Survey and Research Data

Organisational Learning has both inherent and external barriers 

A 2002-2003 study concerning organisational learning involved 19 engineering consulting companies based in Hong Kong. The barriers to effective learning and innovation experienced by these engineers are summarised below: (Note ICT = Information Communications Technology)

Table adapted from Baark (2005)

A survey concerning organisational learning involving the top 2000 companies (by annual revenue) within Australia found that:

• Organisations may readily become more learning-oriented if they have an underlying market-oriented culture. The results suggested that a market orientation facilitates a learning orientation.

• Both a market orientation and a learning orientation have a significant positive impact on the performance of organisations. Being market-oriented may not be enough. Organisations should also aim to be learning-oriented if they are to compete successfully in the long run. The findings gave support for the arguments that organisational learning may be the only source of sustainable competitive advantage and that organisational learning may be the key to future organisational success.

• The results suggested that top managers should be prepared to take more risks in their decision making and develop a learning orientation through the skilful use of transformative leadership. (Farrell, 2000)

Successful organisational learning practices

Over the period 1998-2001, organisational learning was studied in four Canadian organisations - a medium-sized hospital, a large retail chain, a small not-for-profit government funded organisation and a large electronics manufacturer. The companies identified themselves as mature learning organisations that had embedded continuous learning at individual, team or strategic level within the actual work context. The study identified key themes common in all the organisations:

• The provision of skills development, through action learning or classroom training. This included the conscious legitimisation and space creation for informal workplace learning.

• The establishment or encouragement of supportive, mentoring relationships where the mentor acted as coach, or peer partners acted as coaches for one another. Activities involved job shadowing, learning from problems or mistakes, and providing resources or guidance.

• The encouragement of communities of practice to enable informal dialogue on work-related issues of concern.

• The development of, and circulation of, a shared set of values which reinforced commitment to the creation of learning environments.

Workers in the studied organisations reported that an important component of learning from their experience was reflective time. Examples were provided of improved decision-making, increased work efficiency and enhanced overall productivity, when workers were able to intersperse periods of reflection with direct action in their working day. (Laiken, 2003)

The following knowledge creation, sharing, and dissemination techniques were reported via a 2001 survey involving 79 global R&D organisations:

• Identifying knowledge pools:
• Informal personal contacts among managers, scientists, and engineers;
• Exchange visits between lab managers, scientists and engineers;
• Yellow pages of capability;
• Contact lists and Who's who lists;
• Knowledge Maps;
• Gatekeeper meetings;
• Science and technology fairs;
• Conferences, seminars, and workshops;
• Staff exchanges, cross-training and job rotation;
• Social and cultural events;
• Annual forums.

• Capturing and influencing knowledge flows:
• Shared goals, mission, values, and norms;
• Training and personnel development;
• Appointing chief information and knowledge management officers;
• Rewards and incentives;
• Intranets;
• Technology clubs and associations;
• Coordinating bodies and committees;
• Creation of international labour pools;
• Using common development and information sharing tools;
• Co-location of teams, knowledge sharing sessions on return from conferences or executing projects.

• Reporting knowledge:
• Intranets;
• R&D polices;
• Project Management manuals;
• Job descriptions;
• Project progress reports, project update meetings and routine reporting;
• Workbooks with specifications and request for changes recorded;
• Evaluating R&D programmes;
• Controlling the flow of information;
• Newsletters;
• Prototypes.

• Sharing knowledge:
• Language training;
• Intranets;
• Job rotation;
• Science and Technology fairs;
• Conferences, seminars, and workshops;
• Topic meetings;
• Common development and information sharing electronic tools. (Persaud et al, 2001)