Organizational Learning as a Precondition for Innovative Process Development

Viktória Dolinská
(Ekonomická fakulta UMB v Banskej Bystrici, Slovakia) [Bio]
viktoria.dolinska@umb.sk

Martin Dolinský
(Paneurópska vysoká škola v Bratislave, Slovakia) [Bio]
dolinsky7@gmail.com

 

Abstract

In a contemporary world of business, entrepreneurs or managers of any kind have to deal with a constant change on a daily basis. According to some opinions, only those will succeed who would like to pursuit differentiation strategy instead of low cost strategy. The future belongs to compettitive differentiators and sustained value creators. Whilst for the old economy were typical rare and and slow changes mostly on operational level, the new economy is characterized by fast and frequent changes on operational and strategic level. That’s why we aimed our research at knowledge sharing culture where the importance of managers equals to the importance of every signgle employee (operational and strategic level) because the role of manager in a learning organization is to facilitate and create conditions supporting the potential of self-acualizing employee. As it is weel known, on our way towards innovative economy, we are beying headed by a shifts from standardization to sefl-actualization, from analytical to holistic and from local to global or even “glocal”. There are changes on all levels and all directions all the time typical for the Innovative economy. The learning organization brings the guidelines for a human capital development in order to reach the maximum performance of a given organization. Because for the innovative economy is typical that the importance of a human capital prevails the importance of an economic capital. Today, the innovativeness goes together with productivity and profitability.

Key words

Knowledge management – learning culture – learning organization – corporate culture

Introduction

Responsibility of managers for human resources and the application of their knowledge is increasing nowadays. As P. Drucker (1993, 2004) states, qualified experts, known as knowledge managers, able to introduce and spread the knowledge within an organization so that it is used in the most productive way are about to appear soon. The role of a manager is to facilitate and create conditions supporting the potential of self-actualizing employees. At the same time such a manager is also the one who creates and implements new visions and strategies. One of the conditions of the knowledge management introduction and functioning is so called „knowledge-sharing culture“, i.e. the culture of knowledge and information common creation. Employees are willing to share their knowledge and experience with their associates and thus reach desirable profit for the whole company. It is typical for the process that it is practically unlimited and it is also able to last as a consequence of a human knowledge permanent extension and perfection as well as the ability to share the knowledge.

In our research we have focused on the working environment of a given railway joint-stock company in which managers on different levels of management have been addressed. We have introduced the model of diagnosing a level of culture in a  learning organization . Our model represents a simplified scheme of a certain sector of reality. The comparison of the opinions of the company managers participating in the research and opinion disagreements in their responses brought interesting results for both researchers and research participants. In consequence, the head of a personnel department expressed interest in the research results and their presentation to employees.

The original questionnaire contained 50 questions. Nevertheless, we decided to include only some of the researched problems in this article so as not to break the internal agreement between the personnel department of a given joint-stock company and the research team.

Not all organizations are able to follow current trends and support changes. Therefore they very often become the organizations unable to create a learning culture. Externally they try to present existing problems as temporary, they do not inform their employees on lower levels sufficiently, they do not trust one another and they also suffer from the lack of strategic thinking. The implementation of the separate phases of culture creation in a learning organization in the conclusion of our research supposes the elimination of the problems in the researched joint-stock company. The fact may lead to a gradual change from its typical culture into a learning organization culture.

Theory versus practice

At the beginning of the research it was necessary to find out whether new trends in the market are regularly evaluated by the researched joint-stock company. 1

Considering opinions of several managers, our respondents, the situation in new trends evaluation proves to be on an adequate level. Nonetheless, there still exists some space for the improvement of current situation, judging from the fact that none of the managers decided to denote option 5 („fully conforms“) on the evaluation scale.

New ways of managerial thinking in permanently changing environment mean not only the emphasis on both quality and productivity but on the ability of being flexible and able to do things in a different and better way as well. The new conception of learning organization recognizes the power of team-work leading through empowerment, i.e. giving employees job-related competences, and learning organization representing an organizational system permanently ensuring the process of learning for its members so that they could change and improve themselves (Gilgeous, 1997, p.287). As managers in the researched company say, all their employees are given an optimal possibility to present their ideas (Fig. 1).

Changes towards plural democracy and market economy that our society is coming through now represent the changes in economic, social and political areas (Kontrikova, Biris, 2008, p. 91). This means also a challenge for an organization and its transformation into a learning one. Consequently, it is unevoidable to harmonize the requirements of a job market with general global trends in society, economy and information technologies development. In the process of managing the changes numerous difficulties may appear. We tend to prefer the definition of the difficulties arising in managing changes as they are specified by Pettigrew (1990, In Brooks, 2003, p. 296). The author introduces some reasons why the change is so complicated:

  1. Different cultural levels

  2. Presence of culture in any organizational activity

  3. Implicitness. It is difficult to change the matters which are implicitly a part of a human thinking and behaviour and which seem to be obvious

  4. Socialization. Culture has deep historical roots

  5. Political aspect. A company culture is very closely connected with the culture of power sharing in an organization, and certain powerful structures are interested in the retention of current opinions and behaviour

  6. Plurality. There exist more cultures and subcultures within an organization which are reflected in certain habits and ways of behaviour in the organizations.

