The Organisational Learning and the Learning Organisation Essay Example for Free

The Organisational discipline and the Learning Organisation Essay shoals ar in business to promote study amongst twain adults and pupils. exactly do they as organisations learn? Is it in fact possible for an organisation as a tot twoy to learn? Even if there is evidence that individuals within organisations ar acquirement, this does not automatic onlyy add up to collective trainingThere are many a(prenominal) cases in which organisations know less than their members. There are even cases in which the organisations toleratenot seem to learn what every member knows. (Argyris and Schn 2000309)How informs learn to implement abstr consumption and multiple revision successfully has al slipway been of central concern to those interested in initiate advancement making the link in the midst of organisational study and discipline advantage is not a new idea. Roland Barth claims that prepare gains master(prenominal) task is all just near eruditionSchool corre ctment is an effort to de termine and contribute, from without and within, conditions infra which the adults and youngsters who inhabit give instructions will promote and sustain discipline among themselves. (Barth 199945)In England especially, shallows are under pressure to take and manage change and are constantly shareing with public scrutiny of their strongness. Issues they are need to deal with complicate a revised National Curriculum, performance management, revised criteria for OFSTED inspections, give lessons self-evaluation, standards for head teachers and subject leaders, as well as the ongoing requirement to improve attainment for all pupils.All the activities that constitute development are a fundamental contribution not just to improvement and performance, but in addition to an ethos and stir up of community in a school.( Stoll, 2005, 62-69) We outline the importance of organisational learning to school improvement, and mellowlight the situation of feed back, suggesting ways in which its role could be developed. The five questions we ask are1 What is organisational learning?2 wherefore is it important to school improvement?3 What are the processes that modulate organisational learning?4 What is the contribution of feedback?5 How could its role in organisational learning be enhanced?What Is Organisational Learning? A definition of a learning organisation as it relates to education isA group of people pursuing common purposes (and individual purposes as well) with a collective commitment to regularly weighing the appreciate of those purposes, modifying them when that bring forths sense, and doggingly developing more than effective and efficient ways of accomplishing those purposes. (Leithwood and Aitken 200341)This definition suggests certain basic activities wish to happen for organisational learning to be line uped to progressthe pursuit, re consume and modification of common aims andopportunities to name, articulate an d design more effective, efficient ways of accomplishing these purposes.It muckle be easy for a school to lose sight of its primary purpose of fostering and support learning, peculiar(a)ly in times of make upd complexity and requirement to respond to external demands for improvement. As a recent participant on one of our courses ordain it the core beliefs and lasts to the higher(prenominal)est degree learning in my school bear been forgotten in the mass of pressures we are under at the moment.School improvement research distinguishes more effective and more rapidly improving schools by the ability of practitioners to stay in touch with the schools core values, beliefs and goals and take charge of externally driven change sooner than being controlled by it (Senge 1999 Rosenholtz 2000 Stoll and snitch 1999 Gray et al. 2003, 141-53). This is, in Senges words, because they are constantly enhancing their substance to create their have got future and know that it is in their hands. This mind-set is a cornerstone of effective improvement efforts.Organisational learning has been described as a dynamic and complex phenomenon best understood by considering learning processes and effects as influencing each early(a) in a reciprocal way (Cousins 1998220-1). Through collective inquiry, school staff and their communities engage in affect of internal or external information that challenges them to meditate on and adapt assumptions underpinning their practice. It also military services them to understand how they nominate influence their own destiny and create the necessary knowledge. In this sense, the basic meaning of a learning organisation is one that is continually expanding its capacity to create its future (Senge 199914).The Processes That Influence Organisational LearningOur own march suggests four particular processes that rear end crucially influence the organisational learning of schools. Where these can be deliberately and strategically devel oped, this facilitates the appropriate conditions and climate within which school improvement can operate. These four processes are operative actively with the context processing, creating and using strategic knowledge developing learning-oriented cultural norms and dusts thinking. (Leithwood, K. and Louis, 1998, 119-23)Working Actively With The ContextThe occasion of goals that are shared by all stakeholders in a school, including pupils, is not enough in a rapidly changing and demanding context. More than twenty years ago, Argyris and Schn (2000) argued that the strike challenge is not to dish out an organisation become more effective at performing a stable task in the light of stable purposes, but to service an organisation restructure its purposes and redefine its task in the tone of a changing environment (p. 320). To do this, schools need to connect more effectively with the world beyond themSchools cannot shut their gates and leave the outdoor(a) world on the door str ide, they can no longer gauge that their walls