitment to a common vision. This includes the role of the organization's transformational leader in a learning organization, the shaper of its culture. He, through a thorough examination of the values that can be transformed, implements an interactive, motivational leadership, improving the performance of employees and the productivity of the organization.
The role of the director of the EKAB - Institute of Vocational Training is similar. Ηe tries, through a system of new values and attitudes, to highlight a new culture of the organization, which promotes the social profile of the trainer-ΕΜΤ-ambulance crew through professional development activities.
These training activities make the mentoring relationship as a key tool for strengthening the profile of both the leader of the organization and the trainee-trainer. An experienced specialist undertakes the guidance of new executives, contributing to the effectiveness of the project and to the establishment of the appropriate culture in the organization.

In the last decade, a new concept has emerged in Europe and the Americas to explain a 'new' phenomenon of societal and technological organisation oriented to the resolution of social and environmental issues: social innovation. In certain contexts, social innovators confront dominant institutions in order to achieve their political, economic, and cultural goals. This confrontation has a transformative character. In this sense, transformative social innovation may be defined as 'changes in social relations, involving new ways of doing, organizing, framing and/or knowing, which challenge, alter, and/or replace established (dominant) institutions in a specific socio-material context.' This framework, developed as a result of the Transformative Social Innovation Theory Project, refers to the ability to design and implement new forms of social interaction that enable people and social groups to carry out strategies and deploy narratives that lead, under certain conditions, to transformative change that engenders modifications in social and/or environmental dynamics. This article presents a conceptual framework to understand transformative social innovation, which is then used to analyse the case of the La Vía Campesina (the International Peasant Movement), focusing on: 1) the strategies employed in terms of a social innovation agent, and 2) the construction of narratives of change oriented to empower peasants and generate a collective identity of the peasantry at a global level. Finally, the article presents closing remarks in order to conceptualise the social innovation capabilities of certain global movements (such as La Vía Campesina) and their achievements related to inclusive sustainable development, where food production and distribution, as well as territorial development, are fundamental.

- by Paula Juarez and +1
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- Organizational Learning Processes, Strategic Management, Food Sovereignty, Social Innovation

A response to the increasing complexity and risk of designing and planning social systems, especially inter-organizational collaborations, is to ground methodologies on well-researched principles and empirically verify the efficacy of their application. Recent examples from our arena of practice include engaging representatives of fifty organizations in planning a twenty year global Disease Elimination program, international philanthropy-government-venture capital sponsored industrial-academic consortia in Northern Ireland, external stakeholder-driven modernization of regulatory policy, Federal and State interagency coordination for resource stewardship, and statewide engagement of stakeholders in special education.

- by Kevin Dye and +1
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- Organizational Learning Processes, Participatory Design, Community Engagement & Participation, Large Group Designs

The main purpose of this research is assessing the fundamental learning elements, considered as prerequisites for an enterprise to become a learning organization. More specifically, the research on the supportive learning environment, concrete learning processes and practices, and leadership that reinforces learning in Kosovan enterprises. This paper discusses how important and crucial is for enterprises to become learning organizations. A quantitative survey was conducted among 150 selected Kosovan enterprises. Learning Organization Survey-LOS is utilized as an assessment tool. This tool was chosen to assess the degree to which the Kosovan enterprises function as Learning Organization. The research results have highlighted that Kosovan enterprises have fallen short in implementing the Learning Organization since the scores were below the benchmark set up by Garvin et al. (2008). This study is likely to contribute to decision makers and leaders keen to improve the learning environment, learning processes and practices and to reinforce learning within their enterprises. Also, it pinpoints the areas needing improvement in the Kosovan enterprises in this context.

- by Albana Berisha Qehaja and +1
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- Organizational Learning Processes, Organizational Learning, Kosovo, Learning environments

The purpose of this qualitative case study was to explore how the use of learning rounds as a collective practice enhanced professional learning at the district and individual school level as perceived by administrators, principals, and teachers in one low-income rural K-12 public school district located in the eastern United States. The overarching research question in this study asked, how do administrators, principals, and teachers perceive the use of the learning rounds model has improved teaching and learning at the district and individual school level in one rural district located in the eastern United States? The use of organizational learning, adult learning, and communities of practice theories were used as the study’s theoretical foundation. The conceptual framework focused on organizational, learning, and culture-building dimensions as supported in the literature. A purposive sampling involved a maximum variation of administrators, principals, and teachers as part of the study’s sample of participants. The main findings were derived from face-to-face semi-structured interviews, obtained direct observations, and archival data. This case study used Yin’s Five Phase Cycle of Analysis as its primary approach for data analysis. The thematic findings in this study supported crossing boundaries, collaboration as a district-level practice, professional collaboration among and across schools, as well as the benefits and challenges associated with learning rounds. The results obtained in this study showed how K-12 educators may implement learning rounds to advance organizational, learning, and culture-building capacities to improve teaching and learning.
Keywords: Andragogy, communities of practice networks, crossing boundaries, evidence-based learning, learning rounds, organizational learning, and shared and common language

