12 -1 organizational theory the nature of organizational learning organizational learning — the...
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Organizational Theory
The Nature of Organizational Learning
Organizational learning—the process of improving organization member’s capacity to understand and manage the organizationand its environment so that managers can make decisions that continuously raiseorganizational effectiveness.
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Organizational Theory
There are two principal types of organizationallearning strategies:
Exploration—members search for and experiment with new kinds or forms of organizational activities and procedures.
Exploitation—members learn ways to refineand improve existing organizational activities.
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Organizational Theory
Learning organization—an organization thatpurposefully designs and constructs its structure, culture, and strategy to enhance and maximize the potential for organizational learning to take place
Managers need to encourage learning atfour levels: individual, group, organizational, and interorganizational
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Organizational Theory
Individual-level learning—managers need to facilitate the learning of new skills, norms, and values so that individuals can increase their own personal skills and abilities.
Group-level learning—managers need to encourage learning by promoting the use of various kinds of groups so that individualscan share their skills and abilities.
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Organizational Theory
Organization-level learning—managers canpromote organizational learning throughthe way they create an organization'sstructure and culture.
Adaptive cultures value innovation and rewardexperimenting and risk taking.
Inert cultures are cautious and conservativeand discourage risk taking.
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Organizational Theory
Interorganizational-level learning— organizations can improve their effectiveness by copying and imitating each other’s distinctive competencies.
Systems thinking argues that in order to create a learning organization, managersmust recognize the effects of one level oflearning on another.
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Organizational Theory
There are factors that can affect the ability of an organization to become a learning organization.
One of the most important is related to the decision-making manager’s cognitivestructure—the system of interrelated beliefs, preferences, values, and expectations used to define problemsand events.
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Organizational Theory
Research has identified several factors that lead managers to develop a cognitive structure that causes them to misperceiveand misinterpret information.
These factors are called cognitive biasesbecause they systematically bias cognitivestructures and affect organizationallearning and decision making.
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Organizational Theory
Cognitive dissonance—the state of discomfortor anxiety that a person feels when there is an inconsistency between his or her beliefs and actions
Illusion of control—causes mangers to overestimate the extent to which the outcomes of an action are under their personal control
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Organizational Theory
Frequency—deceives people into assumingthat extreme instances of a phenomenonare more prevalent that they really are
Representativeness—leads managers to form judgments based on small and unrepresentative samples
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Organizational Theory
Projection—allows managers to justify and reinforce their own preferences and values by attributing them to others
Ego-defensiveness—leads managers to interpret events in such a way that theiractions appear in the most favorablelight
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Organizational Theory
Escalation of commitment—leads managersto remain committed to a losing course of action and refuse to admit that they havemade a mistake
These factors inhibit organizational learning, but there are also several ways in which an organization can overcome theireffect.
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Organizational Theory
Strategies to promote organizational learning:
• Listening to dissenters
• Converting events into learning opportunities
• Experimenting
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Organizational Theory
Strategies to promote organizational learning:
• Increase the breadth and diversity of the top management team
• Use devil’s advocacy and dialectical inquiry to evaluate proposed solutions
• Develop a collateral structure
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Managing Learning Organizations
• How to Streamline Organizational Decision Making– Downsize– Reduce management layers– Establish miniunits
• How to Cultivate Employees’ Personal Mastery– Provide continuous learning opportunities.– Foster inquiry and dialogue.– Establish mechanisms to ensure that the organization is
continuously aware of and can interact with its environment.
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Creating a Learning Organization
Aspects of the ideal learning organization
Typical behaviors of this
aspect
Results of these behaviors
Blocks to achieving these
resultsMeasures of
progress
EXAMPLE: Employees feel the work they do has meaning
They display energy and enthusiasm when they work
The team is more motivated and new ideas are generated
There is a lack of clarity on how tasks help fulfill mission
Employees talk about how they are fulfilling an important mission
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