Case Study Report
Cyrusxx
L7-KnowledgeandtheLearningOrganisation.pptxOrganisational Analysis
Knowledge and the Learning Organisation
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The course is about analysing organisations
The purpose is to encourage you to analyse aspects of the learning organisations and knowledge
How knowledge is generated individually
What knowledge is focused upon, i.e. analysing what persuades us to believe the truth
Collective learning, i.e. does “shared” knowledge exist?
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Aims
Background – The Knowledge Economy
Understand Explicit vs Tacit Knowledge
Individual vs Organisational Learning
Recognising learning cycles in organisations
How do organisations learn?
Single-loop, Double-loop Learning and Triple Loop
The Organisational Maturity Paradox: Limitations of Process Conformance
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Employment Profiles…
Perform a job search for yourself…
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Employment Profiles…
Perform a job search for yourself…
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Origins of the “Knowledge Economy”
In a post-industrial society, national prosperity, is claimed to be depended upon nation’s capturing the ‘high-road’ end of the service economy—the knowledge economy.
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Singapore tops most charts for competitiveness, digitisation… But is it a true “knowledge economy”?
What are your thoughts?
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The Knowledge Economy
The Knowledge Economy is defined as:
“production and services based on knowledge-intensive activities that contribute to an accelerated pace of technical and scientific advance” ***
“The key component of a knowledge economy is a greater reliance on intellectual capabilities than on physical inputs or natural resources”.
Powell and Snellman (2004)
*** as well as rapid obsolescence
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Knowledge – Resource Based View
Competitive Advantage
Part of strategy is taking a resource based view of the organisation
Knowledge, learning are intangible resources
Competition in the ‘knowledge economy’ requires organisations:
To acquire & make use of (i.e. exploit) existing knowledge (within and beyond the organisation)
Manage and utilise knowledge innovatively through exploration and searching for new options
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Explicit versus Tacit Knowledge
Explicit knowledge:
Can be codified (tangible)
Precisely and formally articulated
Easy to transfer, share, document and communicate
"Explicit knowledge is emphasised as a management tool to be exploited as organisational knowledge. Groupware, intranets, list servers, knowledge repositories, database management and knowledge action networks allow the sharing of organisational knowledge”
Scarbrough et al. (1999)
“Managers hope that these tools will retain knowledge within the company when employees have left, and also that this will encourage learning and the flourishing of communities of interest across functional boundaries"
Radcliffe-Martin, Coakes and Sugden (2000)
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Explicit versus Tacit Knowledge
Tacit knowledge:
Subconsciously understood or applied
Difficult to articulate and often context-specific
Developed from direct action and experience
Shared through conversation or story-telling
"Tacit knowledge is not available as a text. . . .It involves intangible factors embedded in personal beliefs, experiences, and values" (Pan and Scarbrough 1999).
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Knowledge and Competitive Advantage
As a Resource:
Knowledge, in the organisational context, is:
the sum of what is known among organisational members.
Organisational success requires organisations to develop new techniques and competencies to fully utilise the intelligence and knowledge among its organisational members.
To become aware of and utilise both explicit and tacit knowledge.
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Analysing Organisations as Social Constructs
The sum of what is known among organisational members
Knowledge is socially constructed through an ongoing and dynamic process
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Social Constructivist
Meta-theoretical Underpinnings
Ontology: subjectivism - what is real is that which we agree is real (i.e. that which is meaningful).
Epistemology: interpretivism: truth is relative to time and place and the individuals who are involved in constructing meaning.
Organisations are ‘meaningful’ and are (re)constructed by their members through meaningful interaction with one another.
This has implications for designers, consultants, engineers, scientists……..
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Symbolic Interpretivist Analysis
As a consultant:
You understand that reality is socially constructed through an ongoing and dynamic process
The your goal is to arrive at context specific and relative statements of the logic of organisational reality.
Analysis: Qualitative (e.g. Ethnography)
Inductive: a process of developing theory from observation and interpretation
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How Organisations Learn?
Recognising Social Constructivism:
A social construct is an idea which may appear to be natural and obvious to those who accept it, but in reality is an invention of a particular culture or society
People act on their interpretations and knowledge about a given phenomena and thereby internalise and reproduce that idea/notion/reality
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Organisational Isomorphism
Instutional Theory: How individuals become the “same”
Coercive Pressures (Isomorphism)
Mimetic Pressures (Isomorphism)
Normative Pressures (Isomorphism)
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Social Constructivism
Analysis:
Be aware of the social processes that frame or influence perceptions of organisational life.
Highlights the fluid, diverse and subjective aspects of organisational activity and decision-making.
Makes us consider the ‘value’ ladenness of ‘facts’ that organisations rely upon.
To bring about organisational change requires ‘rewiring’ the minds of the ‘constructors’.
In some readings, this is referred to as “symbolic interprevist”
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The Learning Organisation
“Organisations 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 learn together”
Senge (1990, 2014).
“an organisation that facilitates the learning of all its members and consciously transforms itself and its context”
Ellkin and Cone (2009)
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Learning Organisations
Or, as chief executive […… ] was forced to admit, there was "a culture of us not learning from issues of misconduct in the past".
Customers weren't prioritised and executives were too timid to call out bad behaviour. Mr […..] called it "too much fragility … to hear criticism".
Do organisations engage sufficiently in understanding what learning entails?
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Learning Organisations and Organisational Change
According to Donald Schön:
“we must invent and develop ‘learning systems’, that is to say, systems capable of bringing about their own continuing transformation.
The task which the loss of the stable state makes imperative, for the person, for our institutions, for our society as a whole, is to learn about learning”
Schön (1973)
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Analysing Learning Cycles
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Analysing Learning Cycles
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Analysing Learning Cycles
Romme and Van Witteloostuijn (1999) describe triple-loop learning as a higher order learning process or methodologies giving members of an organisation the ability to re-frame and “see things in totally new ways
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Why and What is “Higher Order”?
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A Higher Order of Learning
Romme and Van Witteloostuijn (1999) describe triple-loop learning as a higher order learning process or methodologies giving members of an organisation the ability to re-frame and “see things in totally new ways
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Summary
Functionalism
Can you recognise
what perspective?
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References
Elkin, G., Cone, M. H., & Liao, J. (2009). Chinese pragmatism and the learning organisation. The Learning Organization, 16(1), 69-83.
Georges L. Romme, A., & Van Witteloostuijn, A. (1999). Circular organizing and triple loop learning. Journal of Organizational Change Management, 12(5), 439-454.
Pan, S.L. and Scarbrough, H. 1998. 'A Socio-technical View of Knowledge Sharing at Buckman Laboratories'. Journal of Knowledge Management, 2(1) September: 55–66.
Powell WW, Snellman K. The Knowledge Economy. Annual Review of Sociology,. 2004;30:199-220.
Radcliffe-Martin V, Coakes E and Sugden G (2000) Knowledge Management Issues in Universities Vine 121 pp14-18
Scarborough, H., Swan, J. and Preston, J. (1999), ‘Knowledge management: a literature review’, Issues in People Management, Institute of Personnel and Development, London.
Schon, D. A. (1973). Beyond the stable state: Public and private learning in a changing society. Harmondsworth, UK.: Penguin.
Senge, P. M. (1990). The fifth discipline: The art and practice of the learning organization. New York: Currency Doubleday.
Senge, P. M. (2014). The fifth discipline fieldbook: Strategies and tools for building a learning organization. Crown Business.
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