Chris Jarvis 1 Mgg. Org. Change What is a Learning Organisation? Comparing models of organisational learning and development.

Chris Jarvis 1

Mgg. Org. Change

What is a Learning Organisation?Comparing models of organisational learning and development

Chris Jarvis 2

Mgg. Org. Change

Training policy & programmes

recruitment,

redundancies

redeployment

Mission

Staffing plan

Skills audit

Performance review

Development action

Demand for skills

Data for audit

Data to integrate individual & organisational needs

Know-how for competitive advantage & performance

Skill gaps filled by

Developmentneeds

Current performance

Improved capability, competence + motivation

Training, seminars, delegation, coaching, private study, day release, learning company, IIP

What's wrong with the Strategy & Training Model?

Chris Jarvis 3

Mgg. Org. Change

Employee development approaches?

• Laissez-faire - little or no training interest/activity

• Training for workforce maintenance: induction, product, SoPs

• Technical (know-how) training

• Recognising, valuing & accrediting “competencies” (NVQs)

• Systematic staff devel: appraisal, resourcing, coaching & mentoring

• Empowerment through know

• Supported self-organised learning, L3 & CPD

• Management development

• Off-the-job vs. on-the-job

• Central training vs. devolved and out-sourced

• ICT supported learning

• Voluntarism and Investors in People

• Learning Company model (abstraction). What is the concrete form?

Chris Jarvis 4

Mgg. Org. Change

Investors in People: National voluntarism

top level, commitment to develop all employees to achieve business objectives

regular review of T&D needs of all staff

action to train & develop individuals on recruitment + throughout employment

evaluate T&D to assess achievement & improve future effectiveness

written plan: business goals/targets, how employees will contribute, assess needs etc. Identify T&D resources

agree T&D needs with each employee. Link to NVQ if poss. Action: train new recruits & improve skills of existing staff

Review investment, competence & commitment of employees & skills learnt against business plan + at all levels

T&D effectiveness reviewed by top level è renewed commitment & targets

accreditation to promote Er-led, quality, effective staff developmentaccreditation to promote Er-led, quality, effective staff development

Why do it?Why do it?

Chris Jarvis 5

Mgg. Org. Change

What is a Learning Organisation?

• "The essence of organisational learning is the organisation's ability to use the amazing mental capacity of all its members to create the kind of processes that will improve its own" Nancy Dixon, 1994

• "Organisations where people continually expand their capacity to create the results they truly desire, where new and expansive patterns of thinking are nurtured, where collective aspiration is set free, and where people are continually learning to learn together"

• Senge P. 1990 The Fifth Discipline: The art and practice of the learning organization, Century Business/Doubleday.

• an abstraction• pundits’ concepts• introduced into imperative

language • Contingency view

responsiveness to forces & environment developments otherwise we atrophy & die

• supply-chain learning• be excellent, bright &

successful

• an abstraction• pundits’ concepts• introduced into imperative

language • Contingency view

responsiveness to forces & environment developments otherwise we atrophy & die

• supply-chain learning• be excellent, bright &

successful

Chris Jarvis 6

Mgg. Org. Change

Rowden on Learning Organisation

“a model of strategic change in which everyone is engaged in identifying and solving problems so that the organisation is continuously changing, experimenting and improving, thus increasing its capacity to grow and achieve its purpose.”

Rowden R.W. 2001, The Learning Organisation & Strategic Change, S.A.M. Advanced Management Journal, Summer 2001, Vol 66, Issue 3 pg 117p

Chris Jarvis 7

Mgg. Org. Change

Organisation Development - definitions

Richard Beckhard – Sloan School of Mgt 1969

an approach to bring about….. planned change (a

programme) using behavioural science knowledge.

organisation-wide, managed from the top

increase organisational effectiveness through ….. planned, systematic interventions in the organisation's behavioural processes

Richard Beckhard – Sloan School of Mgt 1969

an approach to bring about….. planned change (a

programme) using behavioural science knowledge.

organisation-wide, managed from the top

increase organisational effectiveness through ….. planned, systematic interventions in the organisation's behavioural processes

Ralph Stacey 1993 – Strategic Management

"….a long-term programme of interventions in the social, psychological and cultural belief systems of an organisation. These interventions are based on certain principles& practices which are assumed to lead to greater organisational effectiveness"

Soft versus Hard?

Ralph Stacey 1993 – Strategic Management

"….a long-term programme of interventions in the social, psychological and cultural belief systems of an organisation. These interventions are based on certain principles& practices which are assumed to lead to greater organisational effectiveness"

Soft versus Hard?