will keep the outside world at bay. (Hargreaves and Fullan 19987)Being able to read the context is a critical skill in effective school improvement. Schools, as other schemas, must have the capacity to sense, monitor and scan significant aspects of their environment (Morgan 199987). level-headed schools know their survival can depend on their sensitive response and adaptation to the environment of which they are a part. This contextual intelligence has been defined as one of nine key intelligences a school take to have (MacGilchrist et al. 2002).Working to develop and adapt school goals in the light of contextual messages is a crucial purpose for the organisational learning that schools continually need to calculate. (MacBeath, 1998, 311-22) Currently, insufficient notice is being paid to the limited opportunity and power schools feel they have to string up to this basic process. Indeed, the predominant emphasis on the delivery of the external reform agenda paradoxically distracts many schools from initiating their own learning and this results in a loss of both collective self-esteem and of feeling in charge of change (Learmonth and Reed 2000).Processing, Creating And Using Strategic familiarityThe importance of strategic thinking, planning and doing in school improvement together constitute a particular knowledge base required for organisational learning. Louis (1998) argues that what distinguishes organisational learning processes from the look of acquisition, storage and retrieval inherent in some definitions of individual learning, is an additional step of collective knowledge creationSchools cannot learn until there is explicit or implicit agreement some what they know about their students, teaching and learning, and about how to change. (p. 1086)She describes three sources from which this knowledge is drawn teachers individual knowledge about the curriculum and their own pedagogical practice kno wledge created when their practice is trunkatically examined and knowledge that comes from others, advisers, colleagues, inspectors.Through a combination of dialogue and deliberation, this information is explored, interpreted and distributed among the school community creating collective knowledge and helping right on learning systems in a school to develop. (Cousins, 2000, 305-33) The process is complex but can also increase the potential for organisational learning in a range of ways. Five assertions have recently been made about the contribution that a strategic approach can make to school improvement (Reed 2000). These are1 A strategic approach is underpinned by an explicit commitment to fundamental values and goals in a school.2 A strategic approach is not just about putting a particular plan into operation. It is a way of endureing with assorted levels, goals and expectations at the same time.3 A strategic approach involves a complex combination of skills thinking, planni ng, doing, analysing, judging, mulling and giving and receiving feedback.4 A strategic approach is more than a way of achieving coherence. It is a affable process that needs to take account of how those gnarled are feeling and experiencing purport in a school as well as supporting them in investing in their own learning.5 A strategic approach builds knowledge and interest about what is disaster as it goes along so that everyone can learn about the process and work together to achieve the agreed goals.Developing Learning-Oriented Cultural NormsOnce schools have identified key aspects of their environment, they must be able to relate this information to the operating(a) norms that guide their current behaviour. Norms are the unspoken rules for what is regarded as everyday or acceptable behaviour and action within the school. They are also a window into the late held beliefs and values of the school its acculturation (Stoll 2003). Leithwood, Jantzi and Steinbach (1998) found th at school culture appeared to be the dominant influence on collective learning, more so than vision and mission, structure, strategies, and policy and resources. Rait (2003) explainsAn organizations culture embodies an informal structure and normative system that influence information flow and other organizational processes. Culture may implicitly or explicitly delineate the boundaries of what is considered proper and improper action. (p. 83)Norms are critical because Life within a given culture flows smoothly only insofar as ones behaviour conforms with unwritten codes. Disrupt these norms and the ordered reality of life story inevitably breaks down (Morgan 2002139). Norms, therefore, shape reactions to internally or externally proposed or imposed improvements and, indeed, to organisational learning. Cultivating learning-oriented norms is, therefore, essential because the adoption of changes by a school depends on the fit between the norms embedded in the changes and those within the schools own culture (Sarason 1999).Knowledge needs to have a socially constructed, shared basis for organisational learning to occur (Louis 2004). If norms of individualism and self-reliance exist, and collaboration is not valued, the necessary team learning is at try. Similarly, schools with norms of contentment, avoidance of change, goal diffusion, top-down leadership, conformity, nostalgia, blame, congeniality rather than collegiality, and denial (Stoll and Fink 1998), are less likely to engage in organisational learning.Stoll and Fink (1999) identify ten norms that appeared to underpin the work of improving schools shared goals responsibility for success collegiality continuous improvement lifelong learning risk taking support rough-cut respect openness rejoicing and humour. They highlight the human and cultural dimension of change. Two of these merit further discussion for organisational learning.The first, collegiality, involves mutual overlap and assistance, an orien tation towards the school as a social unit. It is spontaneous, voluntary, development-oriented, unscheduled, and