The Relationship Between Organizational Learning and the Learning Organization
The Relationship between Organizational Learning and the Learning Organization
Introduction
During these years, there has been an increased trend toward emphasizing on the importance of learning in organizational management, due to the managers were told that the economy has turned into a knowledge economy (Drucker, 1993 cited in Berends et. al, 2003), and that knowledge and learning “are of prime importance for creating and sustaining competitive advantage”(Nonaka, 1994 cited in Berends et. al, 2003). This great change has encouraged organization to not only adapt and acquire knowledge but also to learn how to apply what they learned into practice. Therefore, to develop organizational learning and to be learning organizations become extremely important.
However, there is a debate on the relationship between organizational learning and the learning organization, that whether they are different or can equal to each other. Easterby-Smith and Araujo (1999) indicated that, although theorists of learning organizations have drawn lessons from organizational learning, there has been differences exist. For example, the literature on “organizational learning has concentrated on the detached collection and analysis of the processes involved in individual learning inside organizations; Whereas the learning organization literature has an action orientation toward using specific evaluative methodological tools to promote and evaluate the quality of learning processes inside organizations” (Easterby-Smith & Araujo, 1999; Tsang, 1997).
Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to explore the relationship between organizational learning practices and the learning organization. The paper is organized as follows. First, it will explain what organizational learning is and what does organization does learned looks like. Then it will explore the characteristics of learning organization, and how to be a learning organization. At last, it will focus on discussing the
Introduction
During these years, there has been an increased trend toward emphasizing on the importance of learning in organizational management, due to the managers were told that the economy has turned into a knowledge economy (Drucker, 1993 cited in Berends et. al, 2003), and that knowledge and learning “are of prime importance for creating and sustaining competitive advantage”(Nonaka, 1994 cited in Berends et. al, 2003). This great change has encouraged organization to not only adapt and acquire knowledge but also to learn how to apply what they learned into practice. Therefore, to develop organizational learning and to be learning organizations become extremely important.
However, there is a debate on the relationship between organizational learning and the learning organization, that whether they are different or can equal to each other. Easterby-Smith and Araujo (1999) indicated that, although theorists of learning organizations have drawn lessons from organizational learning, there has been differences exist. For example, the literature on “organizational learning has concentrated on the detached collection and analysis of the processes involved in individual learning inside organizations; Whereas the learning organization literature has an action orientation toward using specific evaluative methodological tools to promote and evaluate the quality of learning processes inside organizations” (Easterby-Smith & Araujo, 1999; Tsang, 1997).
Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to explore the relationship between organizational learning practices and the learning organization. The paper is organized as follows. First, it will explain what organizational learning is and what does organization does learned looks like. Then it will explore the characteristics of learning organization, and how to be a learning organization. At last, it will focus on discussing the
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