ORGANIZATIONAL
LEARNING
Frankfurt FFFM
March 2008 - Sept. 2009 – March 2013
Prof. Dr. Irene Martín-Rubio
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ORGANIZATIONAL LEARNING
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
Learning Organization vs. Organizational
Learning. Definitions, Levels of Learning
Single Loope Learning vs. Double Loop Learning
Activities of Organizational Learning
Learn to Learn
Communities of practices
Routines
Trust
Team Management
1.
2.
9.
MBTI Indicator of Personality
People interactios
Clusters – Open Innovation
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INTRODUCTION

Nonaka suggested that companies use
metaphors to focus thinking, encourage
dialogue and make tacit, instinctively
understood ideas explicit.
Sound idyllic? Absolutely
Desirable? Without question.
But does it provide a framework for action?
Hardly
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INTRODUCTION

A LEARNING ORGANIZATION
IS AN ORGANIZATION SKILLED AT CREATING,
ACQUIRING, AND TRANSFERRING
KNOWLEDGE, ANT AT MODYFING ITS
BEHAVIOUR TO REFLECT NEW KNOWLEDGE
AND INSIGHTS.
(Garvin, 1993 “Building a Learning Organization”).
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LEARNING ORGANIZATION

It is a firm that purposefully constructs
structures and strategies, to enhance
and maximizes Orgnizational Learning.

The concept of a learning organization
has become popular since
organizations want to be more
adaptable to change.
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ORGANIZATIONAL LEARNINGLEARNING ORGANIZATION

The detection and correction of error (Argyris & Schön, 1978)

The process of improving actions through better knowledge
and understanding (Fyol & Lyles, 1985)

The way firms build,supplement, and organize knowledge and
routines around their and within their cultures and adapt and
develop organizational efficiency by improving the use of the
broad skills of their workforces. (Dodgson, 1993)

Learning occurs in an organization “if through its processing of
information, the range of its (organization’s) potential
behaviors is changed (Huber, 1991)
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Levels in the
LEARNING ORGANIZATION


INDIVIDUAL LEARNING
ORGANIZATIONAL LEARNING (OL)
Since the individuals form the bulk of the organization,
they must establish the necessary forms and
processes to enable organizational learning in order
to facilitate change.
OL is more than the sum of the parts of individual
learning.
An organization does not lose out on its learning
abilities when members leave the organization.
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LEARNING SYSTEMS
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Organizational learning contributes to
organizational memory.
Learning systems, not only influence
immediate members, but also future
members, due to the accumulation of
histories, experiences, norms and stories.
Equally important is the creation of an
unlearning organization which essentially
means that the organization must forget
some of its past.
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3 types of
ORGANIZATIONAL LEARNING
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SINGLE-LOOP LEARNING
DOUBLE-LOOP LEARNING
DEUTERO-LEARNING
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SINGLE-LOOP LEARNING
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This occurs when errors are detected
and corrected.
Firms continue with their present
policies and goals.
This is the “Lower-level Learning”,
“Not-Strategic Learning”, “
This “Adaptive Learning”.
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DOUBLE-LOOP LEARNING


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This occurs when, in additiion to detection and correction
of errors, the organization questions and modifies its
existing norms, procedures, policies and objectives.
It involves changing the organization’s knowledge-base or
firm-specific competences or routines.
It is calles “Higher-Level Learning”,
“Strategic Learning” :Learning to expand organization’s
capabilities

The process by which and organization makes sense of its
environment in ways that broaden


The range of objectives it can pursue or
The range of resources and actions available to it for processing
these objectives.
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DEUTERO-LEARNING
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This occurs when organizations learn
HOW to CARRY OUT Single-loop
learning and Double-loop Learning.
Being aware of ignorace motivates
learning.
Identification of LEARNING STYLES
and FACILITATING FACTORS
required to promote learning.
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STRATEGIC LEARNING

WHY AND HOW to change the organization.
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DOUBLE-LOOP LEARNING
DEUTERO-LEARNING
(Single-loop learning is concerned with accepting
change without questioning underlying assumptions
and core beliefs)
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Three Ms in Learning
Organizations
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MEANING:

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MANAGEMENT
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Well-grounded definition, actionalbe and easy to
apply
Clear guidelines for practice,filled with
operational advice rather than high aspirations.
MEASUREMENT

Tools for assessig an organization’s rate and
level of learning to ensure that gains have in fact
made.
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ACTIVITIES OF LEARNING
ORGANIZATIONS
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SYSTEMATIC PROBLEM SOLVING
EXPERIMENTATION WITH NEW APPROACHES
LEARNING FROM THEIR OWN EXPERIENCE AND
PAST HISTORY
LEARNING FROM THE EXPERIENCES AND BEST
PRACTICES OF OTHERS
TRANSFERRING KNOWLEDGE QUICKLY AND
EFFICIENTLY
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SYSTEMATIC PROBLEM
SOLVING
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Ideas of Quality Movement

