Difference between Organisational Learning and a Learning Organization

This report explores the difference between organisational learning and a learning organization, with a focus on Tesco as a case study. It explains the theories of organizational learning and the features of a learning organization. The report also discusses the importance of learning for employees and the company's growth and success. The subject is BSc (Hons) Business Management Top up, course code BMP6004.

BSc (Hons) Business Management Top up
BMP6004
Learning & Development
Critical evaluation of the difference
between organisational learning and a
learning organization
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Contents
1

Introduction p -3
An Explanation of organiational learning p-3
An Explanation of learning organisation p-4
Difference between organisational learning and a learning
organization p-5
Conclusion p-9
References p-11
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Introduction
It is a systematic process to build employees knowledge, skills and capability to
empower them in order to increase its market share which is a function of human
resource management. For the present report, the tesco company is taken in
consideration it is multinational retail store company which deals in general
merchandise and groceries. It was established by Jack Cohen in 1919 at London,
England. In this the company will use organisational learning which help to increase
the efficiency of its employees by giving proper training and conducting development
programmes (Al-Emran and Teo, 2020). Its various forms and objectives are
discussed below. In addition to this, it will also explain the learning organisation by
which it will help to increase its market share and expands its business nationally
and internationally. Apart from this difference between organisational learning and a
learning organization will also be mentioned below with its learning theories and
modules.
An Explanation of organiational learning
An organisational learning is the process to increase efficiency by gaining
knowledge, giving proper training and development programme to its employees
which enhance in profitability and gaining market share. There are various forms of
learning like individual learning, continuous learning, learning from the leadership,
team learning, learning through empowerment, inserted learning system, inquiry
learning etc. Its objective is to increase the productivity and level of efficiency and
promotes efficiency gains (Froehlich and Carbonell, 2022). It improves and gains
the ability of team and individuals to accept changes successfully. Learning can be
done by gathering information by the teams because of higher responsibilities.
According to organisational learning it take time to learn lessons that defaulter can
teach.
Importance of organisational learning:
 By the help of help of learning it increases job satisfaction of employees.
 It increased the productivity, efficiency, profitability and market share of the
company.
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 It creates equal environment so that equal exchange of information can be
contribute in a substantial manner.
 It develops leaders at all levels so that it creates balance and not spread of
misinformation.
For example in context to tesco, it provide training and development
programme on a regular basis to its employees which helps in the better
performance, higher production level at optimum utilisation of resources. It helps in
better understanding as the technology is changing rapidly which enhance their skills
and efficiency in production (Walker, Thomas, and Driska, 2018). Through learning
it helps to generate more profits for the company and increases market share in the
market. The company tesco it helps to gain the knowledge of its employees through
communication and discussion and it helps to build a strong relationship between its
colleagues, subordinates and top level management. It provides various
development opportunities to its workers through various programmes like fun
activities in the office at weekends, skill development programmes etc. Knowledge
can gained from various systems like learning management systems, work flow
system, operational system etc. It minimises the employee turnover rate in an
organisation by the help of learning. In the big organisation like tesco it helps in
increasing production level, profitability, market share and boost employees morale
which is effectively done by organisational learning.
An Explanation of learning organisation
It refers to an organisation where people continually expand their capacity to learn,
adapt and change. It operates in a changing environment as there is continuous
innovations in technology and informations. The world has become global and
customers are spread worldwide which helps the company to expand its business
and earn profit. It learns and apply new concepts have head over its competitors. It
can be done by company in order to expand its business globally and increase its
market share, profitability and build brand image of the company in national and
international market. It can be attained by applying different types of motivation
theory.
Features of learning organisations:
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 It learns from its own experiences and try to overcome from the problem that
company is suffering.
 It maintain continuous development programmes and solve the problems in a
systematic manner and techniques.
 It provides a healthy environment and identifies needs and develop skills
through training.
 It improves the long term decision making and knowledge sharing.
Learning organisation is also known as systems thinking as this developed
from the body of work (Hover and Wise, 2022). It promote the learning of its
members and continuously changes itself for the expansion of company and helps to
increase its market share and profitability.
