Human resource management practice I also available by michael armstrong

The notion of the learning 

organization

A  learning  organization  was  described  by  Senge 

(1990:  3),  who  originated  the  idea,  as  one ‘where 

people continually expand their capacity to create 

the results they truly desire, where new and expansive 

patterns of thinking are nurtured, where collective 

aspiration is set free, and where people are continually 

learning how to learn together’. Further definitions 

of a learning organization were provided by Wick 

and Leon (1995: 299), who stated that it was one 

that ‘continually  improves  by  rapidly  creating  and 

refining the capabilities required for future success’, 

and by Pedler et al (1997: 3), who referred to it as 

an organization that ‘facilitates the learning of all its 

members and continually transforms itself’. Garvin 

(1993)  suggested  that  learning  organizations  are 

good at doing five things:

1 

Systematic problem solving – which rests 

heavily on the philosophy and methods of 

the quality movement. Its underlying ideas 

include relying on scientific method rather 

than guesswork for diagnosing problems – 

what Deming (1986) called the ‘plan-do-

check-act’ cycle and others refer to as 

‘hypothesis-generating, hypothesis-testing’ 

techniques. Data rather than assumptions  

are required as the background to decision-

making – what quality practitioners call 

‘fact-based management’, and simple 

statistical tools such as histograms, Pareto 

charts and cause-and-effect diagrams are 

used to organize data and draw inferences.

2 

Experimentation – this activity involves the 

systematic search for and testing of new 

knowledge. Continuous improvement 

programmes – ‘kaizen’ – are an important 

feature in a learning organization.

3 

Learning from past experience – learning 

organizations review their successes and 

failures, assess them systematically and record 

the lessons learnt in a way that employees 

find open and accessible. This process has been 

called the ‘Santayana principle’, quoting the 

philosopher George Santayana who coined 

the phrase: ‘Those who cannot remember the 

past are condemned to repeat it.’