Running head: ORGANIZATIONAL LEARNING 1 ORGANIZATIONAL LEARNING 7 Identifying the Organizational Learning Issues Name: Octavia Sanders Instructor: Dr. Annette M. West Course: Developing a Learning Organization Date: October 22, 2017 Organizational Learning Organizational learning is a complex concept, and there is no agreement on what organizational learning is. Various scholars have come up with varied definitions of organizational learning. Transitioning a company from individual learning to organizational learning requires the firm to understand aspects surrounding this concept. Some of the aspects include understanding the culture of the company regarding knowledge sharing and disconnect between the culture and organizational learning based on the mystifications of organizational learning, current organizational learning mechanisms, and the norms surrounding organizational learning. Organizational culture and organizational learning The company’s culture mirrors one company, one team, and one passion. In this company, employees are free to share their ideas and thoughts, support the company and inspire it to grow. The company encourages the employees to share knowledge for propelling the company forward. Additionally, the organization believes that pushing the company forward is dependent on the vision, innovation as well as the passion of every employee thereby the company focuses on building a healthy relationship with the employees creating a free environment for sharing knowledge. Also, the company has an inclusive workplace that acknowledges and respects diversity. Further, it has a policy that discourages discrimination of people against race, religion, gender, age, ideas, and thoughts and therefore all the employees can share their views, thoughts, and ideas without fear. However, there are significant issues within this culture particularly with sharing information as knowledge sharing in some departments is reserved. There is a disconnect between the company’s culture and organizational learning based on the mystifications of organizational learning including the ever-increasing conceptual diversity, anthropomorphism, and reification of terminologies (Friedman et al., 2005). The ever-increasing conceptual diversity makes organizational learning obscure. There is inconsistency in defining organizational learning as there is no agreement on what constitutes organizational learning. Different researchers and firms have different viewpoints about organizational learning (Friedman et al., 2005). For example, the company‘s culture mirrors organizational learning as creation and transfer of knowledge within the company to facilitate productivity. Therefore, the company’s culture regarding organizational learning is only based on one among the many definitions of the concept. Another disconnect is anthropomorphism referring to attribution human features or behavior to a non-human entity. In this case, ...

1. Running head: ORGANIZATIONAL LEARNING 1
ORGANIZATIONAL LEARNING 7
Identifying the Organizational Learning Issues
Name: Octavia Sanders
Instructor: Dr. Annette M. West
Course: Developing a Learning Organization
Date: October 22, 2017
Organizational Learning
Organizational learning is a complex concept, and there is no
agreement on what organizational learning is. Various scholars
have come up with varied definitions of organizational learning.
Transitioning a company from individual learning to
organizational learning requires the firm to understand aspects
surrounding this concept. Some of the aspects include

2. understanding the culture of the company regarding knowledge
sharing and disconnect between the culture and organizational
learning based on the mystifications of organizational learning,
current organizational learning mechanisms, and the norms
surrounding organizational learning.
Organizational culture and organizational learning
The company’s culture mirrors one company, one team, and one
passion. In this company, employees are free to share their
ideas and thoughts, support the company and inspire it to grow.
The company encourages the employees to share knowledge for
propelling the company forward. Additionally, the organization
believes that pushing the company forward is dependent on the
vision, innovation as well as the passion of every employee
thereby the company focuses on building a healthy relationship
with the employees creating a free environment for sharing
knowledge. Also, the company has an inclusive workplace that
acknowledges and respects diversity. Further, it has a policy
that discourages discrimination of people against race, religion,
gender, age, ideas, and thoughts and therefore all the employees
can share their views, thoughts, and ideas without fear.
However, there are significant issues within this culture
particularly with sharing information as knowledge sharing in
some departments is reserved.
There is a disconnect between the company’s culture and
organizational learning based on the mystifications of
organizational learning including the ever-increasing conceptual
diversity, anthropomorphism, and reification of terminologies
(Friedman et al., 2005). The ever-increasing conceptual
diversity makes organizational learning obscure. There is
inconsistency in defining organizational learning as there is no
agreement on what constitutes organizational learning.
Different researchers and firms have different viewpoints about
organizational learning (Friedman et al., 2005). For example,
the company‘s culture mirrors organizational learning as
creation and transfer of knowledge within the company to
facilitate productivity. Therefore, the company’s culture