Fig. 1

Any change of an organizational culture, organizational knowledge culture coordination and formation are first of all the responsibility of top managers in such an organization. The cultural changes in an organization are usually accompanied by numerous difficulties related to the substance of an organizational culture itself. Therefore it is important to support employees in their attempts to learn new things and acquire new abilities as it was confirmed by a number of positive reactions presented by the managers of the resaearched company. (Biris, 2010, p. 478)

Knowledge, abilities and skills recently represent not only a strategic tool and competitive advantage but at the same time a primary profitableness factor. Neither the access to unique sources nor their possession are sufficient enough to retain a permanent competitive advantage. Ability to exploit the sources as well as exchange of job experience are also desirable. Judging from the prevailing options 2 and 3 denoted by our respondents on the evaluation scale there exist some reserves in this area.

Knowledge management, intellectual capital, learning organization, cybernetics, artificial intelligence and others belong to new theories which perceive knowledge as a key element of

any competitive advantage. For our purposes we have focused on the problems of learning organization interconnected with knowledge management and intellectual capital. We also advert to the possibilities of the theory implementation in a researched company. As it can be seen from the following bar chart, in the process of presenting employees the new stimuli it would be necessary for top managers to pay more attention to the problerm.

Learning organization conception is closely connected with knowledge management. They have some common characteristics as they emphasize the importance of  knowledge potential in an organization and require higher adaptability, changes in managerial styles, participation in knowledge transfer. Contemporary perception of knowledge is closely connected with the development of information technologies in the second half of the 20th century. The technologies may also be called knowledge technologies. The first theorists who denoted knowledge as an important asset for the future of a society (K. Arrow, F. Hayek, P. Drucker, J. Tobin at al.) were already known in the 60th of the previous century. A new systematic discipline known as knowledge management is formed. The knowledge management comprises a number of procedures applied by companies in the process of identification, creation, acquirement, expression and distribution of the knowledge which is due to be destined for repeated usage, awareness and learning. The knowledge acquired by an organization should not appear in the future again. Therefore it is necessary to create databases, intranet, the system of managing documents, to use the Wikis databasis or some others in such an organization.

Following figure (2) points out that there exist some reserves in the area of the employees´ exchange of experience. Therefore managers on different levels should pay much more attention to this particular aspect.

Fig. 2

Knowledge management includes systems and processes of gathering, selecting, storage and distribution of the knowledge already obtained by an organization and expected to be used repeatedly. As the research results show, the system suffers from the lack of interconnection

with a company strategy. External isolation and the absence of cooperation with both domestic and foreign subsidiaries appear to be another deficiency. As the respondents mention, they are insufficiently supplied with the information about external environment (including the foriegn one) – see Fig.2.

Culture is one of the most important factors for running a company. In case of a strong corporate culture it proves to be much more effective to reach both settled targets and a company effectiveness through the development of both external and internal environment. As for our respondents, their company has some reserves especially in the area of information availability and its further processing into an information system (Fig. 2).

Professional growth of expatriates does not belong to the strengths of Slovak working environment. The fact is proved by our research as well, because majority of respondents reactions can be found between the values 1 – 3 on the evaluation scale.

Inseparable part of a learning organization creation in a foreign working environment is also expatriants education and their preparation for working and living in a different culture. The fact contributes to the uniqueness of one´s own organizational culture and to the increase of its standard.

As it results from the previous statements, learning in the conception of a learning organization is not perceived as mere obtaining knowledge by means of studies but it is a process of permanent formation – bringing changes in a human behaviour through the influence of new experience obtaining. By means of such learning individuals can transform themselves, they acquire the ability to do something that they have not been able to do before. While obtaining the new experience the individuals can enlarge their abilities to create things, they may become a part of a fruitful lifetime (Senge, 2007, p. 230).

The learning organization conception in principle excludes the elements of previous conceptions and brings the guidelines for a human capital development in order to reach the maximum performance of a given organization. The development is enhanced by a learning mechanism which is able to improve itself permanently. Its implementation is especially suitable in the organizations providing services where direct communication with a client is prevailing. It is also adviseable in organizations where good team work and creativity are required. The factors may also serve as the basis for exchange of information and mutual help. This is the particular area in which the employees of a researched company should be paid much more attention than before.

