BMP6004 - Organisational Learning vs a Learning Organization Review

This essay provides a critical evaluation of the differences between organisational learning and a learning organization, using ASDA and Tesco as examples. It begins by explaining organisational learning as a systematic process to enhance employee skills and knowledge, leading to increased market share and profitability, and discusses its various forms, objectives, and importance. The essay then explains the concept of a learning organization, which focuses on adapting, changing, and learning continually to expand business nationally and internationally, highlighting its five main characteristics: system thinking, mental models, personal mastery, shared vision, and team learning. Finally, it details the key differences between organisational learning and a learning organization, including their definitions, types, learning systems, manager accountability, focus, and nature, emphasizing the importance of both concepts in improving business performance and fostering a culture of continuous improvement.

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
Introduction p
An Explanation of organisational learning p
An Explanation of learning organisation p
Difference between organisational learning and a learning
organization p
Conclusion p
References p
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Introduction
Its objective is to change or develop the behaviour for an organisation or
individual to learn and grow. It is a systematic process to boost employees skills,
knowledge and capabilities which empower them to increase its market share and it
is a function of human resource management. The company will going to use
organisational learning which helps to gain efficiency by conducting various
development programmes and giving proper training to its employees. Its various
forms, objectives and importance are discussed in detail and in organisational
learning it will use asda company as an example (Dahl, Peltier and Schibrowsky,
2018). How the will use its organisational learning to increase the efficiency to gain
its market share. In addition to this, it will going to explain the learning organisation
which helps to expand and increase its market share nationally and internationally. It
will use tesco company as an example and how it uses learning organisation to
expand its business in global market. Apart from this there is difference between
organisational learning and learning organisation with its basis, learning theories and
modules which are discussed in detail below.
An Explanation of organizational learning
It is important for all the companies as it is a process to increase efficiency by
providing proper training and development programmes, giving proper knowledge
about the work which helps the organisation to gain its market share and profitability.
It strengthen the company as a whole as the retention, transfer of knowledge and
creation within the company. It gains experience and improves the overtime as the
knowledge is broad which could help the organisation in production efficiency to
create beneficial investor relations. It is divided into different communities of learning
that is individual, organisational, groups, inter organisational learning. Organisational
learning is a complex and broad concepts which has its impact on fields like
philosophy, psychology, business management and sociology etc. its objective is to
increase the level of efficiency, productivity and promotes efficiency gains. It is of
three types double loop learning, single loop learning and deutero learning. In double
loop learning, the company can detect and rectify the error and than can make
necessary changes in its entire strategies, assumptions and values that were
governing its actions till now which able to create productive and better environment.
In single loop learning,when an undesired and unexpected results leads to
modification in a strategy it includes a single feedback loop for error correction. At
the last in deutero learning when an organisation wants to improve the system itself
it deals in the process of learning system (Ganda, 2019). It includes structural and
behavioural components. Learning can be done by the teams by gathering
information because of higher responsibilities. There are various organisational
theories which an organisation should expand culture which prizes knowledge
sharing,at all level to encourage its employees on a regular basis to continue their
education, take time to learn lessons which failure can teach etc. There are three
process which occur in organisational learning that is knowledge retention,
knowledge creation and knowledge transfer. It is retained and is transferable within
the organisation to make sure the knowledge gained from this process. In
organisational learning there are three main actions to consider which are namely
act, conceive and reflect. The product or idea can be conceived, then it can create
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the product or an idea and at the end the company must reflect. Through this
process the outcome of learning will be occurred in an effective manner. It is an
important for every company as organisational learning helps to improves the
business and gain its experience to create knowledge.
importance of organisational learning:
 It increases the job satisfaction of employees by the help of learning.
 It evolve leaders at all the levels to create balance and reduce the spread of
misinformation.
 It develops the leaders at all levels and enhanced elasticity throughout the
organisation.
 To equal exchange of information it creates environment equally which can be
contributed in a substantial manner.
To react quickly in fast changing market conditions it increased the ability that
is why it is very important for an organisation. It is more competitive as an
organisation dedicate its resources and time in order to develop learning culture as
well as implementing organisational learning.
