Organisational Learning Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Organisational Learning - Case Study Example This is particularly demonstrated at Eglin Air Force Base, Florida, as explicated by Jack Dwyer (2004). According to Dwyer, Eglin's Air Armament Center (AAC), under the leadership of Gen. Robert W. Chedister, has become a learning organisation in the true sense of the term. Making this possible, is the motivation and focus of each individual and each team within the AAC to use learning in order to increasingly produce results. This is the ultimate aim of the paradigm shift that Gen. Chedister is leading in his organisation. To facilitate the process of creating a learning organisation, Gareth Morgan (1997) suggests using metaphor in order to view the organisational structure. Whereas organisations during the Industrial Age were largely viewed in a mechanistic way, the human factor has increasingly imposed itself. Since the 1960s particularly, managers have increasingly begun to realise that job satisfaction and the meaning derived from the work day positively influences the quality of the work delivered. Hence the mechanistic metaphor for the organisation has also made way for a more organic, flexible, and generally humanistic view. within a certain environment that it influences and that influences the organisation in turn. As such, the organisation adapts and survives according to and in response to the changes in the environment. In this way, the mechanistic view of the organisation makes way for a much more flexible view, in which organisations are open systems that can adapt to change rather than being destroyed by it. At the basis of this is the recognition that an organisation is a combination of human, business, and technical needs. This is very important for the learning paradigm. Larsen et al. (1996) emphasizes that individual learning translates to the benefit for the organisational organism as a whole via systems thinking. Systems thinking entails that the individual focuses on a whole system, rather than only its parts. In this way, patterns of behaviour are derived from the systems observed at work, and team learning can ensue. This is why the vision of the workplace as an integrated organism is important. Each individual has a role to play, but these roles do not exist in isolation. Instead, each role affects each other role, and the organisation's success depends upon the quality of each individual's work. As mentioned above, understanding this integration provides the individual with meaning and motivation at the workplace. Understanding the effect of his or her own work on the performance and success of others, provides the individual with work satisfaction, and the motivation to deliver the best possible work. Innovation as Learning Paradigm According to Dwyer (2004), this is precisely Chedister's point of view. The latter recognises the current business environment as one that demands innovation in all aspects of the company, including training methods. Indeed, Chedister himself adheres to the organic, learning business metaphor by applying his own work experience to his plans for the future. It is his aim to create an integrated business model, by means of which Eglin's collective learning assets can be