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Plan, Do, Check, Act cycle
Insisting on data rather than assumptions
Using simple statistical tools
DOUBLE-LOOP LEARNING

Insisting on assumptions
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EXPERIMENTATION
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Systematic search for and testing of
new knowledge.
It is usually motivated by opportunity
and expanding horizons, not by current
difficulties (as happens in Problemsolving)
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LEARNING FROM PAST
EXPERIENCE
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
Companies must review their successes
and failures, assess them systematically,
and record the lessons in a form that
employees find open and accesible.
A productive failure is one that leads to
insight, understanding, and thus an addition
to the commonly held wisdom of the
organization.
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LEARNING FROM OTHERS
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Not all learning cames from reflection and selfanalysis.
Sometimes the most powerful insights come from
looking outside one’s immediate environment to
gain a new perspective.
BENCHMARKING is an ongoing investigation and
learning experience that ensures that best industry
practices are uncovered, analyzed, adopted and
implemented.

The greatest benefits came from stuying practices, the
way that work gets done, rather than results, and from
involving line managers in the process.
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TRANSFERRING KNOWLEDGE
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FOR SUCCESFULL LEARNING, KNOWLEDGE MUST SPREAD
QUICKLY AND EFFICIENTLY THROUGHOUT THE
ORGANIZATION.
Ideas carry maximum impact when they are shared broadly rather
than held in a few hands.
Mechanisms:
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Written, oral and visual reports
Site visits and tours
Personnel rotation programs
Education and training programs
Standardization programs
Absorbing facts by reading them or seeing them demonstrated is one
thing; experiencing them personally is quite another.
It is very difficult to become knowledgeable in a passive way
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FIRST STEPS IN LEARNING
ORGANIZATIONS: MANAGERS
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LEARNING ORGANIZATIONS CULTIVATE
THE ART OF OPEN, ATTENTATIVE
LISTENING.
MANAGERS MUST BE OPEN TO
CRITICISM.
The first step is to foster and environment
that is conductive to learning.
Only if top management explicitly frees up
employees’ time for the purpose does
learning occur with any frequency.
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LEARN TO LEARN:
Manage the creative process

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UNDERSTAND YOUR SELF:
IDENTIFY HOW YOU THINK AND PROCESS INFORMATION

The MYERS-BRIGGS TYPE INDICATOR

DESPERSONALIZE CONFLICT

Successful managers spend time getting members of diverse
groups to acknowledge their differences


INNOVATION requires COLLABORATION AMONG VARIOUS
PLAYERS WHO SEE THE WORLD IN INHERENTLY DIFFERENT
WAYS.
UNDERSTAND ORGANIZATIONAL ROUTINES
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COMMUNITIES OF
PRACTICE

Communities of practice are groups of people who share a concern
or a passion for something they do and learn how to do it better as
they interact regularly. ( E. Wenger)
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Communities of practice enable practitioners to take collective responsibility for
managing the knowledge they need, recognizing that, given the proper structure,
they are in the best position to do this.
Communities among practitioners create a direct link between learning and
performance, because the same people participate in communities of practice and
in teams and business units.
Practitioners can address the tacit and dynamic aspects of knowledge creation
and sharing, as well as the more explicit aspects.
Communities are not limited by formal structures: they create connections
among people across organizational and geographic boundaries.
http://www.ewenger.com/theory/
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ORGANIZATIONAL
ROUTINES
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Learning is stored in routines
Patterned sequences of learned behavior involving multiple
actors authority who are linked by relations of communication
and/or
Routines are a structural feature of organizations
It is a system that control action and interaction
Experience constructs socially-approved conceptions of
efficient and legitimae practices that become encoded in
routines or the rules of the game.
Routines include not only demands, concerns and skills, but
also subjectivity, meaning and learning.
Organizations use LEARNING AS A BASIS FOR CHANGING
ORGANIZATIONAL ROUTINES
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ROUTINES
ROUTINES
INTERACTION Tangibles & Intangible Resources
(knowledge)
TEAM MANAGEMENT - Trust
DYNAMIC CAPABILITIES
Evolution of Linkages- Interaction inside the firm and within CLUSTERS
Dynamic nature of intangible resources
INTELLECTUAL CAPITAL
Measure & Management Intangible Resources
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ROUTINES
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STRUCTURAL CONTEXT
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HARD MODEL: The actors are linked through AUTHORITY
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SOFT MODEL: The actors are linked through COMMUNICATION
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POWER, CONTROL, AUTONOMY
COLLECTIVE MIND, Leadership
MULTIPLE ACTORS GAIN, MAINTAIN AND NEGOTIATE POWER BY
INTENTIONALLY HOLDIGN, SHARING AND MODIFYING INFORMATION AND
KNOWLEDGE.
EXPERIENCE HAS TO BE INTERPRETED IN ORDER TO LEARN FORM IT,
BUT THERE ARE THREATS TO VALID INFERENCE.