For example in context to ASDA, it provides developments and training
programmes to its employees on a regular basis which helps the company in its
better performance, higher production level at an optimum utilisation of resources. It
creates the better understanding of the technology as it changes rapidly and which
helps the organisation to enhance their skills and efficiency in production (Goodsett,
2020). By the help of learning it minimises the employees turnover rates of the
company. It is an useful process for the big companies like asda which boost the
employees morale, increase production level, profitability and its market share
effectively. A company started major leadership program which is engaging more
than 10000 mangers and leaders across UK whose objective is to develop and
create future leadership skills.
An Explanation of learning organisation
It refers to expand their capacity to adapt, change and learn continually in an
organisation. There is continuously changes in the environment as innovative
technology and informations tool places according to the time. It helps the
organisation to expand its business and earn maximum profit as the world has
become global and buyers are spread worldwide. In national and international
market it helps the company to increase its market share, profitability and build its
brand image in the market. Learning organisation has its five main characteristics
that is system thinking, mental models, personal mastery, shared vision and team
learning. In system thinking it allows public to study business as bounded objects. In
mental models it describe what people cannot or can detect and these are the
generalisations and assumptions held by an organisation. In personal mastery the
workforce can learn more quickly in comparison to others which is a competitive
advantage for the company. In shared vision, it provides energy for learning and
focus to create common identity (Grant, 2019). At last in team learning it shared and
creates learning in the staff quickly and helps in problem solving.
Features of learning organisations:
 It helps to solve the problems of company in an effective and systematic
manner.
 It improves the company in long term decision making and knowledge
sharing.
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 It helps the organisation as it learns from its own experiences and try to solve
the problems that a company is suffering.
It is the most important interference tool of organisational development as it
evolves in developing a company's capability to respond to changes. This is
developed from the body of work so that it is also known as system thinking. It helps
to increase the market share, profitability as it promotes learning of its members and
adapt the continuous changes took place for the expansion of the company.
For example in context to Tesco, the company learns from its own experience
and try to overcome the problem which can be done by providing proper training and
development programme. It adapts latest information and technology as it keeps the
company updated and increase the production by cost effectively in comparison to
its competitors. It is a global opportunity for tesco company to improve skills and its
market share as now a days customers are spreading worldwide and business has
an option to spread in world to increase the profit share in the global market. It gives
flexible working hours, benefit packages, giving paid leaves etc. other than training
and development as it keeps the high morale of its employees. This activity is
performed by human resource management of the company to improve
communication skills which helps the company to take its long term decisions. It
helps to forecast their productivity which is an important part as it is more service
oriented (Ishak, and et.al., 2018). To transforms itself it facilitate the learning
continuously of members. Company can improve knowledge sharing and by
becoming more people oriented so that it can improve its corporate image.
Difference between organisational learning and a learning
organisation
As discussed above, the organizational learning lays its importance on learning
things with the help of knowledge which is gained from the experience as well as day
to activities of the company. In addition to this, Learning organization concentrates
on learning by enhancing the abilities as well as competence level of the employees.
The following table shows the basic differences between organizational learning and
learning organization (Difference Between Organizational Learning and Learning
Organization,2019). The explanation is discussed below:
Basis Organizational learning Learning organization
Definition The organizational
learning is the type of
culture in which the
employees gather
information as well as
knowledge by performing
daily business activities
and after handling task in
various business
conditions.
On the other hand, the
learning organization is the
type of business culture in
which the manager of the
company is fully
accountable for
continuously developing
the employee skills and
knowledge in order to
make workers competent
enough to face complex
business situations without
much assistance.
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Type The organizational
learning basically follows
the process oriented
business activities(Xie,
2018).
The learning organization
basically follows the
structure oriented business
activities that can be
restructure according to
the new trends in business
environment.
Learning system The employees who falls
under organizational
learning type of culture
learns the skills from the
outcome of their activities
as well as through different
business situation. In
contrast to learning
organization culture, the
manager of the company
does not provides the
proper learning
environment for workers
which often leads to poor
performance as well as
lower motivation level to
perform job in best
manner.
The employees who
belongs to Learning
organization type of
business culture learns the
skills as well as
knowledge from the
training programs provided
by their senior managers.
This culture provides the
employees the proper as
well as dynamic working
situations from which they
can learn about how to
perform better even in
most difficult business
situations.
