The Organizational Learning Cycle: How We Can Learn Collectively

by Dixon,Nancy M.

• ISBN13: 9780566080586
• ISBN10: 0566080583
• Edition: 2nd
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1999-04-28
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

The Organizational Learning Cycle was the first book to provide the theory that underpins organizational learning. Its sophisticated approach enabled readers to not only understand how, but more importantly why, organizations are able to learn.This new edition takes the original concepts and theories and shows how they might, and are, being put into action. With five new or completely revised chapters, Nancy Dixon describes the kind of infrastructure organizations need to put in place; there are examples of knowledge databases, whole systems in the room processes and after-action reviews originating from organizations that are making real progress with these ideas. A clearer relationship between organizational learning and more participative forms of organizational governance is drawn, along with responsibilities that employees need to take on to enable, and partake in, collective learning.With new case material from BP, the US Army, Ernst and Young, and the Bank of Montreal, for example, this book shows how you can make use of the collective reasoning, intelligence and knowledge of the organization and channel it into its ongoing and future development.

Table of Contents

List of Figures	xi	(2)
Preface	xiii
1 Introduction	1	(12)
The relationship between learning and change	2	(2)
The changing nature of work	4	(2)
Defining organizational learning	6	(7)
2 A theoretical framework of individual learning	13	(30)
The difference that makes a difference	15	(2)
Interpreting and organizing data	17	(10)
Learning and truth	27	(1)
Development of meaning structures	28	(1)
Relationship of meaning structures to action	29	(2)
Limitations of working memory	31	(6)
Meta-cognition	37	(1)
The human need to learn	38	(1)
Summary	39	(4)
3 The hallways of learning	43	(20)
Private meaning	44	(2)
Accessible meaning	46	(2)
Collective meaning	48	(2)
Organizations learn in the hallways	50	(7)
Unpredictable outcomes	57	(1)
Collective meaning versus group decisions	58	(1)
Summary	59	(4)
4 The organizational learning cycle	63	(30)
Four steps	63	(5)
Chaparral Steel	68	(8)
World Health Organization	76	(6)
Johnsonville Foods	82	(11)
5 A theoretical framework for organizational learning	93	(32)
Step 1 -- Widespread generation of information	93	(5)
Step 2 -- Integrating new/local information into the organizational context	98	(5)
Step 3 -- Collectively interpreting the information	103	(7)
Organizational dialogue	110	(6)
Changing tacit organizational assumptions	116	(4)
Step 4 -- Authority to take responsible action based on the interpreted meaning	120	(5)
6 Infrastructure for organizational learning	125	(30)
Quadrant 1 -- Configure systems to move information across organizational boundaries	128	(8)
Quadrant 2 -- Build infrastructure to support system-level dialogue	136	(5)
Quadrant 3 -- Organize work to disseminate decision making for speed and flexibility	141	(5)
Quadrant 4 -- Measure results to capture lessons learned	146	(4)
Getting started	150	(5)
7 Measuring organizational learning	155	(12)
Facilitating factors	156	(2)
Changes in organizational knowledge	158	(4)
New or altered organizational action	162	(2)
Organizational outcomes	164	(1)
Using measurement for learning	164	(3)
8 Developing managers for organizational learning	167	(16)
Situating learning in real work	170	(1)
Defining a less central role for experts	171	(2)
Spaced rather than compressed time frames	173	(1)
Learning in community rather than individually	174	(2)
No guarantees	176	(1)
Illustrations of management development programmes	176	(7)
9 The responsibilities of members in an organization that is learning	183	(16)
Five responsibilities that offer a new way of thinking	187	(7)
Sharing in the responsibility for the governance of the organization	194	(2)
Preparing organizational members for their responsibilities	196	(3)
10 Defining a culture that supports learning	199	(18)
The nature of reality and truth	203	(2)
The nature of time	205	(3)
The nature of human nature	208	(2)
The nature of human relationships	210	(1)
The relationship of the organization to the environment	211	(1)
Information and communication	212	(1)
Uniformity versus diversity	213	(1)
The nature of causality	213	(1)
Summary	214	(3)
11 Organizational learning and beyond	217	(10)
Appendix A: Definitions of organizational learning	227	(4)
Appendix B: Glossary	231	(4)
Index	235