3. regarding organizational learning is only based on one among
the many definitions of the concept.
Another disconnect is anthropomorphism referring to attribution
human features or behavior to a non-human entity. In this case,
anthropomorphizing organizational learning means an
organization having the learning capability. Humans have the
capability to share knowledge and learn from experience, but it
is impossible for the organization to do so. Treating the
company as a human being adds to mystifications of
organizational learning (Friedman et al., 2005). For example,
the company’s culture is based on the belief that organizational
learning occurs through training its employees. However, this is
a disconnect as learning of individual members of the
organization does not translate to organizational learning
Also, the company‘s culture incorporates new terminologies
pertaining to organizational learning without conveying the
exact meaning. Organizational learning has led to the upsurge
of new terminologies including systems thinking, organizational
memory, defensive routines, and creation of knowledge. The
issue is that the terms are widely used without conveying
precise meaning or showing a considerable change in
application (Friedman et al., 2005). For example, the company
uses double-loop learning to refer to all kinds of far-reaching
organizational change in the company when its original meaning
is to refer to a particular kind of learning in a specific context.
Organizational learning mechanisms (OLM)
Organizational learning mechanisms are vital to organizational
learning. However, OLMs including the company culture,
leadership, and systems and structures are some of the
hindrances to organizational learning. Culture involves the
shared values, knowledge, and assumptions regarding
organizational learning (Sambrook & Stewart, 2000). The
company lacks a collective culture as each unit in the
organization has its own culture thereby hindering
organizational learning. Also, the company’s leadership does
not motivate, facilitate feed-forward and experimental learning,

4. and encourage wide involvement thereby establishing the
processes and systems essential for organizational learning is a
challenge (Graham et al., 2008). Also, the company’s systems
and structures do not externally and internally collaborate to the
firm and discourage evaluative success hence do not support
organizational learning processes (Graham et al., 2008). A
training program for training employees on the new information
system software was ineffective since after a week of training
majority of the employees did not know how to use it and this is
attributed to non-collaborative culture between company units,
poor leadership, and inadequacy of company systems and
structure.
Offline/external organizational learning mechanism
The best OLM to replace the above-identified OLMs hindering
organizational learning is off-line/external OLM. According to
Lipshitz et al., (2006), offline/external OLM involve learning
carried by the experts. An organization assigns the experts to
the task pertaining to organizational learning on a around the
clock basis, have particular analytic skills, and are based in
centralized units which are organization-wide knowledge
repositories and centers for knowledge dissemination. Hiring
the experts to work in the organization on a full-time basis
would certain there availability to handle all aspect relating to
organizational learning thereby facilitating the process.
Norms in organizational learning
Organizational learning is based on norms, understanding, and
shared experiences which foster positive behavior as well as
learning techniques. Norms of the learning culture of the
company hinder productive learning as these norms are not in
line with the culture of organizational learning. The company
needs to re-evaluate the inquiry and transparency norms
(Lipshitz et al., 2002). For example, currently, there is a limited
application of the inquiry norm in the company, and that
explains the issues of innovation and poor decision-making the
corporation is experiencing. The company can foster the inquiry
norm through the adoption of the inquisitive style culture which

5. would enhance the process of learning and knowledge sharing
(Lipshitz et al., 2002). Also, application of the transparency
norm is low. For example, regarding knowledge sharing is some
of the departments is reserved and share best practices only
among the unit members rather than sharing with the entire
organization. This has hindered the emergence of creative and
innovative ideas and further hindered organizational learning.
The company needs to foster the wide application of the
transparency norm to facilitate organizational learning.
Conclusion
Despite lack of agreement on organizational learning concept,
organizations continue to embrace it. Companies have
developed cultures and systems and structures that support
organizational learning. Fostering organizational learning
necessitates an understanding of the company’s culture,
organizational learning mechanisms, and norms of
organizational learning.

6. References
Friedman, V. J., Lipshitz, R., & Popper, M. (2005). The
mystification of organizational learning. Journal of management
inquiry, 14(1), 19-30.
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/247737818_The_Myst
ification_of_Organizational_Learning
Graham, C. M., & Nafukho, F. M. (2008). Exploring
Organizational Learning Mechanisms in Small‐Size Business
Enterprises. New Horizons in Adult Education and Human
Resource Development, 22(1), 4-23.
http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ983870.pdf
Lipshitz, R., Friedman, V., & Popper, M. (2006). Demystifying
organizational learning. Sage. p.35
Lipshitz, R., Popper, M., & Friedman, V. J. (2002). A
multifacet model of organizational learning. The journal of
applied behavioral science, 38(1), 78-98.
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Victor_Friedman2/publicat
ion/250959626_A_Multifacet_Model_of_Organizational_Learni
ng/links/555b2bd508ae980ca612dd19.pdf
Sambrook, S., & Stewart, J. (2000). Factors influencing
learning in European learning oriented organizations: issues for
management. Journal of European Industrial
Training, 24(2/3/4), 209-219.