* Information is embedded and knowledge embodied in organizational structure and processes, and an organization can improve its performance (i.e. "learn") by investing in improvements in structure and process.
* Information is embedded and knowledge embodied in plant and equipment, especially these days in computer and communications equipment, and an organization can learn by adding to or improving the knowledge so embodied.
* An organization can learn by hiring someone who knows something than no one in the organization knows, or by firing someone who knows something that is not true.
* An organization can learn by bringing knowledge present within its community more fully and effectively to bear on the problems it faces.
* An organization can learn by outsourcing functions to other organizations if by doing so those functions are better or more efficiently accomplished.
Sunday, April 15, 2007
How do Organizations Learn"
People too often consider organizational learning only in terms of human learning. Of course, organizations can learn by allowing (encouraging) organizational members to learn. Some other ways organizations can learn:
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I should have told you how I define "organizational learning". Think of the analogy between an organization and the human brain. Individuals in the organization might be seen as equivalent to neurons in the brain. In both cases the elements are networked. In both cases the elements and networks are organized into structures, and follow processes.
Learning in the brain occurs with changes in neuron behavior, changes in the network connectivity, or I suppose by the addition or subtraction of neurons and connections.
My thinking, reflected in the posting, is that organizational learning can be understood in terms of the people in the organization and the networks they form.
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