Learning and
Organisational Style
A presentation by Francis Sathya
International Human Resource Conference organised by People in Aid
Geneva, 07 February 2007
Highlights
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Focus on Organisational Learning in relief
and development NGOs.
Learning and its importance
Organisational Learning concepts
Organisational Learning practice in NGOs
Suggestions and questions
What have we lost?
“Where is the life we have lost in living?
Where is the wisdom we have lost in
knowledge? Where is the knowledge we
have lost in information?”
- T.S. Eliot, ‘The Rock’
Learning and Practice
கற்க கசடறக் கற்பவை கற்றபின்
நிற்க அதற்குத் தக.
-Thirukkural, Verse: 391(100 – 300 BCE)
Questions from People in Aid
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Is your organisation ready for changes
brought about by globalisation?
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Do you feel people are central to the
achievement of your mission?
Learning
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Learning is part and parcel of life
Learning is key to our very existence and
progress.
Three streams of learning: Informal, Formal
and non-formal.
All knowledge systems carry a number of
values and biases.
OL-LO-KM
Organisational Learning
The process of developing new knowledge
that changes an organisation's behaviour to
improve current and future performance.
OL-LO-KM
Learning Organisation
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Learning organizations are organizations where people
continually expand their capacity to create the results they truly
desire, where new and expansive patterns of thinking are
nurtured, where collective aspiration is set free, and where
people are continually learning to see the whole together. (Senge
1990)
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Learning organizations are characterized by total employee
involvement in a process of collaboratively conducted,
collectively accountable change directed towards shared values
or principles. (Watkins and Marsick 1992)
OL-LO-KM
Knowledge Management
The process by which the knowledge
required by an organisation is acquired,
distilled, shared, stored, retrieved and used.
Organisational Learning
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1990s: Neo-liberalism, NGO respectability,
Official funding, ICT, etc.
NGOs’ concerns about lack of organisational
memory, donor demands, gap between M&E
and planning.
NGO awareness of the concepts of OL and
LO – mid to late 1990s.
Turning to KM by the end of 1990s
Market
Government
NGOs
•Survival
•Growth
•Service
The Poor
Donors
OL in Practice
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NGOs are a diverse group of organisations
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Operate in a rapidly changing and challenging environment.
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New and emerging challenges force NGOs take OL seriously.
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Depending on their primary role, leadership, sources of funding and the nature
of partnership, NGOs view OL as a crime or an essential process.
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Most NGOs are dominated by middle and upper-middle class professionals from
urban background.
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Therefore, OL in NGOs may reflect middle class values and biases.
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With the exception of NGOs mainstreaming citizen's empowerment and human
rights, most NGOs are stuck in single loop or incremental learning. Reframing
and transformational learning are limited or rare.
Transformational Learning
Making OL effective in NGOs
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NGO leadership committed and accountable to the
poor and excluded.
Aligning principles with practice
Valuing and promoting bottom-up learning
Developing and sustaining a culture supportive of
learning.
Avoiding uncritical importation of management
techniques from other sectors.
Promoting non-Western understandings of
development, management and cultural practices.
Questions
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What kind of leadership/management is
desirable for OL?
What are some of the common barriers to OL
in NGOs?
How to overcome them?