For example in context to Tesco, to expand its business and profitability in the
market it learns from its own experience and try to overcome from the problems by
proper training and development programmes and adapt latest technology and
informations which keep the company updated in comparison to its competitors. Now
a days, customers are spreading worldwide and the world has become global it is a
great opportunities for the company to improve its skills. It can be improved by
providing healthy environment and identifies needs and wants to develop skills
through training. Other than training and development tesco also engages in
economic rewards to the employees by giving paid leaves, benefit packages and
flexible working hours which keeps the morale high of its workers (Li and et.al.,
2019). It is important for the company as it help to forecast their productivity and
provides effective learning. It puts direct impact on company's growth and success
by creating a learning culture. It can improves its long term decision by improving
communication skills within its employees this activity is performed by human
resource management of the company.
Difference between organisational learning and a learning
organization
Organizational learning and learning organization seems to be similar as they
both involve learning but there is difference between them. Learning has become
most popular because of the changing environment. Administration are becoming
more and more combative by adopting various strategies so that they can get better
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from each other. Learning structure is the process of change whereas organizational
learning is the process where strategies are made and implemented throughout a
business concern so that they can run business according to the changing
environment and remain ion the competition. So, the difference between learning
organization and organization learning are described as under:
Basis Organization learning Learning organization
Definition It is the process of improving
actions through better
knowledge and understanding. It
makes strategies to enhance
their capacity and adjust with the
changing circumstances(Verma,
2019). The employees work on
the basis of their experience
which they learn from the day to
day activities so that they can
handle the different situation
when arise in future.
It is the process where
employee are liable to improve
their skills, capacities and
cognitive development within an
entity by different prospect
such as building capability and
sharing of knowledge. When a
business concern emphasize
the employees to continuously
develop their capacities to
handle the various business
state of affairs is considered as
learning organization.
Learning An organization enables the
employees to learn from the
various circumstances that
occurs while handling the
business activities. This enhance
the experience of the employees
on which basis they work. The
experience which they gain by
handling typical condition
increase their cognition and
capabilities.
A business concern provide
training and organize
development programs so they
can enhance their skills and
knowledge. This will result in
improving the performance of
the staff and better outcome.
The company defines the
specific method top perform
different task in a premises so
that they can maintain the
accuracy of the work and
perform in an efficient manner.
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Focus It mainly focuses on the learning
by experiences and knowledge
gathering from day to day
activities so that they can get the
best outcome. An entity
concentric how the goal of the
organization can be achieved
and in which manner.
It mainly focuses on learning to
enhance the competencies and
make employees enable to
achieve the objectives of the
business. A business concern
concentrates on the purposes
and processes adopted for
getting the better results.
Manager's
responsibility
In organization learning the
manager make the subordinates
responsible by assigning them
task and make them accountable
for the responsibility. All the
employees are liable to perform
better and give their best results
by performing various tasks. The
goals are set in a smart way so
that the employees are able to
achieve in a specific and defines
time period.
In learning organization, a
manager is responsible to
develop the abilities of the
subordinates. This can be done
by providing them training which
help in developing various skills
and improve their
performance(Leithwood,and
Louis, 2021). The employees
also get motivated with the
development program and
assist them in career evolution.
Thus, on the above basis an organization learning can be compared with the
learning organization. The learning of both help in gaining the competitive advantage
and adjust with the changing need or requirement of the persons.
Organizational learning theories
Organisational learning theories refers to the process of developing, retaining
and transferring knowledge within an organisation. An organisational learning occurs
on the basis of the experiences which the employees learn from fall out of different
circumstances. This is the most important concept where the employees learn from
the mistakes in which the error are identified so that they can be corrected in a
predefined manner. Learning also occur when the workers interact with each other
and share their ideas and knowledge that help them in performing their work(Park
and Kim, 2018). These interaction defines the behaviour of the company where the
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people interact with one another within an organisation. This also includes dedication
to improve the job performance and increase their job satisfaction, promote
innovation and encourage leadership. There are three level learning of an
organisation which are depicted as under:
Single loop learning: This is a learning where adjustment are made to
correct the mistakes and focused on the right way of doing things. However this
ignore the real cause of the problem because the organisation modify their action
according to the difference between expected outcome with the achievable. They
observe th present situation and the problem arises and strive to correct them
without knowing the real cause.
Double loop learning: This learning estate the modification of goals or the
decisions that can be done on basis of experiences. In this the mistakes are
corrected by changing the frameworks through various assumption which help in
better decision making in the daily operations.
Triple loop learning: This learning assists in understanding the organisation
where it focuses on the single and double loop learning. This help in understanding a
bushiness concern pictures, problem and the solutions that are linked together. This
provide assistance how to learn by reviewing the previous actions which enable to
solve the current situations(Qi, and Chau, 2018). Thus an organisation can attain its
goal with the help of these learning levels.