A different perspective on the "unity of science". Immanent critique and the inner connections between action research, organizational learning, and the inner workings of the philosophy of science. Text written in 2008, published in... more

In this paper we describe that telemedicine technology how affect on knowledge management in general and specifically on knowledge sharing process. This issue may be important in health sector and knowledge oriented organizations that eager to improve knowledge sharing I their organizations. Via telemedicine and E-health technologies, healthcare organizations can deliver healthcare to patients in distance area , so we can touch productivity and improve effectiveness and efficiency of healthcare organization . Although the potential benefit of using telemedicine have been knowledge sharing, that most of current research focus on economic benefit of using telemedicine .in this paper we try to develop new framework in knowledge sharing base on some theoretical and conceptual issues that shows knowledge management benefits. And also try to develop model to explain how knowledge sharing occurs I telemedicine practices and finally show that knowledge sharing is potential benefit of using telemedicine. In this case we examine finding in one healthcare organization that will show results at the end of paper.

Open Access Article (download from Springer-link below). This article presents the idea of “symbiotic learning systems” as a possible strategy for dealing with institutional knowledge and learning challenges posed by an emerging transition from “socially monopolized” to “socially distributed” knowledge generation and distribution. As knowledge production and learning become increasingly relocated from segregated and specialized institutions for research and education and socially distributed to and within “ordinary” work life, corresponding changes are required in the basic institutionalized relationships between research, higher education, and practical knowledge application. The concept of “symbiotic learning” addresses these problems by deconstructing age-old divisions between vocational and liberal education. In order to build foundations for a changed and improved relationship between advanced organizations in work life and institutions of higher education and research (HEIs), the general preconditions for learning in the work places themselves need to be addressed. In modeling general preconditions for learning, and even in transcending the division of labor between manual and intellectual work, inspiration is found in the philosophy of Plato and Aristotle, and in their search for intellectual “commons” (tà koiná) as constituting public spheres and community among individuals.

This paper examines the relationship between migrants’ social networks, the processes of language acquisition and tourism employment. Data collected using netnography and interviews are used to identify the strategies that Polish workers in the UK use to develop their language skills. The paper highlights the roles played by co-workers, co-nationals and customers in migrants’ language learning, both in the physical spaces of work and the virtual spaces of internet forums. It also shows how migrant workers exchange knowledge about the use of English during different stages of their migration careers: prior to leaving their country of origin and getting a job, during their employment and after leaving their job. Implications for academic inquiry and human resource management practice are outlined.

- by Peter Lugosi and +2
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- Organizational Behavior, Languages, Human Geography, Tourism Studies

The purpose of the study is to reestablish the link between theories of organizational learning and knowledge creation – theories that in research, have been pursued as independent themes for almost two decades. Based on the literature review, I build a framework that proposes how the two streams of literature complement each other, how they are similar, and how they are different. To understand the framework’s empirical applicability, I utilize it as a theoretical lens to study an innovation project in a Danish public service organization. Based on a longitudinal and participatory research strategy, I build eight propositions that are used to discuss and extend the organizational learning and knowledge creation literatures and to justify the framework’s applicability. Finally, I present the managerial implications and the conclusions of the study.

In recent years, the healthcare sector has adopted the use of operational risk assessment tools to help understand the systems issues that lead to patient safety incidents. But although these problem-focused tools have improved the ability of healthcare organizations to identify hazards, they have not translated into measurable improvements in patient safety. One possible reason for this is a lack of support for the solution-focused process of risk control. This article describes a content analysis of the risk management strategies, policies, and procedures at all acute (i.e., hospital), mental health, and ambulance trusts (health service organizations) in the East of England area of the British National Health Service. The primary goal was to determine what organizational-level guidance exists to support risk control practice. A secondary goal was to examine the risk evaluation guidance provided by these trusts. With regard to risk control, we found an almost complete lack of useful guidance to promote good practice. With regard to risk evaluation, the trusts relied exclusively on risk matrices. A number of weaknesses were found in the use of this tool, especially related to the guidance for scoring an event's likelihood. We make a number of recommendations to address these concerns. The guidance assessed provides insufficient support for risk control and risk evaluation. This may present a significant barrier to the success of risk management approaches in improving patient safety.

