Learning in Organizations: Some Observations from the Practice

Introduction

The rise of technology and knowledge as a production factor in organizations has not only changed the rules of managing organizations, it is also rewriting the learning processes in organizations, especially in the knowledge-intensive organizations as they depend heavily on information and communication technology (ICT). Chadha and Saini (2014), for example, find that knowledge is enhanced by information technology (IT). IT, used as a learning tool, has also been found to benefit organizational learning and financial performance. However, when we look at the past, we find that most executives of the traditional organizations achieved good performance by practicing relentless execution by focusing on efficient production and delivery of goods and services because then that was the sure path to please customers and achieve raving financial results. Those managers who did not focus on execution even briefly faced peril (Edmondson, 2008). Today, however, in the knowledge environment, organizations that create new knowledge, constantly update it, and diffuse it throughout the organization for application in everything they do are more effective than organizations that simply promote and implement the execution model (Garvin, Edmondson, & Gino, 2008; Rao & Argote, 2006). Organizational learning and knowledge creation play a substantial role in innovation. Facilitation of learning will lead to significantly higher innovation levels within the firm. Unfortunately, in contemporary organizations, failures far outnumber successes, and improvement rates remain distressingly low because most companies fail to grasp that continuous improvement requires a commitment to learning (Garvin, et al., 2008).