Manager accountability The responsibility of
manager in the
Organizational learning is
only limited to the
completion of business
objectives in the cost
effective as well as in
timely manner. In this less
measure is adopted by
managers in developing
knowledge of staff
members.
In the learning
organization, the activities
of the senior manager is
not limited to the
successful
accomplishment of
business tasks but also
prioritize in developing the
skill set of workers so that
they can take higher
responsibility in the most
appropriate manner(Park
and Kim, 2018).
Focus The main focus of the
organizational learning is
on the result of business
activities rather than
focusing on improving
employee performance. In
addition to this, the
manager in this type of
business culture only lays
there attention on the
The primary focus of
learning organization is to
redesign businesses
processes with respect to
the changes occurred in
external business
environment. The changes
can be the technological
change or any business
related change. Moreover,
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effective achievement of
short term or long term
business
objectives(Verma, 2019).
the main purpose of
learning organization is to
develop the skills of
workers by providing
immersive training
programs as well as
coaching sessions.
Nature The organizational learning
culture is more based on
objective based business
activities rather than
performance based which
may lead to the negative
impact on the performance
of the organization.
The learning organization
culture is focused more on
achieving business
objectives with greater
performance by improving
the skills and knowledge of
employees in order to
achieve greater profits. For
instance, the Apple
company adopts learning
organization culture which
supports the firm in
creating a competent
working environment in
order to boost knowledge
and skills of the staff
members of the company.
Goals The goals of the
organizational learning
lays its emphasis on the
management, knowledge
as well as skills learning of
human resources of the
company(Caputo and
et.al., 2019).
In contrast to
Organizational learning,
the learning organization
culture lays its attention on
improving the
organizational learning by
designing a working
environment that can
support employees to
increase their productivity
level as well their skills set.
Change acceptance In the organizational
learning culture, the rigid
as well as formal channels
of communication makes it
harder for employees as
well as for the company to
accept change in the
effective manner. Hence,
this can result in lower
performance as compared
to organization's that
adopts learning type of
culture. Thus, it cab be
The culture of learning
organization encourages
the employees to innovate
new business processes I
order to achieve efficiency
in the business operations.
In addition to this, due to
the adoption of open
communication channels
the change in this type of
culture is effectively carried
out with minimum
problems. Thus, this
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said that organizational
performance culture does
not welcome change in the
organization.
support the organization to
increase their competitive
position as well as
profitability in the market
by welcoming the
opportunities in the form of
change within company.
For example, General
Electric which is the
American multinational
organization practices the
learning organizational
culture within organization.
The adoption of this culture
has supported the
company to encourage
employees in providing
effective solutions to the
common business
problems and also assist
workers in making
constructive feedback of
their performance.
Conclusion
From the above learning and development programme it has been given a
brief explanation of organisational learning is described with its benefits, features
and its advantages with reference to asda company that how it helped to increase
the efficiency of its employees which helped in growth of its market and profitability.
Apart from this, it also has been given a brief explanation of learning organisation
and has given its features, types, advantages etc. (Karhade and et.al., 2019). It is
also explained in detail with the help of tesco company that how it can expand its
capacity in order to reach it globally to attain maximum profit which can be attain by
various training and development programmes. At last difference between
organisational learning and a learning organisation has discussed in detail with
various basis.
References
Online referencing :
Difference Between Organizational Learning and Learning Organization,2019.
(online). Available through:<https://www.differencebetween.com/difference-between-
organizational-learning-and-learning-organization/>
Books and Journals
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Caputo and et.al., 2019. A knowledge-based view of people and technology:
directions for a value co-creation-based learning organisation. Journal of
Knowledge Management.
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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.
Ganda, F., 2019. The impact of innovation and technology investments on carbon
emissions in selected organisation for economic Co-operation and
development countries. Journal of cleaner production, 217, pp.469-483.
Goodsett, M., 2020. Best practices for teaching and assessing critical thinking in
information literacy online learning objects. The Journal of Academic
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Grant, M. M., 2019. Difficulties in defining mobile learning: Analysis, design
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Ishak, S. and et.al., 2018. Amalan pembelajaran dan kesannya terhadap
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Park, S. and Kim, E.J., 2018. Fostering organizational learning through leadership
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