- by James Ward and +1
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- Management, Risk Management and Insurance, Safety Engineering, Organizational Change

Citizens and public organisations are increasingly engaging in the co-creation of public services. To be successful, such co-creation efforts require public organisations to engage in organisational learning about citizens' value-creation processes. The purpose of this paper is to explore the antecedents of such organisational learning, drawing on Payne, Storbacka, and Frow's framework about value co-creation management. A model consisting of five factors is suggested and tested via a survey administered to a sample of 204 local government administrators in Italy. The findings highlight the significance of two positive antecedents (public administrators' level of citizen orientation and expected benefits from co-creation) and three negative antecedents (perceived citizens' lack of competencies and experience, perceived biases in citizens' perceptions, and lack of resources) of organisational learning. From the managerial perspective, the model tested in this study can be used by public organisations to evaluate their level of organisational learning.

- by Fabio Cassia
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- Business, Organizational Behavior, Management, Marketing

A study by Akram, Watkins, and Sajid (2013), found that a statistically significant difference exists between boys and girls' schools in most of the dimensions of a learning organization. The current study is an extension of this previous research as it explores whether or not statistically significant differences exist among boys, girls and co-education schools on the dimensions of a learning organization. Using the Dimensions of Learning Organization Questionnaire (DLOQ) by Watkins and Marsick (1997), 100 sample cases were gathered by using the survey method, from a girls, a boys' and a co-education school in Karachi, Pakistan. The analysis of data revealed that statistically significant differences exist among the three gender-based categories of schools with the girls' school ranking first and the boys' school last in terms of the organizational learning orientation prevailing within the selected schools .

Inappropriate management in some fields such as credit allocation has imposed too many losses to financial institutions and even has forced some of them to go bankrupt. Moreover, large volume data sets collected by credit departments has necessitated utilizing highly accurate models with less complexities. Credit scoring models with classification and forecasting customers into two groups good and bad can dramatically reduce risks of granting credits to customers. In this paper, a novel integrated approach for credit scoring problem is presented. This approach utilizes rough sets for feature selection during the data pre-processing phase and also adopts two hybrid sequences, Naïve Bayes networks and genetic algorithm, to classify customers. In order to assess the competitive performance of the proposed approach, it has been executed on three credit scoring datasets from the University of California Irvine Machine Learning Repository. Computational results demonstrate that our approach has superior performance in terms of classification accuracy and achieves higher overall classification rate as compared to several other previous studies.

The interpersonal network structure of an organization directly influences the diffusion and recombination of ideas, and can thus facilitate or impede organizational learning. Most interpersonal networks have "hubs" -- individuals that have significantly more connections than does the average member. This raises important questions about how hubs influence organizational learning outcomes. Does the presence of hubs improve or impair performance? What happens if hubs forget or misrepresent information that is transmitted through the network? Using simulation models, we find that moderately hubby networks outperform both very hubby and democratic networks. We also find that moderate amounts of information omission or misrepresentation can be surprisingly beneficial to performance, though the patterns of their effects are strikingly different.

Norsk Nærings- og nytelsesmiddelarbeiderforbund ønsket å få belyst hvordan samarbeid om kompetanseutvikling foregår mellom ansatte og tillitsvalgte i sine medlemsbedrifter. Tidligere studier viser at ca 1/3 av bedriftene ikke lykkes godt nok med dette samarbeidet. Min studie undersøker hvordan samarbeidet foregår og hvordan det kan foregå gjennom problemstilingen: "Hvordan kan bedriftens ansatte og ledelse samarbeide om å utvikle kompetanse?" Målet med undersøkelsen var å utvikle et grunnlag for handlingsmuligheter og tiltak for bedriftene. Studien konkluderer med at det eksisterer barrierer mot samarbeid om utvikling av kompetanse, men den har forskjellige former og den er ikke alltid knyttet til direkte motstand mot utvikling av kompetanse. Snarere ser det ut til å handle om mangelfulle systemer og få muligheter for medvirkning over tid. Videre ser det ut til at kulturskiller mellom ansatte og ledelse kan være en årsak. Studien spiller inn at barrierene sannsynligvis kan bygges ned ved hjelp av god og minimalt defensiv kommunikasjon slik det beskrives av Argyris & Schön (1996). Det er dessuten rimelig å anta at hvis bedriftene greier å øke medarbeidernes «reelle innflytelse på alle planleggings-, beslutnings-, og evalueringsaktiviteter, så de virkelig får innflytelse på, og medansvar for prosessene» (Illeris, 2012:201), så vil mulighetene for godt samarbeid om utvikling av kompetanse øke. Oppgaven fikk karakteren A

