1. MANAGING ORGANIZATIONS
Session 12: Organization Learning & Knowledge Management
Sourav Mukherji
PGP 2012-14 Section C & E
Associate Professor of Organization & Strategy
Term 1:June-September 2012 Indian Institute of Management Bangalore, India

2. 2
PERSPECTIVES ON ORGANIZATION LEARNING
 Why is learning important for organizations?
 What impact is it having on organization structure and processes?
 When and how does an organization learn?
 How do you know that learning has happened?
 Do organizations learn or do individuals in organizations learn? How
is organizational learning different from individuals learning in
organizations?
 How can the process of organization learning be managed?
 How is learning related to knowledge, intellectual property?
© S Mukherji

3. ORGANIZATIONS LEARN TO DEAL WITH CHANGE, 3
TO IMPROVE AND TO COMPETE BETTER
Need for learning has induced structural changes
 Dynamic business conditions create problems
of hardwiring work processes into formal
structure and hierarchy
 Uncertainty has made it difficult to define
„one-best-way‟ of doing things
 Locus of decision making is coalescing with
locus of information acquisition and processing
From traditional hierarchies…
…to networked organizations
 Organizations are using semi-autonomous
temporary structures such as teams and task
forces to solve problems
 Knowledge intensive organizations prefer to
have flatter organizations with less hierarchy
 Onus of learning and problem solving
has now shifted to the individual employees
from the senior management
© S Mukherji

4. 4
LEARNING LEADS TO CHANGE IN BEHAVIOUR
Organization learning leads to improvement in performance
Cognitive change links learning
to behavioral change
New
Learning is linked to the concept of
mental models. In the organization context,
STIMULUS this is referred to as organization code,
theory of business and some aspects of
organization culture
Old
Organizations learn by changing their
Similar Different collective business models
BEHAVIOUR
Converting individual learning into organization
Which of the quadrants learning is one of the key challenges
above represents of building a learning organization
learning?
© S Mukherji

5. 5
ORGANIZATIONS LEARN IN VARIOUS WAYS
 Systematic problem solving
 Deming’s Plan-Do-Check-Act (PDCA)
 Hypothesis generation, testing and validation
 Error detection and correction / single loop and double loop learning
 Experimentation
 Exploration versus exploitation tradeoffs
 Incremental and disruptive innovations
 Learning from experience
 Organization memory
 Case studies, After Action Reviews
 Learning from success or failures
 Learning from others
 Transfer of best practices
 Acquisitions, grafting
© S Mukherji

6. 6
THREE BUILDING BLOCKS OF ORGANIZATIONAL LEARNING
1 A supportive learning environment
2 Concrete learning processes & practices
3 Leadership that reinforces learning
Source: “Is Yours a Learning Organization?” D A Garvin, A C Edmondson
& F Gino, Harvard Business Review, March 2008
© S Mukherji

7. 7
THREE BUILDING BLOCKS OF ORGANIZATIONAL LEARNING
1 A supportive learning environment Psychological safety
Appreciation of differences
2 Concrete learning processes & practices Openness to new ideas
Time for reflection
3 Leadership that reinforces learning
Source: “Is Yours a Learning Organization?” D A Garvin, A C Edmondson
& F Gino, Harvard Business Review, March 2008
© S Mukherji

8. 8
THREE BUILDING BLOCKS OF ORGANIZATIONAL LEARNING
1 A supportive learning environment Leaders actively question &
listen to employees
Leaders prompt dialogue &
2 Concrete learning processes & practices debate
Leaders entertain alternate
3 Leadership that reinforces learning point of views
Leaders encourage spending
time on problem identification
& reflection
Source: “Is Yours a Learning Organization?” D A Garvin, A C Edmondson
& F Gino, Harvard Business Review, March 2008
© S Mukherji