unpredictable. Little (1999) identifies four types of collegial relations. She views three as weaker forms scan and story telling, general help and assistance, and sharing.The fourth form, joint work, is roughly likely to lead to improvement and, we would argue, organisational learning. It covers team teaching, mentoring, action research, peer coaching, planning and mutual observation and feedback. These activities create greater interdependence, collective commitment, shared responsibility, and, perchance most important, greater readiness to participate in the difficult business of review and critiques (Fullan and Hargreaves 2000, xii).The second norm, risk taking, is also critical for organisational learning. Time for experimentation, trial and error and handling snap offure are essential move of learning. They symbolise a willingness to try something contrastive, to consider new approaches, and to move into uncharted territory.The other norms support, mutual respect, openness, and rejoicing and humour set the important climate that alters risk taking to occur without danger. School improvement depends on the use of different mental maps of a school and the creative pursuit of understanding how the whole (the system) and the theatrical role parts (the subsystems) are relating to each other. Organisational learning occurs where the interdependency of parts and whole, systems and subsystems can be enhanced to enable collective activity to be more effective and satisfying for everyone involved.Systems thinking has been described as a discipline for seeing wholes (Senge 199968). It is a framework for seeing interrelationships rather than linear cause-effect chains, for seeing patterns and processes of change rather than a static snapshot. The capacity to see patterns and discern connections between seemingly unconnected events emerges as a key feature of organisational learning from both our experience and the literature A systems approach at least(prenominal) helps an investigator understand that the problem is to discover the underlying connections and interdependencies (Vaill 1999108).It is also a crucial tool for improvement efforts, a basis for taking charge of change and feeling more in control. Systems thinking enables a school to analyse more deeply the causal ingredients that underlie their concerns and difficulties especially where linear deductions of causality fail to get at the root issues. In short, it means it is more important to commission on circles of influence rather than straight lines (Senge 1999). We now take up this point in relation to the role of feedback. iodin way we have come to understand the contribution of feedback to organisational learning is to take as a start point Senges (1999) definition of feedback. He uses the discourse of learning and feedback described as eyelets. Feedback as it employ here, is different to positive feedback meaning making encouraging remarks or negative feedback meaning potential bad news. It is a broader concept, meaning any reciprocal flow of influence (p. 75) encompassing the notion that every influence is both cause and effect.Indeed, Senge argues that the practice of systems thinking and organisational learning starts with understanding feedback. We want to present a view of feedback as an organisational process that itself can be learned about and used as well as having the other, more dialogue-based functions that feedback can have in the school community.OConnor and McDermott (2002) describe feedback as thinking in circles hence the notion of feedback loop topologys the consequences of our actions coming back to us and so influencing what happens next. This concept of feedback challenges immediately any notion that organisational learning can be achieved by either linear or mechanistic means it needs processing and use of information. Feedback, then, in this sense is the return of information to influence the next step (OConnor and McDermott 200226).Two basic types of feedback loop have been identified. The first is reinforcing feedback. This describes a situation where change continues to change and grow a response to something happening makes it happen more frequently. An example from school life could be a response to a high number of exclusions. (Goldstein, 2000, 313-15) The school puts in betoken a procedure for sanctions and rewards, and this results in further exclusions. The feedback from this situation, then, suggests that the procedure for sanctions and rewards itself needs tightening up which, again, unexpectedly causes more exclusions to occur.The second is balancing feedback, which reduces change and restores balance. A balancing feedback loop is where the response to something happening makes it happen less (Johnstone 200412-13). An example would be a primary school that on analysin g its KS1 results finds that the poor quality of spelling is contributing to low attainment. A plan implemented across the samara Stage for addressing spelling more systematically with pupils and their parents enhances their capability, reduces their errors and significantly raises attainment.Schools as systems are experiencing feedback loops in this way all the time, and to the extent that they are aware of and working with reinforcing and balancing loops, and are learning how to manage them, they will be in the process of genuinely becoming a learning organisation. (Anderson, 2003, 235-58) Currently, a focus on the synopsis of attainment data and making causal links to practice in the classroom can provide good examples of use of feedback. Significant connections are being made from one part of the school (the data) to another(prenominal) (the learning and teaching programme), and in the process organisational learning can occur.Morgan (2002) and others have reminded us of a key element in organisational learning processes which may influence the direction a reinforcing cycle takes towards growth or decline. Organisations may display adaptive learning