- by Serafin Talisayon
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- Future Studies, Educational Technology, Knowledge Management, Adult Education

In this study, it was tried to determine to what degree the learning organization predicted organizational commitment
according to primary school teachers’ perceptions. Descriptive survey model was used in this study
and 429 teachers were chosen among 2387 teachers who worked in primary schools in Van in 2010-2011 education
years and were included in the sample. Regression analysis was applied in the data analysis of the study.
Durbin-Watson test was used to determine whether there is autocorrelation in the model. It was found that
there was a significant relationship between organizational commitment dimensions and the dimensions of
learning organization perception scale. Maximum three dimensions of the learning organization scale were
included in the model. These were shared vision, team learning, and personal mastery. When shared vision and
team learning are the predictors of compliance dimension, they explain 18% of compliance commitment. When
shared vision, team learning and personal mastery are predictors of identification dimension, they explain 36%
of identification commitment. When team learning and shared vision were the predictors of internalization dimension,
they explain 25% of internalization commitment. It was seen that there was a low negative relationship
between the dimensions of the learning organization and compliance dimension of organizational commitment;
however, there was a positive but low relationship between identification and internalization dimensions.

Grit, persistence in the face of hardship, is an admirable trait up to a point. It is however a complex trait, and may be extremely sensitive to the nature of particular challenges. The dropout in one scenario might be the dogged hero in another movie. Also, above and beyond particular situations, grit is partly sourced in inherent qualities of personality, partly influenced by maturational environment, and deeply affected by the core values and practices of different cultures and subcultures. There are even intriguing hints that grit can be driven by brain physiology.

Sustainability paradox has become a debate of our time; adding to this predicament is sometimes the questionable behaviors of the corporations. This detrimental demeanor is counterproductive, as it for the entity so do for our common goods. The issue of sustainability is a dilemma of our which many scholars pondered over last decades, yet despite their efforts, the message is somewhat convoluted through a plethora of conflicting strategies, definitions, mandates and regulatory measures. The obfuscation has created deviation in the discourse of “sustainability” measures without addressing systemic discord with sustainability challenges at organizational and societal level, and societal and ecological level. This survey examines presence and absence of a particular behavioral dimension in global corporations and corollary effect of it. In addition, this global survey unveils previously unknown data depicting correlation between certain behavioral dimension at workplace and other corporate level factors including profitability, innovation and market leadership. This global survey serves as the basis for further research to find a common ground that brings institutional integration to sustainability conjectures.

- by Dhiman Chowdhury
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- Business, Organizational Behavior, Management, Business Ethics

The article proposes a configuration model of organizational culture, which explores dynamic relationships between organizational culture, strategy, structure, and operations of an organization (internal environment) and maps interactions with the external environment (task and legitimization environment). A major feature of the configuration model constitutes its well-defined processes, which connect the elements of the model systematically to each other, such as single- and double-loop learning, operationalization of strategies, legitimization management, and so on. The model is grounded in a large review of literature in different research areas and builds on widely recognized models in the field of organization and culture theory. It constitutes a response to the call for new models, which are able to explain and facilitate the exploration of the empirical complexity that organizations face today. The configuration model of organizational culture is of particular interest to sch...

In this study, we explore how organizational learning (OL) manifests at multiple levels within a transgenerational entrepreneurial family business, in terms of learning outcomes and transgenerational entrepreneurship. We draw upon Crossan, Lane and White's (1999) 4I organizational learning framework, as a means to enhance process-based understanding at multiple levels (individual, group and organization). Building on this, we then followed an 84-year-old transgenerational entrepreneurial family, spanning three generations, drawing upon 40 interviews, 162 archival documents and 21 observational instances across a five-year period. Our findings enrich the OL literature by illuminating the cross-generational nature of the learning process within a transgenerational entrepreneurial family and providing greater understanding of the institutionalizing process for transgenerational entrepreneurial family firms. We also advance current theory into the family ownership group's involvement in the OL process, whilst informing both policy makers and practitioners as to how the transgenerational entrepreneurial family's entrepreneurship functions are facilitated.

- by Martina Majella Brophy and +1
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- Entrepreneurship, Social Entrepreneurship, Organizational Learning Processes, Family Business