Learning Organizations

"Collaboration is the flip side of knowledge management. You can't talk about one without the other. So, to manage knowledge you need to address collaboration and tools that help people collaborate." - Senge, 270.

According to Senge, true learning organizations dominate five competencies:

• Systems thinking
• Personal mastery
• Mental models
• Building shared vision
• Team learning

Systems thinking is the ability to discern patterns and make linkages in observations, rather than producing linear, predictable thought processes. It allows organizations to revisit previous decisions, make connections between internal and external stimuli with long- and short-term results. And it is a strategic way of thinking about how organizational operations connect to big picture results and goals.

Personal mastery indicates individual learning and goal accomplishment. This is where HRM fits into learning organizations. Individual mastery, when connected to teamwork, leads to organizational learning and building institutional knowledge.

Mental models are assumptions and generalizations that influence our thoughts and actions. They involve inward reflection as well as outward sharing of ideas in order to understand and work through their influence.

Building shared vision helps an organization centralize goals and mission. Genuine vision does not revolve around a particular leader or person, rather the desired results of work and principles.

Finally, team learning leads to both individual improvement and group improvement. The concept of dialogue is that ideas start as separate, then over time combine into not a sum of their parts but rather a new and unique entity. It is the creation and innovation that is only possible as a result of "thinking together," as Senge writes.

Charismatic Organizations

Another way of describing a learning organization is a charismatic organization. According to Sagawa and Jospin, a charismatic organization is one that has a high degree of social capital and that strive to create and grow their own capital. To build a strong core, they ensure the following:

• mission-driven motivation
• can-do culture
• data-driven decision making
• purposeful innovation
• people-focused management

Then they build a strong network through:

• compelling communication
• active outreach
• meaningful involvement

Purposeful innovation is a particularly important characteristic of a charismatic organization as related to its HRM because it comes from the tacit knowledge of its workers. Building on a solid motivation toward mission and a general attitude within the organization of getting things accomplished in whatever way possible, innovation is the logical next steps. Sagawa and Jospin recommend empowering all levels and parts of the organization, problem-solve, and nurture the new ideas.

People-focused management also is essential to building knowledge through HRM. It starts with hiring the right people. Hiring practices should ensure mission-driven individuals with skills and knowledge that match up to an accurate job description. Employees should mirror the beneficiaries in their diversity. The second step is keeping the right people. Social capital within a community that builds trust, uses teamwork, communicates effectively, and respects each other is the key to retaining good hires. Within retention also falls the necessity of supporting the professional growth of employees and maintaining an adequate compensation and support system.

Organizations as a Brain

Gareth Morgan writes about an image of an organization as a brain. The brain can work on single-loop or double-loop learning styles. Single-loop learning is the ability to detect and correct an error, given a set of operating norms. Many organizations can become proficient in this. Double-loop learning, on the other hand, is more difficult, as it requires both detection of an error and questioning the original norms.

Learning organizations, imagined as brains, much follow the guidelines below:

• scan and anticipate environmental change
• challenge operating norms and assumptions
• encourage emergent organization

These three guidelines emphasize the basis of systems thinking - all decisions and processes are linked to each other and cannot be assumed to be stable and unchanging. They encourage creativity, innovation, and creation of new knowledge based on necessity and perception. These are features of a people-centered HRM system, as well.