which solves problems at an operational level they scan the environment, compare against the operating targets, and initiate appropriate action. In so doing, they show the ability to detect and correct deviations from the norm. Many organisations are quite proficient at this including bureaucratic, fragmented organisations where employees are not encouraged to think for themselves and interest in what the organisation is doing is marginal.However, single loop learning may keep an organisation focused on the aggrieve goals and prevent success in a changing environment. Effective organisations require double loop learning in which the crucial extra ingredient is to question whether the operating targets are relevant and whether the norms are appropriate. (Chaston, 2001, 139-51) This is fat learning which solv es fundamental problems in a creative way and facilitates survival in periods of change.Morgan suggests that when people are unable or not prepared to challenge underlying assumptions, The existence of single-loop learning systems, especially when used as controls over employees, may prevent double-loop learning from occurring (200290). The capacity in a school to reflect on its own learning while it is using the information provided by feedback is crucial. Ertmer and Newby (1999, 1-24) outline the characteristics of an expert learner, which include the capacity to regulate ones own learning, to self-monitor. It is possible to see that this capacity in a school, to use and reflect on feedback processes, is a key capability in a learning organisation.The following example illustrates the value of questioning while using feedback. A school joined one of our school improvement images with the view that a group of Key Stage 2 pupils were, in the staffs description, restless and lacking concentration in their lessons because they had poor listening skills. It was to be the focus for their project. These were not pupils with any obvious learning difficulties. The teachers stated understandably that they wanted to improve the listening skills of these pupils.We cautioned them not to jump to conclusions before they had carried out a careful systemic audit and analysis of the context in which this problem was manifesting itself. (Fiol, 2002, 803-13) They reluctantly agreed. What emerged from the audit was a very different kind of causal picture. The process of gathering information showed that this group were actually very good listeners in settings that sufficiently caught their attention and enabled them to access the curriculum in ways that made sense to them.Through examining the wider system that the pupils were part of, it seemed that this group of pupils were signalling through their lack of engagement that schemes of work and teaching processes were inadequate ly differentiated for them. (Huber, 2000, 88-115) alter this practice was the focus of a very successful project in the school. The teachers learnt to look at their whole situation in a more sophisticated way instead of jumping too promptly to conclusions based in their minds on a linear and more simplistic model of the relationship between learning, teaching and achievement.The situation these teachers found themselves in is a very good example of reinforcing feedback. The more the pupils had a learning diet that did not meet their needs, the more they did not listen. When the school gave them a more guardedly designed programme of activities the listening skills of the pupils were shown to be perfectly satisfactory. The balancing feedback process had produced the results that they wanted and staff had learnt a great deal about those pupils, their needs and most importantly about the impact of their teaching.( Kim, 2003, 37-50)It has been claimed that school improvement is an in quiry not a formula and that the successful structure for school improvement will have the nature of a clinical science, where communities of educators treat their best ideas as stepping stones to better ones (Joyce et al. 20032). The Making Belfast Work, nurture School Standards (MBW RSS) initiative can be seen as exemplifying such a process.Individual schools involved in the initiative engaged in self-evaluation and review as an integral part of the initiative. (Learmonth, 1998, 78-85) The fourteen schools also worked together during the three years on the project sharing experiences and approaches, creating a wider learning community outside the individual school. The grasss engagement in the process was threefold manager, participant and an evaluator of the change process. (Mumford, 2000, 24-31) The external evaluation, however, provided the forage with an objective framework within which to consider organisational learning at a range of levels. Managing educational change an d the resultant organisational learning isa multivariate business that requires us to think of and address more than one factor at a time. While speculation and practice of successful educational change do make sense, and do point to clear guidelines for action, it is always the case that particular actions in particular situations require integrating the more general knowledge of change with expound knowledge of the politics, personalities and history peculiar to the setting in question. (Fullan 2000 xii)In evaluating the MBW RSS initiative it is important to acknowledge the context of civil unrest which for over a extension has been an everyday fact of life for people living in the city. Recent political initiatives to move onward the peace process have been welcomed by all who are concerned about the quality of life in Belfast although uncertainty about the future remains evident.The term feedback, in education, is perhaps most commonly used in classroom and school contexts . (Sadler, 2003, 877-909) It can, however, be used across the education system to promote organisational and institutional learning. We focus on the role of the external evaluation as a system of providing feedback to increase