There are many theories of organization learning which explains that how learning
occurs that are explained below:
Classical organizational theory: In this theory organization is seen as
machine and the employee are seen as part of the machines. So, it is important to
make the employee more proficient in order to increase the efficiency of the
organization. There are six main pillars of thei theory which are as under:
Division of labour: The work must be divided among the workers so that the
performance of the employees can be improved by specializing the task.
Departmentalization: The administration must group the activities and job into
the departments which help in minimizing the cost and facilitates the control of the
administration(Xie, 2019).
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Coordination: An entity must ensures the harmony among workers so that the
group of efforts can be arranged in a proper manner which help in achieving the goal
of the organization.
Scalar and functional process: It is the series which define the relationship of
superiors and subordinates from top to bottom in an organization.
Structure: this is the logical function which define the relationship to achieve
the objective in an effective manner.
Span of control: The subordinates must be supervise effectively to get the
effective output.
Neo classical organizational theory: This theory mainly focus on the
psychological and mechanical variable of organization function. There is much
attention in the human being and their behavior in an organization. There are some
proposition of this theory such as an firm is a social system and several interacting
parts. Human beings are independent and their behavior is predicted whether social
and psychological. Motivation is the highly complex process where the people are
motivated by analyzing the psychological factors. The conflicts generally arise
between the organization and the individuals.
Modern organization theory: This theory is consist of two theories name as
contingency theory and system theory where the description is given as under:
Contingency theory: There is no particular action or organizational design that
may be considered as appropriate for all the situation. It maintains the sub system
for making the coordination among the people so that they can be fitted in their
functional roles(Voogt, Lagerweij, and Louis,2021). This can be influenced by
various factors such as technology, environment, size of operation and people.
System approach: This theory considers the organization as a system which
may be open system and closed system. It maintains the sub system for making the
coordination among the people so that they can be fitted in their functional roles.
Conclusion
From the above discussion, it has been concluded that organizational learning plays
an important role as it help them in gaining higher growth and success within an
organization. In addition to this, it is determined that learning organization facilitates
a company learning of employees continuously and transform it in an effective
manner. By the assistance of this, there are many benefits which is attained by a
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company that is increase in productivity and performance, improvement in brand
image, systematic execution of activities and many more. It is determined that it is
important for an organization to learn on a continuous basis as it help them to
transform in an effective manner. Moreover, it will also help in coping with the
changes in a timely and proper manner.
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References
Books & Journal
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reflective learning in the marketing education literature: A historical
perspective and future research needs. Journal of Marketing
Education, 40(2). pp.101-116.
Kim, G.B. And et.al., 2020. Machine learning applications in systems metabolic
engineering. Current opinion in biotechnology, 64, pp.1-9.
Peters, M. and Romero, M., 2019. Lifelong learning ecologies in online higher
education: Students' engagement in the continuum between formal and
informal learning. British Journal of Educational Technology, 50(4). pp.1729-
1743.
Tamis-LeMonda, C. S. and et.al., 2019. Early home learning environment predicts
children’s 5th grade academic skills. Applied Developmental Science, 23(2).
pp.153-169.
Vo, A. H. and et.al., 2019. An overview of machine learning and big data for drug
toxicity evaluation. Chemical research in toxicology, 33(1). pp.20-37.
Welisch, M. and Poudineh, R., 2020. Auctions for allocation of offshore wind
contracts for difference in the UK. Renewable Energy, 147, pp.1266-1274.
Verma, P., 2019. Learning Organization.
Leithwood, K. and Louis, K.S. eds., 2021. Organizational learning in schools. Taylor
& Francis.
Park, S. and Kim, E.J., 2018. Fostering organizational learning through leadership
and knowledge sharing. Journal of Knowledge Management.
Qi, C. and Chau, P.Y.K., 2018. Will enterprise social networking systems promote
knowledge management and organizational learning? An empirical
study. Journal of Organizational Computing and Electronic
Commerce, 28(1), pp.31-57.
Xie, L., 2019. Leadership and organizational learning culture: a systematic literature
review. European journal of training and development.
Voogt, J.C., Lagerweij, N.A. and Louis, K.S., 2021. School development and
organizational learning: Toward an integrative theory. In Organizational
learning in schools (pp. 237-258). Taylor & Francis.
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