LEARNING

Individual and Organizational Learning

Individual and Organizational Learning

Introduction

Individual and organizational learning are a part of organizational theory. In individual and organizational theories there are many models and theories which are used by the organizations in which they learn and adapt new things. The organizational learning means to build the sense in the organization about the environmental changes. In organizations learning of individuals are done in a traditional way by human resource department. Many activities are conducted by the human resource department of the organization for individuals. Activities include trainings, formal education, skills development and work experience (Watson 2002).

The reason behind choosing individual and organizational learning is because this topic is very important in today's world. In order to stay in market it is import for organizations to learn and adopt changes from the environment. Now day's environment is very fast moving and frequent changes took place in the environment. An organization should be strong enough to predict about the upcoming changes in the environment. Other important thing is that organizations must plan according to the environmental changes that are going to take place. Learning of individuals is important because success of every organization depend upon the knowledge of individuals working in that organization. So in order to maintain good position in market it is important for organizations to learn and build a learning environment for their employees (Miller 2003).

Theoretical Background

In the theoretical work of organizational learning mostly the word of Chris Argyris is seen. Chris (1978) developed a model of organizational learning which is still in use by the organizations. Most scholars has done work of this model and has developed further models and research work according to the present environment of the organizations. The basis is still the model of Chris (1978). The work of Chris Argyris is very important for the organizational learning because it appreciates the organizational learning and encourages the deep understanding and experimental learning in the organization.

The main point of the theories developed by Chris (1978) is that people have mental maps according to which they deal with the situation. The mental map includes the planning, implementation and review of the actions taken for particular situation. According to them mental maps guide the actions of the individuals instead of theories which are clearly adopted. Many few people are aware of the mental maps and theories they use. In other words it can be said as there is a distinction between the actions and theories.

According to Chris and Schon (1978) learning includes the identification and correction of errors. There are two main steps of learning one is single loop learning and other is double loop learning. In single loop learning presents the values, objectives, frameworks. Its main focus is on the development of techniques and making it more efficient. In contrast to it double loop involves the questioning the roles of learning systems and framing which comes under the actual goals and strategies.

Many scholars did the distinction at work in these two things during the ...