Organizational Learning and Competitive Advantage

The Concept of Organizational Learning

Organizational learning is portrayed differently by different scholars. It means new insights according to Argyris and Schon (1978), new structures (Chandler, 1962), new systems (Miles, 1982) or a combination of all of the above. Fiol & Lyles (1985) defined organizational learning as the development of insights, knowledge, associations between past actions and the effectiveness of those actions and future actions. Further, Cummings and Whorley (2009) defined organizational learning as a change process which enhances the ability of an organization to acquire and develop new knowledge. Organizational learning results from; assimilating information; translating information into knowledge; applying knowledge to real words; and receiving feedback. In a nutshell, organizational learning is a composition of individual learning, development of culture, continuous improvement, innovation, and applying systems which learn.

There are two orientations to learning; adaptive learning and generative learning. Adaptive learning involves an unintentionalphenomenon that brings about a relatively definite change in behavior and ispowered by an individual’s reaction towards different stimuli in their immediate environment. Generative learning on the other hand, revolves around the concept of an individual adding on new behaviors, knowledge, and skills to what they already have and applying these to their various situations. McKenna (1992) established that in team learning, it is essential for people to move beyond themselves and permit a collective learning to occur.

Learning happens at three levels within an organization. This includes individual, group and institutional learning. The levels of learning interact to make up organizational learning.Individual learning occurs when employees acquire knowledge, development skills and adopt new attitudes and beliefs which enable the organization to succeed. Individuals are important in organizational learning process. At its basic level, the individuals within an organization are involved in perceiving similarities, differences, patterns and possibilities. Through intuition, some individuals focus on the expert view translated into tacit knowledge while the others focus on the entrepreneurial view which enables them to generate new knowledge. Individual learning is transformed into group learning through shared understanding.

For team learning to occur, it requires insights to be thought through, actions to be innovative and coordinated, and each team member to understand the role they're required to play. Group learning occurs as members of a group discover how to contribute to performance. Team members learn from each other, share goals and place value on member interaction. Organizational learning refers to ongoing processes which facilitate individuals and groups to learn. It occurs where there is a shared understanding in the whole organization. According to Starbucks and Whalen (2008), organizational learning is information, insights, knowledge and mental models of members. Further a study by Bryson, Crosby, and Stone, (2006) discovered that the organization’s provision of capability development opportunities as well as an individual’s proactive behavior had an impact on employees’ motivation to engage in learning at their workplace. Institutionalization is the process of embedding learning that has occurred by the individuals and group into the organization through knowledge acquisition, information distribution, information interpretation and organizational memory.