9. 9
THREE BUILDING BLOCKS OF ORGANIZATIONAL LEARNING
1 A supportive learning environment Generation of knowledge
Collection of information
2 Concrete learning processes & practices Transfer of information
Application of knowledge
3 Leadership that reinforces learning
This is the domain of organization‟s
knowledge management practices
Source: “Is Yours a Learning Organization?” D A Garvin, A C Edmondson
& F Gino, Harvard Business Review, March 2008
© S Mukherji

10. 10
What exactly is knowledge?
What is its relationship to learning?
How does one manage knowledge, as opposed to managing
data or information?
© S Mukherji

11. 11
FIRST INFLECTION POINT IN KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT
Organizations realize the need to customize knowledge
management efforts based on nature of knowledge
Significant part of knowledge is not easily amenable to
articulation or documentation. Such knowledge is
• complex, intangible and tacit
• architectural and systemic
• organizational specific • Less amenable to imitation
• contextually embedded or spillover
• causally ambiguous • Sustainable source of
• private and path dependent competitive advantage
• abstract and conceptual • Difficult to „manage‟ or „measure‟
• intuitive, expertise driven
• holistic & evolutionary
Such knowledge can only be shared or recreated by means of
people-to-people or social interactions
© S Mukherji

12. 12
CODIFICATION VERSUS PERSONALIZATION
Codifying knowledge in documents Making people to people connections
and databases to gain from reuse for synthesis of expertise
• IT based system for codification • Facilitative conditions for sharing of
storage, dissemination and reuse knowledge that is tacit , complex
of explicit knowledge and deeply rooted in context
• Techniques for storage, classification • IT used for creating collaborative
and retrieval platforms, social networks
• Repeated application of standardized • Suitable in problem solving environments
knowledge in industries where it is demanding generation of new
easy to define „right knowledge‟ insights
• Reward employees for contributing to • Reward employees for directly sharing
and usage from the knowledge knowledge with one another
repository
Some organizations choose one over the other –
others view them as evolutionary stages
© S Mukherji

13. KM IN STRATEGY CONSULTING FIRMS 13
Codification : Anderson , E&Y Personalization : McKinsey, Bain
High quality, reliable, fast IT Creative analytically rigorous
implementation by reusing Competitive
advice on high level strategic
codified knowledge Strategy problems
Reuse economics: Expert economics:
- Invest once, reuse many times Economic - Customized solutions to novel problems
- High ratio of associates / partners - Small teams, low associate/partner ratio
Model
- Large teams, maximize revenues - High profit margin
People to documents: People to people:
IT based KM system for codification KM
- Develop networks for linking people
storage, dissemination and reuse Strategy - Facilitative platforms for collaboration
- Hire freshers suited to reuse of -Hire MBA‟s who like problem solving
knowledge and implementation and have high tolerance for ambiguity
- Train people in groups through -train people through one-to-one
Human
computer based distance learning mentoring
- Reward people for using and
Resources
-reward people for directly sharing
contributing to database knowledge with one another
© S Mukherji

14. THREE KEY COMPONENTS OF WIPRO’S KM SYSTEM 14
1 2 3
Document repository Experts‟ Directory Collaborative Platforms
Repository of all documents Domain specialists declare Creation of user groups having
prepared by employees based themselves as experts. specific interest
on their experience of solving Database maintains their
problems profiles Any employee can join the
discussion, even though they
Historically divided between Queries are posted at the are not part of the user group
documents related to system, or targeted specifically
technology and those related to for an expert System maintains log of
sales and marketing discussions for future
System notes whether the references
Collaterals, proposals, letter of expert has been able to solve
references, updated information the problem. Measures level of Access privileges
needed to make proposals and satisfaction of users
presentations
Reduce re-work, Make people to people Communities of
increase efficiency connections practice
© S Mukherji

15. WIPRO ‘LET A THOUSAND FLOWERS BLOOM’ 15
Knowledge networks /
One to many Emails, Collaborative platforms Key issues encountered
newsletters
discussion logs
data mining
• Open access versus
restricted access
Document
repository • Maintaining quality
and credibility
Expert locator /
One to one
Yellow pages • Incentives
People to document People to people
Over a period of time, people- to- people connection
systems became more popular
© S Mukherji