Learning Organizations a Great Deal of Research

¶ … Learning Organizations

A great deal of research has been undertaken regarding the concept of learning organizations. The 2001 article with the title "The learning organization in health-care services: Theory and practice" by Leda Vassalou was published in the Journal of European Industrial Training. The article was written seeking to add to the existing literature regarding learning organizations, by first clarifying the concept of the learning organization and then examining barriers which may prevent or hinder a firm becoming a learning organization. In order to achieve this aim Vassalou (2001) identified four research questions the first involved identifying the difference between individual learning and organizational learning. The second research question was the identification of the type of learning that would be required to take place in a learning organization. The third research question asked what building blocks or other foundations were necessary for learning organizations. The last question, and possibly one of the most interesting, was whether or not there is a difference between learning organizations in the real world and the fairy of learning organizations.

The paper starts with a literature review, followed by primary research which was undertaken utilizing case study methodology examining two healthcare organizations to determine the degree to which organizational learning was present, one was hospital in United Kingdom, and one hospital in Greece (Vassalou, 2001).

The concept and definition of a learning organization is built on the literature review. Vassalou (2001) argues that a learning organization is built on the concept of organizational learning, which in turn is built on the learning undertaken by individuals. Vassalou, (2001) states that learning is the gaining of knowledge, and can include the concept of "know-how," and "know why." A range of authors are cited, including Argryis and Schon, with the view that learning only occurs when knowledge is applied to create different, repeatable behavior. The idea of organizational learning is aligned to the presence of double loop learning in an organization, rather than simply the presence of single loop learning. The conclusion of the literature review includes the idea that learning at an organizational level is most likely to occur where individuals within the organization are allowed and encouraged to learn, and that for a learning organization to emerge the suitable building blocks will include several characteristics that create an environment in which learning can take place as part of the culture, rather than as a separate exercise. These building blocks include a leadership style which not only supports learning, but actively encourages experimentation, a culture systems that facilitate the knowledge transfer between workers; a process that will also support creativity and innovation, a high level of cooperative teamwork, the presence of a strong mission/vision which also supports the gaining of knowledge, and a permissive culture that allows experimentation, including the ability to learn from mistakes (Vassalou, 2001). Organizational structure is also seen as an influencing factor that may support or hinder the development of a learning organization.

Following the literature review the qualitative case study research has presented. This was undertaken with the use of semi-structured interviews in both hospitals in order to assess the presence or absence of different characteristics associated with learning organizations. The findings of the research concluded that the UK hospital had a higher level of characteristics associated with organizational learning and learning organizations compared to the Greek hospital (Vassalou, 2001). Correlated with this was the high level of autonomy found in the UK hospital, which was operated by a healthcare trust, where as in Greece the Ministry of Health retained a significant level of control over the hospitals operations (Vassalou, 2001). It was also found that the strategic vision adopted by the UK hospital was stronger than that of the Greek hospital, and the internal processes within the hospital had a greater potential to identify the existence of different types of expectation gaps compared to the more bureaucratic processes in the Greek hospital. However, the conclusion was that the UK hospital was not a fully operational learning organization, as there were still a number of characteristics which were not present. For example, operational leadership may be strong, but presented characteristics which lacked the ability to inspire others and encourage learning through sharing (Vassalou, 2001). In both organizations a significant constraint was the dominance of single loop learning processes. Even in workshops seminars the single loop learning was most visible, and there appeared to be a lack of encouragement for creativity (Vassalou, 2001). The research ends with the conclusion that numerous barriers exist hindering the attainment of a learning organization status as depicted in the literature. The recommendation is for further research focusing on aspects such as HR practices and the way in which they may be utilized in order to encourage a more permissive a learning culture, and a recommendation for the pursuance of double loop learning (Vassalou, 2001).

Overall, the research article was interesting, and help to provide for a gap in organizational learning research; examining the way in which is theory compares to the real world. The underlying in the literature review was based on peer-reviewed journals, although some of the articles lacked the characteristic of currency. One of the criticisms of the paper may that the literature review is relatively weak, and in reading the article there is a potential bias towards one particular article by Goh (1998) (Vassalou, 2001).