1. Jack Abebe

2. Definitions Introduction Evolution of organization learning /theories of organization learning. Disciplines of organizational learning. Critical factors for organizational learning. Applications of organizational learning to an organization. Barriers to Organization learning. Change Management. Change management principles. Organizational Learning and Change Management. Applications of Organizational Learning to Change Management. CONCLUSION 3. What is learning? There are four different orientations to theorizing learning: Thebehaviorist orientation. The cognitive orientation. The humanist orientation. The social/situational orientation. 4. What is an organization? It is a formal set of structure or people who come together in order to achieve a common set goal for all. It can be a business premise, academic institution, or a big corporations e.t.c. ORGANIZATION LEARNING Bushe and Shani (1991), Senge (1990) and Garvin (1993) Davenport, Jarvenpaa, Beers (1996) defined organisational learning as the capacity to create, acquire, incorporate and transfer knowledge through a synergy process where the individual learning is converted into collective learning through the transformation of the knowledge into organisational routines and new forms of thinking. Senge (1990) Dixon (1997) Defined organisational learning as a synergy effect in the learning: "learning to learn together" from the individual learning to the collective learning 5. Change Management. Change management is a systematic approach to dealing with change, both from the perspective of an organization and on the individual level. What is a Learning Organization? Senge (1990) defines the Learning Organization as "a group of people continually enhancing their capacity to create what they want to create. Its an organization with an ingrained philosophy for anticipating, reacting and responding to change, complexity and uncertainty. As Senge (1990) remarks: "The rate at which organizations learn may become the only sustainable source of competitive advantage." 6. Two developments have been highly significant in the growth of the field. First it has attracted the attention of scholars from disparate disciplines that had hitherto shown little interest in learning processes. A consequence of this is that the field has become conceptually fragmented, and representatives of different disciplines now vie over who has the correct model of organizational learning. The second development is that many consultants and companies have caught onto the commercial significance of organizational learning, in which much of the effort of these theorists has been devoted to identifying templates, or ideal forms, which real organizations could attempt to emulate. Thus organizational learning is dividing into two basic areas as technical or a social process. 7. Argyris & Schn (1978) distinguished between single-loop and double-loop learning, related to Gregory Bateson's concepts of first and second order learning. In single-loop learning, individuals, groups, or organizations modify their actions according to the difference between expected and obtained outcomes. In double-loop learning, the entities (individuals, groups or organization) question the values, assumptions and policies that led to the actions in the first place; if they are able to view and modify those, then second-order or double-loop learning has taken place. Double loop learning is the learning about single-loop learning. 8. Bontis, Crossan & Hulland (2002) empirically tested a model of organizational learning that encompassed both stocks and flows of knowledge across three levels of analysis: individual, team and organization. Results showed a negative and statistically significant relationship between the misalignment of stocks and flows and organizational performance. 9. Bontis & Serenko (2009a), and Bontis & Serenko (2009b) proposed and validated a causal model explicating organizational learning processes to identify antecedents and consequences of effective human capital management practices in both for-profit and non-profit sectors. The results demonstrate that managerial leadership is a key antecedent 10. Disciplines are areas of personal improvement these five disciplines were originally outlined in 1990 in The Fifth Discipline and are core to many organizational learning efforts. Personalmastery. Mental models. Shared vision. Team learning. Systems thinking 11. Garvin (1993) cites three critical factors that are essential for organizational learning in practice: meaning, management, and measurement, each further defined as follows: Meaning Management Measurement 12. Organizational learning focuses on recording knowledge gained through experience (in the short term), and subsequently making that knowledge available to others when it is relevant to their work (in the long term) Create corporate/artifact memories where knowledge and improvisations can be captured and made part of the organizations collective knowledge base. Regard breakdowns as opportunities (IBM: communicate openly, reward people for acknowledging failure). 13. Change is the only constant. - Heraclitus, Greek philosopher What was true more than two thousand years ago is just as true today. We live in a world where "business as usual" IS change. New initiatives, project-based working, technology improvements, staying ahead of the competition - these things come together to drive ongoing changes to the way that we work. Whether you're considering a small change to one or two processes, or a system wide change to an organization, it's common to feel uneasy and intimidated by the scale of the challenge. 14. Change management is a systematic approach to dealing with change, both from the perspective of an organization and on the individual level . For an organization, change management means defining and implementing procedures and/or technologies to deal with the changes in the business environment from a current state to a desired future state. 15. At all times involve and agree support from people within system, processes, culture, relationship, behaviors. Understand where you/ the organization are at the moment. Understand where you want to be, when, why and what the measures will be for having got there. Plan development towards an appropriate achievable measurable stage. Communicate, involve, enable and facilitate involvement from people, as early and openly and fully as is possible. 16. Change is the result of dissatisfaction with the present strategies It is essential to develop a vision for a better alternative It is necessary to develop strategies to implement change There will be resistance to the proposals at some stage 17. The organization needs to understand and clarify mutual expectations about the level of detail and cost the change process requires. The organizational context, and other strategic drivers, personalities and politics are often more significant influences than can be tackled by organizational learning. Individuals in the organization needs training in order to develop their capability thus their mental status in the subjective emotional needs to be developed into objectivity before beginning to help them handle change. 18. The responsibility of managing change is always bestowed on the management and executives of organizations thus they must manage the change in a way that employees can cope with it thus would need training about the change being introduced. In change management an organization can conduct workshops which are useful to develop collective understanding, approaches, policies, methods, systems, and ideas. Management training, empathy and facilitative capability are priority areas in change management. 19. Rapid Change: Change in the workplace is occurring rapidly. Companies are being forced to quickly adapt work processes. In a Learning Organization, change is seen as an opportunity to learn through problem solving. Eroding Knowledge Bases: With attrition of employees, reductions-inforce, and expected retirements are eroding the organizational knowledge bases. A Learning Organization fosters information exchange and captures expertise from all levels of personnel. and, technology is leverage to support information exchange. Evolving Roles of Supervisors: Supervisors are assuming increasing responsibility for traditional human resource functions. In a Learning Organization, managers serve as teachers and each individual is empowered to be responsible for his or her own learning. Limited Training Resources: Many company training budgets are shrinking while staff members have less time to attend formal training sessions. A Learning Organization can make use of alternative strategies that integrate learning into the workplace. These alternative methods cost less and are effective. 20. "If youre walking down the right path and youre willing to keep walking, eventually youll make progress.Barrack Obama "Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones weve been waiting for. We are the change that we seek." -Barrack Obama In the same way an Organization has to keep walking down the path of Organization learning to achieve the change they desire efficiently and effectively to gain a competitive edge and maintain it.