Múltiple actors tend to interpret throug calling attentio to varios sources of ambiguity that
undermine organizatioonal judgments of success and failure.

By changing our INTERPRETIVE CONCEPTS NOW, WE MODIFY WHAT WE HAVE
LEARNED EARLIER.
TRUST

Diversity might be appropriate for learning, but mutual learning requires a context where
actors are linked through exchanging and open sharing of valid information in a setting
where they have confidence and come to TRUST one another.

The voluntary transfer of experience is an act of trust that may reside in
IDENTITY and in RECIPROCITY.
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TRUST
Components of
Information
Technology
TRUST
COGNITIVE
EMOTIONAL
INTELLIGENCE
Levels of
TRUST
CALCULUSBASED
TRUST
KNOWLEDGEBASED
TRUST
Managing Emotion
Understanding
Emotion
AFFECTIVE
Using Emotion
Perceiving
Emotion
IDENTIFICATIONBASED
TRUST
Identity
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TEAMS
Teams can create more adaptative
organizations that are able to respond
with agility.
The practical knowledge about how to
actually operate project teams is still in
an embryonic stage.
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TEAM MANAGER & TRUST
Emotional
Intelligence
TRUST
Identity,
Values
Project Manager
Matrix Organization
Team Work
AGILITY
Agility and Project Managers: The Role of Emotional Intelligence and Trust
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Emotional Intelligence and Trust

Appraisal of “Management by Wondering around”
http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newTMM_72.htm
http://www.economist.com/node/12075015


this approach fostered high morale and personal satisfaction among the company’s workforce
Ex. HP:The “Rules of the Garage” “The HP way” builds on the beliefs and core values inherent
in the HP Way: http://www.smartplanet.com/blog/business-brains/time-for-more-mbwa-management-by-walking-around/1040
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respect for the individual,
contribution to customers and the community,
uncompromising integrity,
teamwork
innovation.
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Improve performance in matrix organizations by applying the four components of emotional
intelligence, specifically, managing, understanding, using, and perceiving emotion, to each
interpersonal challenge

It is easy for the Project Manager to get involved in social and organizational activities that promote the
different levels of trust, even reaching the IBT (Identity Based Trust)
In order to increase trust and EI, people at HP find many types of socialization activities

ICT contribute to develop better communication and transmission of information in real time 30
TEAM MANAGEMENT
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How people interact?
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People personality
People interactions
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TEAM MANAGEMENT:
MBTI INDICATOR OF PERSONALITY
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2 dimensions: HOW PEOPLE

