Organizational learning capability: importance, realistic aspects, and management role

¶ … maintenance of a successful organization, regardless of said organization's role, whether it be commercial, non-profit or private. Most central, perhaps, to that maintenance is the quality of the organization's personnel. But hiring and recruiting practices are not enough, alone, to ensure this level of individual efficiency. Beyond careful selection of affiliated members, organizations may benefit from the successful implementation of organizational learning.

Certainly, anybody whose ever been at the helm of a functional organization will attest to the value of this type of team orientation. While the members of an organization will, no doubt, bring their personal skill, knowledge and authority to their respective positions, they may not be endowed with the particulars on how to employ those virtues in conjunction with other members of the team. This is why an organization, in order to achieve success in its chosen field, would do well to abide by a collective standard that illuminates that organization's goals and ethos.

The willingness and receptiveness of group members to strive for the common mission proposed to them will, in large part, determine the future of an organization. There is no question as to the fundamental utility of inspiring all workers under the same ideological umbrella. This should create an environment that is both cooperative and productive.

It is also crucial to the success of organizational learning that management handle its principles accordingly. Organizational learning's greatest virtue may lie in its capacity to incite unity. The commonality of goals and ideas creates an environment whereby all involved will feel that their personal interests are at hand as well. So it's important that those at the top are conscious of this. While promoting both the values of the organization, as well as purporting their own authority, members of management must balance on the fine line between a hierarchical power structure and a cooperative unit. As such, top management must vocally and intuitively instill personal learning capabilities and departmental autonomy without undermining their own authority.

This, perhaps, is also a potential obstacle in proper use of organizational learning. It may be unrealistic to expect that all organization members will be able to cope with that dichotomy. It is true that there may be a fundamental contradiction, if not executed correctly, in the strategy that calls for both teamwork and response to authority. Employees may be disarmed by the complex infrastructure of this type of organization when many have become so accustomed to one extreme or the other. From independent group functionality to strict acknowledgment of orders, many are not prepared for the hybrid understanding required to participate in a highly integrated organization.