Organizational learning and learning in companies

How to adjust to company culture

Learning points

Understanding organizations Language Story-telling

Examples of change projects in organizations Power without glory Implications in relation to learning

Dewey model for learning Some conclusions

Sproglig forståelse af organisationer Language, language games, playing with

language: Language as a toolbox for the construction of reality.

Hannah Arendt: The Human Condition, 1998, pp. 178-179). People are characterized by their ability to construct and reconstruct stories. Stories are co-constructed, since stories emerge intersubjectively.

To speak a language = Actor: “…the action that he

begins is humanly disclosed by the word, and though his deed can be perceived in its brute physical appearance without verbal accompaniment, it becomes relevant only through the spoken word in which he identifies himself as the actor, announcing what he does, has done, and intends to do” (Arendt 1998, pp. 178-179).

Organisationer er skabt gennem medfortælling og samkonstruktion

David Boje: storytelling is the preferred sense-making currency of human relationships.

Organizations: People are engaged in dynamic interpretations and chains of interpretations whereby organizational and institutional artefacts, words, concepts, past stories, strategies, systems and symbols are given meaning

Two interview excerpts

From a bank case Employee from a local department Employee from the IT-department

What kind of organizational phenomena do you notice in these excerpts? Professional values Relations of power

What is a story?

Stories are situated in a culture Traditions, practices, conventions, institutions

Situated in a historical and geographical context

Stories give temporal and spatial significance to the activities in which people participate.

Actors understand themselves socially

Stories are important for peoples motivation for action and learning.

Some conclusions

Spontaneous and interactive The stories are filled with gaps/holes Conversation – negotation of meaning.

Participants are filling in the holes, they use each others words, concepts to add to the storyline.

Collective storytelling – spontaneous conversations

The stories cannot be understood in isolation. There is a lack of past, present and future.

Organizations consists of layers of language

Organizations are the results of interpretations piled upon interpretations piled upon interpretations.

Participants in organizational language games: competence – communicate and collaborate with others – add to stories, fill in the gaps, interprete what is in between the lines etc.

Organizations become through continuous interactions between actors in different positions and with different intentions: managers, employees, customers, suppliers, authorities etcs.

Complexity and pluralism of different voices and positions.

One question

What does this mean in relation to learning?

Some conclusions

Complexity of organizational life Interconnectedness of organizational life Motivation for participating in learning

Position Intention

Stories express values: good - bad, appropriate – non-appropriate, moral – immoral Individual values vs. organizational system

Learning and changes are often controversial: Spin-off of stories that support, contradict or resist learning activities

Course activities has to be translated to the organizational system in order to gain legitimacy and power.

They have to become part of language in organizations as well as trying to change this language.

Case example of an organizational change process

Power without Glory: A Genealogy of a Management Decision

Plot: Management decision in 1997 about the implementation of a new functional and geographical division of labour

1993-99: The value project, the technology project.

My project: My story was about the management decisions as a result of many different stories in the organization

Case example of organizational learning

Manager, facilitator, consultant etc. Organization of such changes

Co-construction of organizational life. Manager, facilitators, consultants have specific roles to play

Co-constructor of reality – as part of a game and trying to reach desired ends.

Didactic questions Who are involved and what role they play/should

play? What learning tools are used? How are these situations organized? What are the circumstances

Organizational learning

The value project Problem

Unclear problem Organization

The role of the external consultant

Internal organization of the project

Language Abstract words,

concepts, tools

The technology project Problem

Clear problem Organization

The role of the external consultant

Internal organization of the project

Language Bank language, very

concrete, translation of abstract concepts to bank language.

Individual learning – organizational learning

Individual learning Simplicity Focus And something to work

with Loosen the

organizational bonds on the learning situation

You make the organization stronger by making the individuals stronger

Organizational learning Complexity Interconnectedness Relations of power

Individual learning vs. Organizational learning

Transform the organizational learning project to an individual learning project Focus on actors Focus on the context and circumstances

in which they act

John Dewey’s pragmatism

Close affiliation with PBL

Problem orientation Thinking

Problem orientation

Education and learning has to be focused on concrete problems.

Problems: complexity, uncertainty, contradicion and value conflicts

Concrete problems are influenced by many different forces.

Thinking

Thinking is a tool to solve the practical problems of the world

Thinking is man’s tool for adapting to the environment

Thinking is where we put abstract concepts and models to work in relation to practical problems.

Thinking

Habitual thinking is not thinking in Dewey’s sense of the word

Reflective thinking: systematic and analytic approach to problem solving based on inquiring into the problem

Integration between theory and practice

Thinking = intelligent practice – systematically explorative and therefore also exhausting

Some implications

Specific competencies vs. General competencies

Learning how to learn Collaboration Methods for systematic collaboration Methods for project management

Double nature of all kinds of learning The specific problem that we want to solve The more general skills in problem solving

that is acquired through this process.