From Individual Learning to Organizational Learning

In this section the features of learning starting from an individual and ending to an organization are explored. The section will show that most of the learning theories seem to apply the theory of knowledge conversion of Nonaka and Takeuchi and emphasize the meaning of past experience with the help of which new knowledge is created according to autopoietic epistemology.

The need for organizational learning is based on continuous change around and inside the organizations. It is widely agreed that learning consists of two kinds of activity. According to Senge (1990), they are generative (active) and adaptive (passive) learning. The first kind of learning is obtaining know-how in order to solve specific problems based upon existing premises. The second kind of learning is establishing new premises (i.e. paradigms, schemata, mental models) to override the existing ones. From the viewpoint of Nonaka et al. (1995), the creation of knowledge involves interaction between these two kinds of learning processes, which forms a kind of dynamic spiral.

In order to understand how organizations learn, the issue of individual learning is explored and then the complexity of an organizational setting is added. Therefore, the starting point in that understanding should be the learning of human being. Through learning processes individuals develop new understandings, and research in the field of cognitive and behavioral sciences describes this process as involving the acquisition and interpretation of knowledge (Lindsay et al., 1977). The process does not need to be conscious or intentional, like it mostly is in the benchmarking process, nor does it always increase the learner’s effectiveness or result in observable changes in behavior (Friedlander, 1983). Learning tends to occur through processing of information and changing one’s “cognitive maps or understandings” (Friedlander, 1983) and as a result the range of one’s potential behavior changes (Huber, 1991).

Thus, learning has to be linked to a change in an individual’s interpretation of events and action (c.f. autopoietic epistemology). The product of the individual process of interpretation is a change in individual beliefs or schemata and individual behavior. This means that individual

59 learns through developing different interpretations of new or existing information and thereby developing a new understanding of surrounding events (Lyles et al., 1996).

Learning from past events is a frequently applied way to increase the ability for problem solving. It has been shown that people use past situations or cases as models when learning to solve problems. It can further be described as a cyclic and integrated process of solving a problem, learning from this experience and solving a new problem. (Lyles et al., 1996) Now it can be asked if this theory is applicable also in benchmarking process when learning is supposed to happen from the solutions of other’s problems.

What is thus organizational learning? Cohen et al. (1990) emphasize that organizational learning is different than the sum of individual learning. Organizations represent patterns of interactions among individuals, especially through communication, and therefore learning in organizations to a large extent depends on the ability to share common understandings so as to exploit it (Daft et al., 1984). It has been suggested that organizational learning involves at least four phases: information acquisition, information distribution, information interpretation, and information storage in organizational memory, including knowledge retrieval (Huber, 1991).

The link between individual and organizational learning is tied to the context of group learning according to Crossan et al. (1992). The concept of individual learning should be embedded in the context of group learning, which in turn should be embedded in a concept of organizational learning.

Fig. 3.3 Learning levels influencing formation and management of cooperations (cf. Lyles et al., 1996, p.86, modified)

Organizational learning Process: Institutionalizing Outcome: organizational

knowledge structures, shared frames of reference

Group learning Process: integrating

individual beliefs

Outcome: shared belief

structures

Individual learning Process: interpreting;

recalling past events

Outcome: schemata and

scripts

Organizational learning Process: Institutionalizing Outcome: organizational

knowledge structures, shared frames of reference

Group learning Process: integrating

individual beliefs

Outcome: shared belief

structures

Individual learning Process: interpreting;

recalling past events

Outcome: schemata and

scripts Formation and management of interorganizational cooperation Individual relationships

60 Figure 3.3 presents the learning levels of organizations; their processes and outcomes. When examining this figure and the whole organizational learning theory, it is interesting to notice how well the Nonaka and Takeuchi’s model follows the learning theory.

The whole process starts with the individual learning phase when individuals learn through developing different interpretations of new or existing information and developing a new understanding of surrounding event as well as using past situations or cases as models when learning to solve problems. This is the phase happening in every organization. This phase can be considered also as a socialization phase in the knowledge spiral of Nonaka and Takeuchi. It can also be reflected to the ontological dimension in the theory of knowledge creation of Nonaka and Takeuchi.

Because organizations represent patterns of interactions among individuals, especially through communication, and therefore learning in organizations to a large extent depends on the ability to share common understandings so as to exploit it, also benchmarking process executes this theory in performing discussions and communication between members in organizations but also between members and groups of different organizations as will be examined later in this study. According to Nonaka and Takeuchi’s knowledge creation theory, this happens during externalization phase as well as combination phase, respectively. In Figure 3.3 both group and organizational learning are produced now. By adding the arrows inside the boxes in Figure 3.3, the correspondence of Figure 3.3 to the learning process of Nonaka and Takeuchi is improved.

In this section, the features of learning starting from an individual and ending at an organization have been explored. Most of the learning theories seem to apply the theory of knowledge conversion of Nonaka and Takeuchi and emphasize the meaning of past experience with the help of which new knowledge is created according to autopoietic epistemology. This section raises a question about a possibility to learn from others experiences instead of own past experience. Before searching an answer to that question the factors that act as enablers in knowledge creation process will be examined in Section 3.5.