PERCEIVE
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How people become aware of things, people,
happening or ideas
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Extraversion vs. Introversion
JUDGE
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The ways of coming to conclussions of what
have been perceived
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Intuition vs. Sensing
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MBTI, preferences of individuals
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Favorite world: Do you prefer to focus on the outer world or
on your own inner world? This is called Extraversion (E) or
Introversion (I).
Information: Do you prefer to focus on the basic information
you take in or do you prefer to interpret and add meaning?
This is called Sensing (S) or Intuition (N).
Decisions: When making decisions, do you prefer to first look
at logic and consistency or first look at the people and special
circumstances? This is called Thinking (T) or Feeling (F).
Structure: In dealing with the outside world, do you prefer to
get things decided or do you prefer to stay open to new
information and options? This is called Judging (J) or
Perceiving (P).
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MYERS-BRIGS INDICATOR, TYPES
http://www.myersbriggs.org/my-mbti-personality-type/mbtibasics/the-16-mbti-types.asp
ISTJ
Quiet, serious, earn success by thoroughness and dependability. Practical, matter-of-fact, realistic, and responsible. Decide logically what should be done and work toward it steadily, regardless of
distractions. Take pleasure in making everything orderly and organized – their work, their home, their life. Value traditions and loyalty.
ISFJ
Quiet, friendly, responsible, and conscientious. Committed and steady in meeting their obligations. Thorough, painstaking, and accurate. Loyal, considerate, notice and remember specifics about
people who are important to them, concerned with how others feel. Strive to create an orderly and harmonious environment at work and at home.
INFJ
Seek meaning and connection in ideas, relationships, and material possessions. Want to understand what motivates people and are insightful about others. Conscientious and committed to their firm
values. Develop a clear vision about how best to serve the common good. Organized and decisive in implementing their vision.
INTJ
Have original minds and great drive for implementing their ideas and achieving their goals. Quickly see patterns in external events and develop long-range explanatory perspectives. When
committed, organize a job and carry it through. Skeptical and independent, have high standards of competence and performance – for themselves and others.
ISTP
Tolerant and flexible, quiet observers until a problem appears, then act quickly to find workable solutions. Analyze what makes things work and readily get through large amounts of data to isolate
the core of practical problems. Interested in cause and effect, organize facts using logical principles, value efficiency.
ISFP
Quiet, friendly, sensitive, and kind. Enjoy the present moment, what’s going on around them. Like to have their own space and to work within their own time frame. Loyal and committed to their
values and to people who are important to them. Dislike disagreements and conflicts, do not force their opinions or values on others.
INFP
Idealistic, loyal to their values and to people who are important to them. Want an external life that is congruent with their values. Curious, quick to see possibilities, can be catalysts for implementing
ideas. Seek to understand people and to help them fulfill their potential. Adaptable, flexible, and accepting unless a value is threatened.
INTP
Seek to develop logical explanations for everything that interests them. Theoretical and abstract, interested more in ideas than in social interaction. Quiet, contained, flexible, and adaptable. Have
unusual ability to focus in depth to solve problems in their area of interest. Skeptical, sometimes critical, always analytical.
ESTP
Flexible and tolerant, they take a pragmatic approach focused immediate results. Theories and conceptual explanations bore them – they want to act energetically to solve the problem. Focus o n
the here-and-now, spontaneous, enjoy each moment that they can be active with others. Enjoy material comforts and style. Learn best through doing.
ESFP
Outgoing, friendly, and accepting. Exuberant lovers of life, people, and material comforts. Enjoy working with others to make things happen. Bring common sense and a realistic approach to their
work, and make work fun. Flexible and spontaneous, adapt readily to new people and environments. Learn best by trying a new skill with other people.
ENFP
Warmly enthusiastic and imaginative. See life as full of possibilities. Make connections between events and information very quickly, and confidently proceed based on the patterns they see. Want a
lot of affirmation from others, and readily give appreciation and spanport. Spontaneous and flexible, often rely on their ability to improvise and their verbal fluency.
ENTP
Quick, ingenious, stimulating, alert, and outspoken. Resourceful in solving new and challenging problems. Adept at generating conceptual possibilities and then analyzing them strategically. Good at
reading other people. Bored by routine, will seldom do the same thing the same way, apt to turn to one new interest after another.
ESTJ
Practical, realistic, matter-of-fact. Decisive, quickly move to implement decisions. Organize projects and people to get things done, focus on getting results in the most efficient way possible. Take
care of routine details. Have a clear set of logical standards, systematically follow them and want others to also. Forceful in implementing their plans.
ESFJ
Warmhearted, conscientious, and cooperative. Want harmony in their environment, work with determination to establish it. Like to work with others to complete tasks accurately and on time. Loyal,
follow through even in small matters. Notice what others need in their day-by-day lives and try to provide it. Want to be appreciated for who they are and for what they contribute.
ENFJ
34 act as
Warm, empathetic, responsive, and responsible. Highly attuned to the emotions, needs, and motivations of others. Find potential in everyone, want to help others fulfill their potential. May
catalysts for individual and group growth. Loyal, responsive to praise and criticism. Sociable, facilitate others in a group, and provide inspiring leadership.
ENTJ
PEOPLE INTERACTIONS
Consider the personality the everyperson
and study their interactions for analyzing:


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Team building
Leadership
Communications
Team dynamics
http://www.teamtechnology.co.uk/teambuilding.html
http://www.coaching-for-new-women-managers.com/Myers-Briggs-Type-Indicator.html
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CLUSTERS – open innovation

FIRMS & LOCATION
GEOGRAPHICALLY CONCENTRATED
NETWORKS WHERE NEW KNOWLEDGE
IS CREATED AND ORGANIZATIONAL
LEARNING DEVELOPED
Ex: http://www.kompetenznetze.de/initiative


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INTER-ORGANIZATIONAL ROUTINES
Open innovation:

the use of purposive inflows and outflows of knowledge to accelerate internal
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innovation and to expand the markets for external use of innovation,
respectively”. (Chesbrought 2003)
Cluster - Example
St. Louis Biobelt Cluster
http://www.divergence.com/images/downloads/biobelt.pdf
http://www.stlcommercemagazine.com/archives/april2006/cover.h
tml
http://www.bioenterprise.com/images/company_assets/512F1C7F
-0D64-4A5E-9D91785DC064755F/bioregionstlouiseyesclevelandjuly2008_f5b2.PDF
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THANK YOU FOR YOUR
ATTENTION
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