Organizational learning is an important factor in business administration.
Organizational learning is the process carried out in an organization for the creation, transfer and use of knowledge . The members of the entity, in this way, develop skills and acquire competencies .
Organizational learning can be associated with the training and professional development of human resources . The strategic planning of a company must consider this knowledge management to encourage innovation and promote the creativity of workers.
History of organizational learning
Organizational learning is a concept that emerged in the late 1950s . The book "Organizations" ( 1958 ) by Herbert Alexander Simon and James Gary March is mentioned as a pioneering work, as well as the relevance of "A Behavioral Theory of the Firm" (a 1963 work by Richard Cyert and the aforementioned March) is highlighted. ) and “Organizational Learning Observations Toward a Theory” ( 1965 text by VE Cangelosi and WR Dill ).
What these authors did was take organizational learning as an independent notion that should be analyzed in a specialized way. In any case, the study of organizations focusing on their learning modes already existed before thanks to the contributions of Frederick Winslow Taylor (the father of the scientific organization of work, also known as Taylorism ) and other experts.
Taylor , for example, postulated that it was necessary to examine organizational processes from a scientific perspective to obtain knowledge that would increase efficiency. It is understood that if the members of an organization learn (that is, they train and perfect their work), the company as a whole grows and benefits.
Nowadays, organizational learning is often considered essential to adapt to market evolution . Technological and social changes mean that a strategy cannot remain unchanged, which means that continuous training of human resources and process reengineering are necessary for business sustainability over time.
A successful organizational learning policy can contribute to workplace well-being.
From individual to group
Learning consists of the acquisition of knowledge and skills. This can be achieved through practice (experience) and study , for example.
A person can learn something that is useful for their professional activity and thus show better results after a job performance evaluation . In a company, however, it is key that there is a transfer of said knowledge so that this value is spread to the rest of the employees and so that it is not the exclusive property of the subject. Otherwise, if a single worker knows how to do something in particular and then that person leaves the company, they take what they have learned with them.
It is transcendental, therefore, that individual learning is complemented or transformed into group learning . That is why managers usually promote seminars and workshops for all employees with the aim of developing human talent and the work competence of the staff in general. Thus, workers learn together and teamwork is optimized.
Organizational learning, in short, must involve the various components of the company so that the entity gains efficiency and can successfully adapt to changes in the environment.
Organizational learning is useful for job rotation.
Organizational learning and technology
The Internet has generated great changes in education and in the teaching and learning processes. Of course, job training is not exempt from this reality and companies make increasingly intensive use of the tools offered by the Web.
Organizational learning, in this way, is often supported by educational technology . E-learning can be carried out with online courses (such as MOOCs ) and webinars where workers are trained through a computer or telephone, regardless of their physical location.
Technological resources facilitate time management and work organization. By learning remotely and flexibly, worker job satisfaction tends to increase. It cannot be overlooked that knowledge improves self-esteem.
The importance of mentors
In organizational learning, there are people who play a fundamental role due to their leadership and experience. These are those who guide coaching or mentoring processes, transmitting organizational values and contributing to the continuous improvement of personnel.
These coaches or mentors can help the acquisition of soft skills or hard skills , depending on each case. What they do is accompany their disciples or apprentices in learning, preparing them for a promotion or to assume new responsibilities.
Through these types of relationships, anyone who is part of an organization can develop professionally and be useful to the company. Coaching , in turn, cooperates with talent retention because the worker involved wants to continue learning and growing in the entity. Thanks to this duality, both the corporation and the worker benefit.