Learning Organization Why Is it

Learning Organization

Why is it important and how does one build a continuous learning organizational

Why is it important and how does one build a continuous learning organization?

In today's volatile economic climate, creating a continuous learning organization is a vital component of business success. "Continuous learning is a key critical success factor of the Leadership and Knowledge Management system. In such an environment, leaders foster a learning culture that provides opportunities for continuous development and encourages employees to participate. Leaders also invest in education, training, and development opportunities to help themselves and their employees build mission-critical competencies" (Fostering a learning organization, 2009, OPM.gov). However, both employees and businesses alike tend to be change-resistant, and to foster a learning organization requires organizations to often press past their current 'comfort zone' of growth and development. Organizational leaders must not demand that workers endlessly repeat standard ways of doing business; rather, they should provide opportunities for employee responsiveness and must create standard operating structures to ensure that learning takes place on a regular basis throughout the organization.

A foundational belief behind the learning organization theory is that the education of a worker does not end with his or her formal schooling. Without workers that are continually learning, the organization itself will eventually go obsolete. Selecting flexible employees is a critical first step of creating a learning organization. Employees must be focused upon processes (including enjoying their work and desiring to expand their professional skill sets), not simply on pay. The skills needed of various employees will change over time, but employers cannot teach character or the innate desire to learn. Of course, some critical knowledge areas are required of certain employees upon day 1 and many employers today complain about a gap between their needs and those of prospective employees, including leadership sills (Context for training and development, 27-28). However, investing in workplace education, including the recruitment of interns, is one way to guard against a 'skill drain' based in a changing workforce and unchanging employees. Once recruited, the focus becomes upon nurturing and retaining top talent. "In the past, education ended when an individual received credentials. Now, education is becoming continuous, deliberate organizational learning" (Fostering a learning organization, 2009, OPM.gov). Providing career management to employees, tuition credits, and making learning part of the workplace makes employees feel valued and engaged and also makes employees on every level more responsive to needs and shifts in the business environment. For example, mentorship, or pairing new recruits with seasoned employees in their fields of expertise, is an excellent way to foster such organizational talent. Not only do new employees learn about the business from older employees; older employees gain a sense of enthusiasm and reap the benefits of the knowledge of younger people with a fresh perspective on the market. "Mentoring can improve employee satisfaction and retention, enrich new-employee initiation, make your company more appealing to recruits, and train your leaders" (Kessler 2010).

It should be noted, however, such educational programs are not merely designed to foster 'learning for learning's sake.' They goals and intentions of continuous training and learning must be aligned with the strategic priorities of the organization. The organization must define what competencies will be necessary in the future, and continually build upon existing employee skills to avoid obsolescence. "If employees do not possess the competence to handle a new strategy, a company should provide training to enhance the skills of its managers and employees. Without adequate training and support, the relationships between employees and managers will suffer and the organization will lack flexibility" (Richards-Gustafson 2013). This requires continual strategic reassessment of future needs. Training programs must be regularly assessed to see if they are meeting their desired benchmarks. Just as the company keeps track of financial data in terms of sales, it must also document the degree to which learning-based organizational initiatives have increased employee productivity, satisfaction, and enhanced retention.

A learning organization must be willing to learn from its employees, as well as strive to inculcate them in its values and ideas. When an organization is going astray, it must be attuned to what employees are telling it. Often employees at lower and middle levels have exposure to input from customers and suppliers that leaders of the organization may not be privy to, and without respect and sharing of information on every organizational level, this valuable knowledge will not be used and put into practice. An organization can learn from both new and old employees. "It is also important for companies to try to capture the valuable knowledge that is leaving" through debriefing interviews (Context for training and development, 27).