Chris Jarvis 8

Mgg. Org. Change

Kolb Experiential Learning Cycle

D Kolb, Rubin & McIntyreOrganisational Psychology, Addison Wesley

A model forpersonal awareness & development

A model forpersonal awareness & development

ConcreteExperience(Activist)

ReflectiveObservation(Reflector)

AbstractConceptualisation

(Theorist)

Active Experimentation

(Pragmatist)

LEARNINGCYCLE

Chris Jarvis 9

Mgg. Org. Change

LO systems, mechanisms and processes

Learning organisations are those that

• have systems, mechanisms & processes in place,

• are used to continually enhance their capabilities and those who work with it or for it, to achieve sustainable objectives - for themselves and the communities in which they participate.

What systems, mechanisms and processes?

Requires•Trust, consistency, attitude of inquiry•High levels of communication•Concern for interdependencies & interrelationships

Requires•Trust, consistency, attitude of inquiry•High levels of communication•Concern for interdependencies & interrelationships

Chris Jarvis 10

Mgg. Org. Change

M. Pedler al: The Learning Company - 11 characteristics

• Adopt a learning approach to strategy

• Participative policy making

• Informating (Information Systems)

• Formative accounting – valuing, self-responsibility, appraisal, targeting, resourcing and review

• Internal exchange (client-server relationships)

• Reward flexibility

• Roles and flexible, matrix structures

• Boundary workers as intelligence agents

• Company-to-company learning

• Learning climate

• Self-development opportunities for all

http://sol.brunel.ac.uk/bola/culture/learnco.html

Chris Jarvis 11

Mgg. Org. Change

Pedler stresses that

the model is

• a simplification, symbolic rather than concrete, not complete or rigid, not sequential

• So what is it then

• a paradigm of discourse?

• A state of being?

• starts with strategy, ends with creation of learning opportunities & bubbling.

• Flowery, metaphorical talk of ecological flows, energies, life forces & balances

"vertical & horizontal loop energy flows providing linkages between individual & collective activity/change + dynamics between vision & action".

Chris Jarvis 12

Mgg. Org. Change

Shared Vision

Team Learning

Mental Models

Personal Mastery

Systems Thinking

Peter Senge’s Five Disciplines

Chris Jarvis 13

Mgg. Org. Change

Five Disciplines - expanded

Systems thinking• mind shift & understanding change processes.• ‘feedback’ to reinforce/counteract action.• recognise recurring structures • remove root causes/problemsPersonal Mastery• personal competence and vision• developing patience to look at reality objectively Mental Models• changing ingrained assumptions about influencing factors.Shared Vision• use instincts, intuition by sharing personal vision• pictures of the futureTeam Learning• dialogue, discussion, group relationships• accelerate org. learning thru. Synergy 2+2=5

Chris Jarvis 14

Mgg. Org. Change

Reality and Problems? Personal Mastery

Making It Work

• Managers must

• redefine their job 

• provide the right conditions for employees to be proactive 

• Generating a sense of purpose

The Tricky Part• Resistance to PM due to

difficulty in quantifying results • Ideas behind PM have been

heard before  • People forced to develop PM

- may do more harm than good

The Tricky Part• Resistance to PM due to

difficulty in quantifying results • Ideas behind PM have been

heard before  • People forced to develop PM

- may do more harm than good

How can this be “operationalised”?

Evidence of it happening well?

Chris Jarvis 15

Mgg. Org. Change

Reality and Problems? Mental Models

Making It Work

• Skills learnt must be

• put into regular practice 

• continually challenged 

• Strong role of manager to integrate mental modelling and systems-thinking skills 

The Tricky Part

• Managers not always very skilled in implementing new ideas 

• People find it difficult to challenge assumptions they believe to be “the case” 

• Some people act in routinised ways when they are at work

The Tricky Part

• Managers not always very skilled in implementing new ideas 

• People find it difficult to challenge assumptions they believe to be “the case” 

• Some people act in routinised ways when they are at work

How can this be “operationalised”?

Evidence of it happening well?

Chris Jarvis 16

Mgg. Org. Change

Reality and Problems? Shared Vision

Making It Work

• the focus and energy for learning 

• put together by many not a few 

• better when considered intrinsically at the organisational level.

The Tricky Part

• Compliance not commitment 

• Extrinsic visions are usually personally held and are defensive 

• Vision is usually top-down - do not have as good an affect as they should.

The Tricky Part

• Compliance not commitment 

• Extrinsic visions are usually personally held and are defensive 

• Vision is usually top-down - do not have as good an affect as they should.

How can this be “operationalised”?

Evidence of it happening well?

Chris Jarvis 17

Mgg. Org. Change

Reality and Problems? Team Learning

Making It Work

• Everyone must pull in the same direction 

• Teams must master the art of dialogue and discussion 

• Conflict can still appear in good team learning

• BUT essentially a unitary frame of reference

The Tricky Part

• practice, and consistency, no quick fixes

• boredom sets in  

• open minded with one’s own views and the views of others

The Tricky Part

• practice, and consistency, no quick fixes

• boredom sets in  

• open minded with one’s own views and the views of others

How can this be “operationalised”?

