What is organizational learning and how does it drive change?
Organizational learning is important for all companies, as the creation, retention and transfer of knowledge within the organization will strengthen the organization as a whole. Read more here.
Valamis
Discover:
- What is organizational learning?
- What is organizational learning theory?
- Why is organizational learning important?
What is organizational learning?
Organizational learning is the process by which an organization improves itself over time through gaining experience and using that experience to create knowledge. The knowledge created is then transferred within the organization.
Organizational learning is important for all companies, as the creation, retention and transfer of knowledge within the organization will strengthen the organization as a whole.
When looking at the definition of organizational learning, there are three main actions to consider:
- Conceive
- Act
- Reflect
An idea or product is conceived, the company creates the idea or product, then the company must reflect. It is through this reflection of both process and outcome that learning will occur. In addition to those actions, there are three key processes that occur in organizational learning:
- Knowledge creation
- Knowledge retention
- Knowledge transfer
It is important that the organization ensures that the knowledge gained from this process is retained within the organization and is transferable. Knowledge retained by individuals cannot be properly retained, as individuals can leave, taking their knowledge with them. Embedded knowledge can be kept within the organization and shared with all individuals.
To define organizational learning is to understand the importance of creating a learning culture within an organization. This type of learning benefits both individuals, teams, and the organization as a whole. There are also positive intra-organizational benefits to this approach.
What is organizational learning theory?
The theory of organizational learning focuses on the creation of knowledge and the use of that knowledge within an organization.
Key aspects of organizational learning theory are that learning happens when people interact while finding and solving problems.
Organizational learning theory stresses the importance of developing a learning culture within an organization.
According to this theory, organizations should:
- Develop a culture that prizes knowledge sharing
- Take time to learn the lessons that failure can teach
- Encourage employees of all levels to engage in lifelong learning
- Allow individuals and teams to challenge the status quo of the organization
What are the four levels of organizational learning?
Organizational learning is usually described at four levels. Knowledge that stops at the first level is the knowledge most at risk, because it leaves when the person does.
| Level | What it means | What it looks like in practice |
|---|---|---|
| Individual | One person learns something new | An engineer works out why a machine keeps failing |
| Group or team | Learning is shared across a team and becomes how they work | The maintenance team changes its inspection routine as a result |
| Organizational | Knowledge is embedded in process, systems and documentation | The new routine becomes standard procedure across every site |
| Inter-organizational | Learning is shared beyond the organization | The finding is shared with suppliers, an industry body or a regulator |
Most organizations are competent at the first two levels and weak at the third. People learn, teams adapt, and none of it is written down anywhere that outlasts the people involved. That is why institutional knowledge tends to be discussed only once someone important has resigned.
What is the difference between single-loop and double-loop learning?
Chris Argyris and Donald Schön drew the distinction that most organizational learning theory still rests on. It is the difference between correcting an error and questioning the thinking that produced it.
| Single-loop learning | Double-loop learning | |
|---|---|---|
| The question asked | Are we doing things right? | Are we doing the right things? |
| What changes | The action | The assumption behind the action |
| Example | Tightening a process that keeps producing errors | Asking whether the process should exist at all |
| Typical trigger | A problem with a known cause | A problem that keeps returning despite fixes |
| Harder because | It is not, which is why most organizations stop here | It requires questioning decisions people have already defended |
Double-loop learning is where the value sits and where organizations tend to fail, because it asks people to revisit decisions they have already justified. An organization that only ever learns in the first loop gets steadily better at doing something that may no longer be worth doing.
Why is organizational learning important?
The importance of organizational learning is shown by the various benefits that occur in organizations that develop a learning culture:
- Increased employee job satisfaction
- Lower turnover rates
- Increased productivity, profits and efficiency
- Developing leaders at all levels
- Enhanced adaptability throughout the organization
When organizations dedicate time and resources to developing a learning culture and implementing organizational learning, they are more competitive.
This increased ability to react quickly to fast-changing market conditions is just one of the reasons why organizational learning is important.
An organization that embraces the lessons that can be learned from failure and studies its own processes will be an organization that contains more knowledge about best practices, and will be much more able to adapt.
By creating the basis for continuous learning where all employees are teachers and students, there is an equal exchange of information that allows each person to contribute in a substantial manner.
How do you build organizational learning?
Organizational learning is usually treated as a culture problem. Culture matters, but culture alone does not move knowledge from one person into a system. These are the practical conditions that do.
Make failure safe to discuss
Double-loop learning requires people to say that an approach was wrong. If that carries a cost, nobody does it, and the organization keeps refining a mistake. This is the condition everything else depends on.
Capture knowledge where the work happens
Knowledge written up weeks later by someone who was not there is usually wrong. The people who hold the knowledge need to be able to record it themselves, at the time, without a request going through a content team first.
Make it findable afterwards
Captured knowledge nobody can retrieve is the same as lost knowledge. Search that answers a question beats a folder structure that assumes people know where to look.
Keep a record of what people have actually done
Organizational learning is hard to manage because it is hard to see. Completion data tells you who sat through a course. A fuller record of activity tells you where capability actually sits, which is what you need when someone leaves or a project needs staffing.
Revisit it on a schedule
Embedded knowledge goes stale quietly. A process documented three years ago is still being followed long after the reason for it changed.
Where this sits in Valamis
The gap in most organizations is the third level. Individuals learn, teams adapt, and almost none of it becomes something the organization owns.
Valamis is built around holding that record. Content authoring is part of the platform, so the people who hold the knowledge can turn it into something reusable without going through a separate tool or a separate team. Learning activity from courses, events, mobile and integrated systems is written to one learning record in consistent xAPI, alongside compliance and skills data, so capability is visible rather than assumed.
That matters most at exactly the moment organizational learning usually fails: when an experienced person leaves and takes the only copy of something with them.
Frequently asked questions about organizational learning
What is organizational learning?
Organizational learning is the process by which an organization improves over time by gaining experience, turning that experience into knowledge, and transferring that knowledge through the organization. The three core processes are knowledge creation, retention and transfer.
What are the four levels of organizational learning?
Individual, group or team, organizational, and inter-organizational. Knowledge that stays at the individual level is the most fragile, because it leaves when the person does.
What is the difference between single-loop and double-loop learning?
Single-loop learning asks whether you are doing things right and corrects the action. Double-loop learning asks whether you are doing the right things and questions the assumption behind the action. Most organizations manage the first and avoid the second.
What is the difference between organizational learning and a learning organization?
Organizational learning is the process. A learning organization is an organization that is good at it. One describes what happens, the other describes a state worth reaching.
Why is organizational learning important?
It is associated with higher job satisfaction, lower turnover, better productivity and faster adaptation to changing conditions. The practical argument is simpler: an organization that cannot retain what it learns pays to learn the same things repeatedly.
How do you measure organizational learning?
Completion data measures attendance, not learning. More useful signals are whether knowledge is being captured by the people who hold it, whether others can find and use it afterwards, and whether capability remains when individuals leave.
What happens when they leave?
Capture what your people know, make it findable, and keep a record of what the organization can actually do.
