organizational learning and change -...
TRANSCRIPT
Organizational Learning and Change
Jose Jorge Saavedra
Issues addressed
What is an organization?Why and how to analyze organizations?What do we understand by OL?How do we learn?Structure and behaviorOrganizational cultureOrganizational change
Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen.
Albert Einstein
It is theory that decides what can be observed.
Albert Einstein
Key concepts
In essence, each organization is a product of how its members think and interact.Then, the principal leverage in any effort of OL is not only in the policies budgets or organizational charts but in ourselves.
Key concepts
What do we mean by change?
Profound change
Organizational change that combines inner shifts in people’s values, aspirations and behaviors with “outer” shifts in processes, strategies, practices and systems
Unlearning (Senge)
Become aware of how our own acts create the structures of the system that creates the problems.
Five minds of the manager
1. Reflective: “Perceive a familiar thing in a different way”
2. Analytical: Organizations – Structures and systems “Beyond conventional approaches”
3. Worldly: Context for reflections4. Collaborative: “Listen more than talk”5. Action: Managing change. Change has
no meaning without continuity.
“Most change initiatives fail. ... The [source] of our problems lies in our most basic forms of thinking. If these do not change, any new “input” will end up producing the same fundamentally unproductivew types of actions.”
Peter Senge, The Dance of Change (1999)
Problems cannot be solved at the Problems cannot be solved at the same level of awareness that same level of awareness that created them.created them.
Albert EinsteinAlbert Einstein
AlbertEinstein
Information vs. Transformation(Kegan, 2000)
TransformationInformation
What do we understand by learning?
Accumulate information → “knowledge”
Modify behavior“Learning is an inferred change in the organism’s mental state which results form experience and which influences in a relatively permanent fashion the organism’s potential for subsequent adaptive behavior.” (Tarpy, 1997).
Learning will be understood to be
“the construction of meaning from experience.”Where “meaning can take the form of knowledge and skills and is acquired through the revision of an individual’s previous knowledge, attitudes and beliefs with new information.” Therefore, learning is “a personal construct created and tested in the worlds ofideas, phenomena and relationships.”(Roberts, 2002, p. 40).
Knowing on the other hand:
is not seen as “a commodity made up ofa series of ‘truths’ (scientism); it is not propositional, but rather a process of knowing in which we engage with our reality, and through dialogue with others and with ourselves we give meaning to the world.” (McConnell, 2002, p.143 my emphasis).
What do we understand by learning?
Reconfigure “meaning” reviewing Frames of referencePoints of viewMental habits
(Mezirow, 2000)
Key themes in women’s learning(Hayes y Flannery, 1995)
Women’s self-doubts. Confidence in learning abilitiesVoice. Access to voice or “silence.”Women as connected learners
Vinculo a experiencia personalIntegrar aprendizaje cognitivo y emocionalConstrucción de aprendizaje comunal antes que individual
Revision of values and beliefs that support our routines and behaviors
Revision of routines and behaviors
Action Results
1st loop
Assumptions
2nd loop
First and second loop learning (Argyris y Schon, 1978)
First and second loop learning
1. Means: efficiency of current practices as a result of adaptation to the environment. Resolves basic problems. Does not enter the realm of “why?”
2. Develops new vision, objectives or means, redesigning what was done up to now. Questions the reasons for the persistence of the problem. Changes the rules and mental models.
Three stages of change(Lewin 1951; Schein 1996)
1. Unfreeze2. Change3. Refreeze
“You cannot understand a system until you try to change it.”
Levels of organizational learning
Processes Level Change
Beliefs and behaviorsIndividualInterpretation
GroupIntegration and difussion
Shared beliefs and coordinated behavior
OrganizationalStructures/systems and guidelines for action
Institutionalization
Source: Adapted from Bolivar, 2000
Three stages of change(Lewin 1951; Schein 1996)
1. Unfreeze: 1. Question expectations2. Induction of learning anxiety
caused from new information if accepted as valid and relevant
3. Psychological security to convert anxiety into motivation to change
Three stages of Change(Lewin 1951; Schein 1996)
2. Change:1. Cognitive restructuring2. A wider interpretation of
concepts3. Learning new standards of
judgement
Three stages of change (Lewin 1951; Schein 1996)
3. Refreeze1. Apropiation of new behaviors2. Abandoning ideas is less
probable when the behaviors are in accordance to the personality of the subject and the expectations of the his/her social network.