Evidence of it happening well?

Chris Jarvis 18

Mgg. Org. Change

Reality and Problems? Systems Thinking

Making It Work

Management must

• understand concepts to put into place

• look at the whole picture, not “snap shots in time”

• provide the right workplace conditions

The Tricky Part

• People find it hard to see the whole pattern of change

• takes time to see newly initiated ideas work

• easier to learn at an early stage rather than uncouple tangled messes

The Tricky Part

• People find it hard to see the whole pattern of change

• takes time to see newly initiated ideas work

• easier to learn at an early stage rather than uncouple tangled messes

How can this be “operationalised”?

Evidence of it happening well?

Chris Jarvis 19

Mgg. Org. Change

Inhibitors to Becoming a Learning Organisation

• Operational / “Fire-fighting”

• Short term fixes rather than long-term solutions

• How to focus on embedded systems and processes

• Reluctance to train (or invest in training)

• Too many hidden personal agendas

• Tension between top-down order and bottom up anarchy

• Management exasperation?

• The knee-jerk reaction to Theory Y failure?

Chris Jarvis 20

Mgg. Org. Change

Hot air, recursive polemic?

The LO characteristics become

• an energetic, normative, persuasive device for those wishing to manage change.

• a professional "change agents'" model? Independent of the context or analysis of change processes?

• prescriptions - commitments to flexible, self-managing, incremental, experimental, participative activities ?

• ethically correct, personal values model?

How well does down-sizing and asset stripping fit in?

Chris Jarvis 21

Mgg. Org. Change

“Training by its nature pre-specifies outcomes.”

“A planned process to modify attitude, knowledge, or skill behaviour through learning experience to achieve effective performance in an activity or range of activities. Its purpose, in the work situation, is to develop the abilities of the individual and to satisfy the current future”

Manpower Services Commission, 1981

Training

Chris Jarvis 22

Mgg. Org. Change

London Borough of Dickens

• Achieved IiP status early 2001

• Appraisals

• Programme of Training Courses

• Dept-wide Training Initiatives• Modern Apprenticeship, NVQs

• Valuing Diversity

• Let’s Talk, Talk Back

• Still creaky, bureaucratic

• Training budget agreed

• 1/3 held back for mgt development training!

• Mgt visibility - MbWA - not obvious!

• Still creaky, bureaucratic

• Training budget agreed

• 1/3 held back for mgt development training!

• Mgt visibility - MbWA - not obvious!

How would you research the evidence for L.B. Dickens being a learning organisation?

How would you research the evidence for L.B. Dickens being a learning organisation?

Chris Jarvis 23

Mgg. Org. Change

Training Courses - LB of Dickens

• 1 – 5 days e.g.

• Corporate induction

• Health & Safety; Intro. to customer care; Managing absence

• Recruitment & selection; Leadership for Team Coordinators

• Staff appraisal & recruitment skills & equal opportunities

• Using Windows XP

• Often external trainer - out-sourced. Problems of on-the-job follow-up & integration into job performance

• Longer then a week e.g.

• Two weeks Database Developer

• Day-release for Postgrad (MBA/MSc)

• Professional training e.g. ACCA, CIMA, RICS

• Diploma in Social Work

• NVQ’s and Modern Apprenticeship

Chris Jarvis 24

Mgg. Org. Change

LB of Dickens: Action on Internal training

• Corporate training at LBD put higher on agenda

• Corporate aims adopted at dept level.

• focus on ensuring that staff attend certain compulsory courses.

• Non-compliance means staff will be unable to undertake key elements of work which may cause serious effects on department operations.

Chris Jarvis 25

Mgg. Org. Change

LO and Transformational Leadership?

Assertion:

• Managers and senior executives who are successful leaders will not only respond to change positively but also actively create change.

Characteristics:

• Leaders with a particular drive, a desire to bring order out of chaos, or, if something is too cosy, to create chaos in order to bring change.

• projecting a particular ethos and culture

• powerful vision of where their companies or their societies are heading.

Chris Jarvis 26

Mgg. Org. Change

Transformational leadership theory

• Context? late-20thC national & global pol-econ. change

• Contributors: Downton (1973), Burns (1978), Bass (1985), Bennis & Nanus (1985), Tichy & Devanna (1986)

• Bass surveyed 70 execs"In your careers, who transformed you in Burns' terms (raised awareness, move up Maslow hierarchy …. to transcend self-interest).

