Actividad instrumentada en la actividad experimental del péndulo.

The general view was that organisational learning is a core value within a learning culture that aims to continuously improve people’s knowledge, skills and capabilities and enable them to be professional in their work. A learning culture is generated through the practice of OL and learning becomes a continuous process. A health industry’s respondent explained;

“…the learning culture is part of our core values. This culture [learning] continuously improves our knowledge and makes our organisation become professional. To us, learning culture and OL is the same and this is the culture that we want to develop in our organisation, whereby learning is a continuous [non stop] process. No matter how much we have learned there is still more to learn” (H1, 2004).

The concept of OL is important, especially when the organisation’s survival depends on the speed of learning. For example;

“…the [OL] concept is important. The importance depends on the individuals - on what they [the organisation] really want to produce out of this” (M18, 2004).

For this reason, it is important to determine which group of employees, such as clerical staff, middle management or top management staff, should acquire knowledge

to ensure any knowledge gained is widely spread. The employees’ readiness, promptness in applying the knowledge and reaction to mistakes are factors that assist the application of OL. Organisational learning needs to be applied to enable knowledge transfer, to develop and retain good employees.

Many respondents perceived that the bottom line regarding OL is the applicability or usability of the knowledge gained. Only then will it result in the highest value returns to the business operations:

“…our own [OL] concept is related to what we are looking at and that is what we are producing and what we are doing. Then we will focus our learning based on our production. This kind of [OL] concept is very broad” (M12, 2004).

The process of learning incurs substantial costs to an organisation in terms of time, money and effort. It can also be perceived as an interruption to business performance as well as the stability of the organisation. Close relationships between the learning objectives, the business’ strategies, operational efficiency and industry focus give the best return on investment (ROI). Learning needs to be part of the organisations mission, vision and objectives if it is to be a good fit to business operations. Thus, learning and an effectively designed learning program is needed to attain practical and useable knowledge. Furthermore the concept;

“…should reflect the culture of the company from the top to the bottom” (M1, 2004).

Organisational learning as it is practised was also explained as an on going activity whereby learning of new knowledge and skills is always important and necessary. In fact, as one respondent pointed out, learning happens throughout our daily life and is not bound by time, place or space.

“Learning is either hard skills or soft skill but you learn every day and all the time. The most important thing in practice is to shape your mindset” (M1, 2004).

The whole of the organisation needs to be included in OL. Organisations consist of various departments. For example, in a university there is a chancellery, finance and accounting, student affairs department and others. Therefore, according to the government respondent:

“The faculty, the professor, the VC, and the whole range of specialized areas must be exposed and incorporated into the learning processes” (G3, 2004).

At the same time, different areas of specialization might also need specialization in terms of their learning methods and approaches. For example;

“The university believes that everyone should begin with the general idea because this [the university] is a knowledge factory and people must have passion for their respective function. For instance, the general ground worker, philosophical thinker, or people in the maintenance department need to continue to improve capability and capacity in the matter of either their work and research and development” (G3, 2004).

Therefore, OL is considered to be more than just skills development and improvement. Organisational learning is a medium to enhance and rebuild capability and capacity within the working environment to achieve the company’s mission, vision and objectives. This government respondent said;

“In the university case, the ideas and the objectives of OL are far into the abstraction of getting knowledge and there is no end to it. Meaning that there would be no end to OL. Therefore it is impossible to just maintain and retain at that level of skills” (G3, 2004).

Another respondent believed that learning occurred in his organisation in three discreet stages, as is summarized below;

“…learning is in 3 stages: beginning, mid-term and long term. Beginning [stage] is when they [the new employees] come in without knowledge or maybe with trivial knowledge. At the beginning this company starts to impart the knowledge to the new employees through the induction program, OJT, and coaching from their superiors. The middle stage is where the employees are transmitted for external or internal training and expected to come back with ideas for improvement. Here, the improvement doesn’t only refer to training but the superiors’ coaching and the employee’s own ability and initiative are included. Long-term learning is more on innovation, creativity, ideas and so forth. Long-term learning is aiming for employee knowledge development and skills enhancement to fulfil the career succession plan requirements. Thus, it demands the employees’ innovation and creativity. Most of the time coaching and internal training are the main tools to achieve that” (M1, 2004).

This respondent also indicated that in his organisation, OL is closely related and very relevant to the organisations’ strategy.

“To me, to acquire knowledge is to meet the company’s strategy” (M1, 2004).

In short, OL is linked to the planned and future strategy of the organisation. This implies that OL was viewed as important to the success, growth and survival of the organisation. This kind of understanding should make organisations become more motivated to operationalise OL.