Types of changes(Weick & Quinn 1999)
ContinuousConstantEvolutionaryCumulative
EpisodicInfrequentDiscontinuousIntentional
Profound Change
Organizational change that combines changes at two levels:1. Internal: Values, aspirations,
and behaviors2. External: Process, strategies,
practices, systems
The Transition Curve
Commitment
Resistance Exploration
Negation
"In times of change, those who are prepared to learn will inherit the land, while those who think they already know will find themselves wonderfully equipped to face a world that no longer exists.”
Eric Hoffer
Organizational Culture
Organizational Culture
“Sum total of al shared, taken-for granted assumptions that a group had learned throughout its history”“How the organizations views itself in relation to the environment.”
ArtifactsVisible organizational structures and processes(Hard to decipher)
Espoused ValuesStrategies, goals, philosophies (espoused justifications)
Underlying AssumptionsUnconscious, taken-for-granted beliefs, perceptions, thoughts, thoughts, and feelings (the ultimate source of values and actions)
Implications
Culture is deep, extensive and complexIt covers all aspects of reality and human functioningIt influences how you think and feelas well as how you actIt provides meaning and predictability in your daily life
Organizational Culture
1. Clarifying your purpose2. Assembling a group of cultural
“students”3. Artifacts: Listing the visible4. Espoused values: The organizational
rationale5. Cultural assumptions6. Narrowing down the cultural diagnosis7. Formal intervention: Initiating Cultural
Change
RESISTANCE PYRAMID
Don’t Know
Cannot
Do notwant to
Train and educate: New Values, new capabilities, new skills, new techniques
Vision, goals, performance indicators, rewards
Communicate: Why? What? How? When? Who?
FACTORS THAT SHAPE CULTURE
Culture& OB
Vision, Values
Selective Recruiting
Participation &Involvement
Teams/Job Design
Training andDevelopment
InformationSharing
PerformanceMeasurementPerformanceMeasurement
ManagementStyle
PsychologicalOwnership
Long-TermPerspective
CompensationSystems
CompensationSystems
Rewards andRecognition
Rewards andRecognition
InformationSharing
InformationSharing
Misaligned Organizational Stimuli
Aligned Organizational Stimuli
SUPERESTRUCTURE VISION & VALUES
“Structure determines behaviour, starting with the structure of our mind
and behaviour.”
FACTORS THAT SHAPE CULTURE
Culture& OB
Vision, Values
Selective Recruiting
Participation &Involvement
Teams/Job Design
Training andDevelopment
InformationSharing
PerformanceMeasurementPerformanceMeasurement
ManagementStyle
PsychologicalOwnership
Long-TermPerspective
CompensationSystems
CompensationSystems
Rewards andRecognition
Rewards andRecognition
InformationSharing
InformationSharing
Frameworks for action
Organizational Capacity
Resou
rces &
Auth
ority
Programs, Policies & Projects
PUBLICVALUE
Organizational Mgmt
Politic
al Man
agem
ent
Program Mgm
t
Politi
cal
EconomicSocial Institutional
Environment
Mandate
Purpose Vision
COMMITMENTCOMMITMENT
VISION & VISION & STRATEGYSTRATEGY
BUILDBUILD
RELATIONSRELATIONS
BUILDBUILD
CAPACITYCAPACITY
ALIGNMENTALIGNMENT
PUBLIC VALUEPUBLIC VALUE
Learning
Change
“Organizational change and transformational change are two sides of the same coin”
Peter Senge
“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed people can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.”
Margaret MeadU.S. Anthropologist (1901-1978)