CHAPTER 4: ORGANISATIONAL LEARNING AND KNOWLEDGE
4.3 Organisational learning
4.3.3 The organisational learning context
The organisational learning context consists of three elements – organisational culture, structure and infrastructure – and is the means by which an organisation continuously increases the effectiveness and the efficiency of its learning and knowledge management processes and systems (Stonehouse & Pemberton, 1999:
137).
4.3.3.1 Organisational culture
The most important component of the organisational learning context is the organisational culture. Among the different views of culture, the most commonly accepted organisational view refers to culture as a system consisting of the values, attitudes and beliefs that steer the actions and behaviour of the individuals making up the organisation (Schein, 1992: 9-11). Organisational culture is reflected in the visible aspects of the organisation, such as its mission, vision and goals. It is embedded in the way people act, what they expect of each other, and how they make sense of each other’s actions.
Organisational culture can create an atmosphere of trust within which individuals feel empowered to experiment with new approaches to business (Stonehouse and
Pemberton, 1999: 136). Following this description, in an organisation with a
knowledge-sharing culture, people would share ideas and insights because they see it as natural, rather than something they are forced to do. They would expect it of each other and assume that sharing ideas is the right thing to do.
According to Gilley and Maycunich (2000: 113), “A learning organisation’s culture emphasises the critical importance of continuous learning – at all levels, functions and divisions throughout the firm.”
Thus, learning is everyone’s responsibility and serves as a key component of each and every job, an integral part of all organisational operations. A culture of learning encourages individual and team growth and development by valuing creativity, teamwork, continuous improvement and self-management.
Evidence has provided increasing support for the claim that the strength of an
organisation’s culture is predictive of its performance. Denison (1990: 12-15) believes that organisations with coherent, homogeneous, stable and pervasive belief systems have been shown to outperform those organisations with relatively weaker cultures as measured by financial measures such as “return on investment” and growth in assets.
Cultures that enable organisations to do things for employees, customers, suppliers, the community, and other influential interest groups that could not be done without these cultures have a positive economic value to organisations.
Christensen and Gordon (1999: 397- 402) find that a strong culture that emphasises
“the wrong things” may not be an asset but a detriment or be harmful to promoting organisational survival and growth. For example, a strong belief in not overextending oneself will most likely hinder rather than boost an organisation’s performance.
Therefore, strategists must influence both the content and the strength of an organisational culture.
4.3.3.2 Organisational structure
Organisational culture and structure are interdependent in creating an organisational learning context. According to Daft (1995: 15), structure refers to such elements as work, specialisation, departmentalisation, chain of command, span of control and centralisation. Daft argues that these dimensions of structure establish normative (for example, values and roles) and behavioural (for example, individual and group activities) expectations. Organisations differ on these dimensions because they have different organisational structures.
From Marquardt’s (1996) perspective organisational structure operates as a powerful directive force on a company’s life and people. It determines the amount of internal control, performance monitoring, lines of communication and the decision-making process that will exist in the organisation.
Marquardt (1996: 82-83) believes that the structure of many organisations prevents them from ever beginning the journey toward corporate-wide learning. He argues that
“rigid boundaries, bulky size, disjointedness of projects and tasks and bureaucratic restrictions, all help to kill rather than to nourish learning.”
There is considerable evidence in the literature that traditional hierarchical and bureaucratic organisational structures, heavily reliant on rules and procedures, hinder the learning process and knowledge transfer. Rigid, tall hierarchies with
unbreachable, impregnable departmental silos ruin organisational learning as they prevent the necessary free, fast and unimpeded flow of knowledge essential to being competitive.
To maximise the flow of knowledge and learning, a flatter streamlined organisational structure with team collaboration and few modes of control work best (Quinn, 1992:
51-60). Quinn (1992: 62) also argues that there is no single structure that uniquely supports learning, but empowerment of the individual together with flat network structures, which foster cross-functional communication and where functional barriers are low, appear to facilitate organisational learning more effectively.
When people build an organisational culture and structure that are focused on
maximising the learning capability of the organisation, they are able to build learning that crosses all boundaries – time, vertical, horizontal, external and geographic boundaries. There is also integration, intimacy, and closeness between management, employees, customers, competitors and the community.
4.3.3.3 Organisational infrastructure
Technology, particularly information and communications technology, plays a vital role in providing the infrastructure needed to support flatter network structures and organisational learning.
According to Quinn (1992) the media and channels of communication that assist in the creation, storage, sharing and transfer of knowledge are an integral part of building a learning environment. The infrastructure of an organisation comprises the techniques and technologies that underpin its learning and knowledge management activities. Techniques and technologies will be discussed in detail in see Chapter 5.
In summary, the culture and structure of the organisation have a significant influence on learning in the organisation, and the technological infrastructure helps make possible the sharing of knowledge, which is a result of learning. The technological infrastructure presents new strategic opportunities for organisations to learn on a corporate-wide basis. Technological infrastructure permits the redistribution of power, function, and control to wherever they are most effective. The technological
infrastructure is a powerful enabling tool for improving organisational communication and therefore knowledge flow and learning.