understanding of the various impacts of an educational improvement initiativeimprove awareness of the processes of implementation at school and LEA level andprovide the basis for analysis of planning, implementation of future initiatives, enhancing the capacity of the LEA to evaluate its own organisational learning with regard to future initiatives involving clusters or individual schools.The extent to which an organisation can learn from feedback from an outside evaluation depends on a number of factors. The very act of commissioning shows a willingness to be scrutinised and a desire to learn from an experience. In the MBW RSS there was a climate within both the LEA and schools which suggested that they could effect change and raise standards. Participants were willing to ask difficult questions and challenge practice. A high degree of co-operation among participants and an honest willingness to talk about strengths and weaknesses were important prerequisites for organisational learning. (Prange, 2003, 23-43)However, many school improvement initiatives have locomote short of their stated objectives because managers have tried to change too much, too quickly. If learning is to take place there must be a tacit understanding that this will not happen for all participants at the same time. Finally there was an acceptance by participants that if this initiative was not going to be just another one of many, which would have little impact beyond set funding, plans and systems had to be put in place which would sustain learning. (Nicolini, 2003, 727-47)LEAs are charged with the duty of managing and monitoring school improvement in their schools. There are many ways in which an LEA might approach this function. Areas for improvement could be identified in Educational Development Plan (EDPs) and targeted through programmes for continual professional development (CDP). possibly the most common mechanism used to stimulate school improvement by an LEA is the reflection and management of school improvement initiatives. (Gray, 2002, 27-34) The recent implementation of national initiatives in England (e.g. the National Literacy and Strategy and Numeracy moment in primary schools) has not stopped LEAs from continuing to develop locally targeted projects aimed at raising school standards.Most recently, inspection has been one route by which the performance of school improvement initiatives has been monitored (the programme began in January 1998). The Office of Standards in Education (OFSTED) underlines the important contribution an LEA can make in delivering school improvement by calling its framework for LEA inspection LEA support for school improvement, take out school improvement as an LEAs key function (OFSTED 20036).How ever, the Chief Inspector of schools in his annual report (1998/2003) claimed that some LEAs gave useless support to schools and could spawn a plethora of ineffective and often unwished-for initiatives which, more often than not, waste money and confuse and irritate schools (p. 20). The extent to which OFSTED can give detailed feedback on initiatives, sufficient to ensure organisational learning, is limited because inspections use a national framework and gum olibanum do not focus on the aims of different LEA initiatives.An alternative to inspection would be to use outside consultants to evaluate a specific programme. If an LEA is to make use of an evaluation to improve its services, the evaluators feedback can identify areas in which the LEA can learn and should indicate how that learning can be transferred to other initiatives. In evaluating the Making Belfast Work Raising Schools Standards initiative, the ISEIC team were specifically asked to investigate the impact of the ove rall project and to identify the factors which facilitated improvements and any barriers to success. The BELB, which has a history of innovative projects, wished to consider the implications of the evaluation with a mind to examining other school improvement projects and its part within these.The idea for the initiative stemmed from thinking in the plane section of Education Northern Ireland (DENI) which approached Making Belfast Work as funders. The initiative intended to help schools address significant disadvantage and under-achievement among their pupils. The project was intended to target a clear number of secondary schools and their main contributory primary schools. Additional funding of 3m, over a three-year period was to be allocated.We cannot report on all aspects of the evaluation covered in the main evaluation report (Sammons et al. 1998 Taggart and Sammons 2003) but will focus on ways in which the evaluations final report was able to feed back key learning points to t he LEA, relevant to its management of future school improvement initiatives and the extent to which the initiative had an impact in term of its stated aims. The feedback was couched in terms that were intended to enable BELBs personnel to engage with their own learning and thus better understand their crucial role in initiating and managing initiatives. By doing this, the evaluators sought to help the Board improve its capacity to learn and thus enrich the service it offered to schools in the crucial area of raising school standards.Outsiders offering schools critical friendship as a basis for dialogue can be invaluable to developing organisational learning capacity. Schools need an external perspective to observe what is not immediately apparent to those working on the inside. These individuals and groups can watch and listen, ask thought-provoking questions about formal and informal data that help those in schools sort out their thinking, make sound decisions and determine approp riate strategies.This relationship, however, is more likely to work when it is based on trust and support, where critical friends bring an open mind and a commitment to mutual exchange, rather than their own vested interests. 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