Organizational Learning and Learning Organizations

david1962

module_lectures.docx

Home >Business & Finance homework help >Organizational Learning and Learning Organizations

Unit 1: Module 1 - Virtues and Drawbacks of Organized Activity

Virtues and Drawbacks of Organized Activity

The establishment of large, complex organizations is historically recent. Today, much of society's important work is done in or by organizations. Many organizations really play their roles well, providing good jobs, producing safe and reliable products, developing their workforce, and fulfilling their social responsibility. However, without the right leadership and good decision-making, they may produce poor service, and defective and dangerous products.

We have recently seen corporations tarnishing their reputations by exploiting people and communities, and by damaging the environment. In some cases, people chosen to lead organizations seem to be clueless of what is really going on and how to keep an organization in good shape, or how to turn it into a successful one.

One way to avoid the negative effects of organized activity and, therefore, improve performance, is through reframing or viewing situations from multiple perspectives. Reframing offers cognitive lenses on the world that affects what you see and what it means.

This course introduces a framework consisting of the following four basic lenses or frames for strengthening managerial diagnosis and action:

· Structural Frame: It focuses on the architecture of organization—the design of units and subunits, rules and roles, goals and policies—that shape, and channel decisions and activities.

· Human Resource Frame: It emphasizes that management requires an understanding of people with their strengths and foibles, reasons and emotions, and desires and fears.

· Political Frame: It depicts that organizations are considered competitive arenas characterized by scarce resources, competing interests, and struggles for power and advantage.

· Symbolic Frame: It focuses on issues of meaning and faith.

Key Words for the Four Frames
Frame	Key Words
Structural Frame	Goals, task, technology, rationality, environment, rules, roles, linkages, differentiation, integration
Human Resource Frame	Needs, skills, feelings, motivation, satisfaction, norms, interpersonal interactions, fit (between person and organization)
Political Frame	Power, conflict, coalitions, scarcity, enduring differences, politics, bargaining, negotiation
Symbolic Frame	Symbols, meaning, belief, faith, culture, ceremonies, rituals, myths, stories, play

Unit 1: Module 1 - Managerial Thinking

Managerial Thinking

Before becoming managers and leaders, professionals develop their qualifications by learning from others and developing their own managerial style and interpersonal skills. This formation can be biased by those who play an important role on each individual’s development process.

When each one of those individuals takes charge, they carry all that into their performance and leadership style. Some are overwhelmed by the new responsibilities and “freeze” before the many challenges they face. It is also usual that managers and leaders try to replicate solutions that worked for old problems, and use them to overcome new ones, but the rate of success is not likely to be the same.

In short, managerial thinking is highly influenced by formation and prior experiences of what can be good or not. When facing low productivity or complex problems, it is important for the manager to look at them using different “lenses” through reframing.

As stated by many authors, a manager’s perception that his or her approach is the only way to handle a particular problem can hinder managerial effectiveness and the capacity to understand and respond to the complexities of life in today's turbulent world.

Looking at events through the structural, human resource, political, and symbolic lenses lessens the likelihood of managers oversimplifying problems. The reframing process increases the probability of seeing and solving real problems, while encouraging leaders and managers to expand the scope and flexibility of their own thinking.

Unit 1: Module 1 - Organizational Diagnosis

Organizational Diagnosis

An organizational diagnosis can help leaders and managers identify and predict productivity issues. To be effective, the diagnosis report needs to address the interaction of human nature properties and of modern organizations, and their impact on problems and pressures faced in everyday managerial life, to effectively overcome these issues.

Organizations are typically complex entities, with a high level of ambiguity present in many situations faced by their leadership. This ambiguity can be the trigger for low productivity, and it can occur when people are not sure how to proceed. Questions that can arise in those circumstances are:

· What the problem is

· What's going on

· What they want or what to agree about

· What resources they need or are lacking

· Who's supposed to do what

· How to get what they want

· How to know if they have succeeded or failed

The use of reframing and multiple lenses to perform an organizational diagnosis can help managers and leaders identify issues, and find possible solutions from different perspectives. For example, under the structural frame, every possible structural configuration that can be considered to lead an organization to a successful path has strengths and limitations. Therefore, good diagnostic skills are essential for managers and leaders who need strategies that fit the requirements of their respective situations.

. Unit 1: Module 1 - Organizational Learning

Organizational Learning

Organizational learning can be connected to the development necessary for a company to perform better. It is also related to the dynamics of the marketplace: even companies that are market leaders need to keep on evolving and developing to sustain their competitive advantage, and consequently to keep or increase their market share, reputation, and profits. The current globalized market resembles a strategy game in which the right pieces need to be moved the right way to guarantee survival.

Organizational learning is achieved through a constant analysis of the organization’s target market, and the alignment of products and services offered with the current demands. The development of employees is also crucial, as well as the knowledge management in the organization. New developments in technology coupled with new requirements for accountability are leading organizations to generate increasingly massive amounts of data. Organizations are only beginning to understand how to use this data effectively to promote educational improvement.

A learning organization is one that can successfully achieve the goal of learning enough to maintain or gain its position in the marketplace. This learning has to be shared with all internal stakeholders and it should influence processes and procedures being used to run the organization.

Module Wrap Up

Management situations nowadays present unexpected challenges for the managers. You have learned how analyzing each situation from multiple perspectives is very important. The reframing process uses the four cognitive frames and plays an important role in improving the thought process of managers. In this module, you have also explored the concepts of organizational diagnosis and organizational learning, and have understood how they help an organization achieve or retain a superior position in the competitive marketplace.

In the assignments for this module, you will first introduce yourself to your instructor and peers. You will also read scholarly articles on organizational learning and discuss from a manager’s standpoint the applicability of organizational learning. Along with these, you will start work on the literature review that is due inModule 5 and the LASA that is due in Module 7.