As it stems from the final comparison of the statements presented by the researched  company managers, the most suitable method for further effective functioning of the railway joint-stock company may be the elaboration of the learning organization conception and its following concrete application in everyday practice. These are the particular steps that should be observed in the process:

  1. General Manager´s orientation in the UsO project2.

  2. Managerial teams in an organization and their orientation in the UsO project.

  3. Selecting a consultant who will participace in the project introduction

  4. The entire staff and their orientation in the project

  5. A team of lecturers creation

  6. Analysis of abstract modes within the teams

  7. Strategy of a learning organization culture creation and its visualization

  8. Personal development of all members of an organization and its processing

  9. Feedback system introduction and the evaluation of acquired knowledge practical application

Hypothetically it can be supposed that the first results of a suggested model of a learning organization creation will become explicit in 9 – 12 months. Next it is expected that the mechanism will be able to self-regulate and transform itself, which may take some 18 – 24 months. The periods may though be different as they depend on the overall organizational climate (in our case it is a joint-stock company) as well as on its strengths and weaknesses, on the ways of information gathering, discovering and solving problems, as well as verification of positive changes or the degree of a cultural safety. Safe culture according to Gomez (2001) appears as a result of positive attitudes of all participating employees towards their workplace. It comes into existence as a consequence of personal improvement, i.e. education throughout all the organizational levels and a feeling of responsibility towards an organization. Then it comes to a mutual control and search for faults.

As it is evident from the previous statements of our respondents, learning in the conception of a learning organization means not only acquiring knowledge by means of study, but it is a permanent process of formation which results in changing human behaviour through newly obtained experience. By means of such learning employees change themselves and obtain the ability to do something that they were not able to do in the past. In the process of obtaining such new experience the employees´ creativity is being extended and they become a part of a fruitful process of life in an organization.

Organizational culture may therefore be defined as a set of targets, values, customs, traditions, rules, norms, attitudes, beliefs, but also history or tangible elements of culture. The elements of culture are built up and developed by all the members of an organization. In that manner the members contribute to the development of both internal and external potentials of an organization and to its goodwill, too. Thus, building a desirable organizational culture is a long-lasting and demanding process which also comprises the acceptance and observation of ethical values contributing to the creation of positive and safe organizational culture. The values at the same time change into a survival strategy of an organization.

Conclusion

In conclusion it can be said that the creation of a learning organization in a Slovak multinational company cannot be perceived as a guarantee of increased organizational culture. Nevertheless, it is one of the best ways how to realize innovative ideas and how to create a culture of knowledge. It may also help in search for a uniqueness of one´s own culture. Learning in a company itself is also a kind of investment into future. In case of the existence of such learning in an organization it becomes a part of an organizational culture and the employees of such an organization accept it as a common value that should be developed in order to support the symbiosis of an organization and its employees. However, it is also connected with the fact to what extent employees appreciate the education and what is the attitude of managers in a given organization towards the education. In case of the respondents that participated in our research they realize the importace of the education and self-education of their joint-stock company employees . They also indicated the trends in their company towards a learning organization that are very similar to the trends in similar foreign institutions.

Literature

BIRIS, R. T. 2010. Wichtige Lernfaktoren im DaF Unterricht, in: Research, Education and Development, Ed. Rsisoprint, Cluj-Napoca, ISBN 978-973-53-0417-1.

KONTRIKOVA, I., BIRIS, R.T. 2008. Multikulturne vplyvy v. Europeskych regionoch Spis a Arad so zameranim na nemecke jazykove vplyvy, in: Germanistische Studien zur Sprache, Literatur und Didaktik, Presov, ISBN: 978-80-8068-815-8.

BROOKS, I. 2003. Firemní kultura. Brno: Computer Press, 2003. 296 s. ISBN 80-7226-763-9.

DRUCKER, P. 2004. To nejdůležitejší z Druckera v jednom svazku. Praha: Management Press, 2004. 304 s. ISBN 08-7261-066-X.

DRUCKER, P. 1993. Postkapitalistická společnost. Praha: Management Press. 1993. 128 s. ISBN 80-85603-00-4.

GILGEOUS, V. 1997. Operations and the Management of Change. New Yersey: Prentice Hall, 1997. 480 s. ISBN 027362501.

GÓMEZ, M. 2001. Eticko – podnikateľská kultúra. Bratislava: Sprint, 2001. 137 s. ISBN 80-88848-79-2.

SENGE, M. P. 2007. Pátá disciplína – Teorie a praxe učící se organizace. Praha: Management Press, 2007. 440 s. ISBN 978-80-7261-162-1.


1 Respondents answers range from 1 to 5 on the evaluation scale (1=fully mismatched, 5=fully matched)

2 Learning organization