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Examples are very important especially when one wants successful implementation. From the examples, others can make judgements, to evaluate and predict the outcome of adopting a new strategy or system into the organisation. The same applies to the OL. Therefore, some examples were collected throughout the interview process to describe how OL is being practised in Malaysian companies. These experiences draw from the three industry sectors that participated in the study.

The first example is from one of the government organisations. The respondent, G7 (2004) explained an OL activity aimed at newly employed staff. New staffs are sent to a basic program that explains about their department, as well as other divisions or departments as part of an orientation program. General information that is given in the basic program is then narrowed down specifically to their working department, their duties and responsibilities. In addition, all employees are sent to other training programs from time to time to enhance their knowledge, skills and competencies. These training programs are carefully matched to the employees’ needs in regards to

Another example from a government respondent claimed that job rotation was an example of OL activity in their organisation. This respondent said;

“I have been rotated in a few different divisions, such as the housing department as my first job, followed by finance department and currently in the HR department. Job rotation is one of the HR department concerns to enhance the employee’s competencies, knowledge and skills” (G8, 2004).

A manufacturing respondent cites another example. This respondent said an example of an OL activity is where staff members form a committee for a certain project. For instance, this organisation possessed a Continuous Improvement Project (CIP) team. The project team consists of engineers, production executives and Quality Assurance (QA) Officers, who sat together brainstormed among themselves, in order to run the project. The team has a daily meeting to discuss and brainstorm about the project - to come out with a solution or to increase the capacity of production. The participating employees will gain various experiences, skills and knowledge throughout the project. The respondent further explained;

“Usually the project team will come out with something new, for example, designing a ‘tool’ or changing some production materials or throw out what is unnecessary. The project team will test the solution obtained to see the feasibility and reliability of their findings. After that, they will call the supervisors to explain the findings. Following the explanation, the supervisor will make the decision either to opt for the new improvement or not” (M5, 2004).

Knowledge acquisition via the customer was another example of an OL activity given by a manufacturing respondent. This respondent explained that;

“…we also learn from our customers. For example when we have a Japanese customer we have to learn the Japanese culture and other matters related to their expectations and requirements. All these are then put together and become an organisational learning…” (M12, 2004).

This example was supported by a government respondent who suggested that a dialogue with the customer or user was a tool to acquire knowledge as part of the OL activity (G6 2004).

Setting up a resource centre in the organisation was also viewed as another example that supported OL implementation. One company had a resource centre that is open to all employees throughout their working hours and provides all sorts of sources of information, such as books, videos and internet access. For example;

“… [We] set up the resources centre - where we purchase books of all categories. For example self motivation, management and some story books for operators for them to start the reading habit. These books hopefully are able to change their mind set, then we will start seeing the changes” (M2, 2004).

Another example cited was a learning collaboration program with external learning institutions. By providing an opportunity to obtain higher qualifications this collaborative program aims to assist employees’ career development, promotional and salary increment opportunities. The following is a statement from the respondent;

“We also tie up our [learning] programs with PSDC [the technical development centre] to develop skills and knowledge of our current operators to be technicians in the future. We want to have a university kind of environment so that the learning culture will be practiced here” (M2, 2004).

E-learning is also another approach to promoting OL as it allows the employees to gather information easily. For example, a manufacturing respondent said;

“…with an e-learning program, the employees will do their study on their own time, at their own pace and at any time, 24 hours a day” (M4, 2004).

Another government respondent viewed both internal and external training courses as examples of OL in operation. This respondent said;

“… instead of sending ASTS [staff] overseas for study and come back, we are also conducting a learning package, like learning for specific skills, such as the technicians. Whenever staff need some exposure to the new technology then we will do it just for a short course, like a one month or two month program. That one is very important” (G2, 2004).

Last but not least, another example of OL is benchmarking. Benchmarking can occur either manually or electronically. For instance, a government respondent explained;

“…like benchmarking matters, we are learning from other people in order to enhance the skills of our people in this organisation. We have

to do that to gather all the knowledge, all the information, to complement and strengthen the present process” (G9, 2004).

In conclusion, the activities described above demonstrate successful cases of OL and how knowledge is acquired the betterment of the organisation and show that OL is being adopted by Malaysian organisations. These success stories are occurring for a number of reasons and the next section discusses the direct and indirect forces that are urging organisations to implement OL. In addition, this next section discusses the impacts of practising and implementing OL.