• Answer: usually an organisational superior.

fresh thinking?

transformational leader creates conditions for followers to want to achieve results and to fulfil themselves.

bridges small group studies & leadership by ’movers & shakers’ who transform organisations

fresh thinking?

transformational leader creates conditions for followers to want to achieve results and to fulfil themselves.

bridges small group studies & leadership by ’movers & shakers’ who transform organisations

Chris Jarvis 27

Mgg. Org. Change

From Laissez faire to Transactional

• Laissez-faire not really leaders at all, avoid intervention, weak follow up, passivity, potential for confusion

• Transactional leaders

• Management by exception Passive: set standards/objectives, wait for, react to, reluctant

intervention. Status quoActive: standards/objectives, monitor, correct, look for error, enforce rules/procedures. Low initiative and risk-taking

• Constructive transactions, contingent rewards• agree standards/objectives, feedback, rewards for achievement.

• outcome: performance that meets expectations.

• simplified in One-Minute Manager (Blanchard & Johnson 1982)

• Airport business library

Chris Jarvis 28

Mgg. Org. Change

Transactional leadership in perspective

• Mixed evidence - it may be desirable, even necessary. Contingent rewards underpin PRP

• laissez-faire & transactional in directive, consultative, participative & delegative styles

• Directive: 'These are the rules and this is how you've broken them'.

• Participative: 'Let's work out together the rules to identify mistakes'

• Weaknesses

• Carrot/stick rewards, emphasis on plans, targets, systems, controls

• management > leadership

• Assertion: fails to develop, motivate, bring to full potential (Bass)

Chris Jarvis 29

Mgg. Org. Change

Transformational leader (Bass’s four 'I's)

promotes

• follower desire for achievement & self-development.

• teams, esprit de corps, autonomy, synergy, belief, value

Four 'I's.

• lndividualised consideration (IC)

• Intellectual stimulation (IS)

• Inspirational motivation (IM)

• ldealised influence (charisma) (II)

Chris Jarvis 30

Mgg. Org. Change

Individualised consideration & Intellectual stimulation

IC

• identifying individuals' needs & abilities, opportunities to learn, delegating, coaching and giving developmental feedback. Spend time with individuals e.g. mentoring.

IS

• question status quo, encourage imagination, creativity, logical thinking and intuition.

• unorthodoxy in character, symbolise innovation.

• compare UK motorcycles & Swiss watch market to Sony

Chris Jarvis 31

Mgg. Org. Change

Inspirational motivation & ldealised influence

Inspirational motivation

• clear vision, problems as opportunities, language & symbols

• I had a dream …...

• Ask not what America can do for you. Ask what you can do..

• go the extra mile. Iacocca at Chrysler.

ldealised influence

• Confident in communicating a virtuous vision

• the buck stops here'. Purpose, persistence, trust, accomplishment over failure. Respected for personal ability

Leadership .. the priceless gift you earn from those who work for you. I have to earn the right to that gift, and continuously re-earn (it).

John Harvey-Jones (ICI)

Leadership .. the priceless gift you earn from those who work for you. I have to earn the right to that gift, and continuously re-earn (it).

John Harvey-Jones (ICI)

Gandhi, Luther King, Thatcher, Blair

Hitler, Jim Jones

Gandhi, Luther King, Thatcher, Blair

Hitler, Jim Jones

Chris Jarvis 32

Mgg. Org. Change

Bass's modelIIII

IMIMISIS

ICICCRCR

MbEx-AMbEx-A

MbEx-PMbEx-P

LaissezFaireLaissezFaire

effectiveeffective

passivepassive activeactive

ineffectiveineffective

Learn TL!!

Avolio-Bass training package

Learn TL!!

Avolio-Bass training package

Encouraging TL will

project confidence, commitment & competence

attract quality staff to the mission & challenge

develop people more fully to respond better to competition & change

Encouraging TL will

project confidence, commitment & competence

attract quality staff to the mission & challenge

develop people more fully to respond better to competition & change

Chris Jarvis 33

Mgg. Org. Change

Motorola's six-Sigma programme.

Transformational leadership application

• defect-free parts within six standard deviations

• concepts, symbols and vision for world-class quality

• IS, IM, IC in promoting awareness, responsibility and self-monitoring

66

Chris Jarvis 34

Mgg. Org. Change

Is transformational leadership cross-cultural?

• ‘exporting participative management or Theory Y from the USA to authoritarian cultures is like 'preaching Jeffersonian democracy to managers who believe in the divine right of kings'.

Haire, Ghiselli and Porter 1966

• Leadership - a universal phenomenon?• context and culture influences

• Bass presents evidence from studies in Italy, Sweden, Canada, New Zealand, India, Japan and Singapore

• suggests that the notion needs only fine-tuning across cultures

Chris Jarvis 35

Mgg. Org. Change

“Training is obviously necessary and Development is fashionable”

Discuss.

“It is glib to talk of a learning organisation. The concept is gloss and elusive. Demonstrating it in action is more difficult . Almost anything could be presented to say that a L-organisation exists and operates yet many could also present instances to refute the proposition.”

Discuss.

Examination Questions