The Learning School

Presented By
Vishnu Sankar S

Premises of the Learning School

1.

The complex and unpredictable nature of the organization's environment, often

coupled with the diffusion of knowledge bases necessary for strategy, precludes
deliberate control; strategy making must above all take the form of a process of
learning over time, in which, at the limit, formulation and implementation become
indistinguishable.

2.

While the leader must learn too, and sometimes can be the main learner, more
commonly it is the collective system that kams: there are many potential
strategists in most organizations.

3.

This learning proceeds in emergent fashion, through behavior that stimulates

thinking retrospectively, so that sense can be made of action.

4.

The role of leadership thus becomes not to preconceive deliberate strategies, but
to manage the process of strategic learning, whereby novel strategies can emerge

5.

Accordingly, strategies appear first as patterns out of the past, only later, perhaps,
as plans for the future, and ultimately, as perspectives to guide overall behavior.

Three Types of Org Learning

Single-loop learning: errors detected and corrected and firms continue

with their present policies and goals.

Double-loop: in addition to detection and correction errors, organization

questions and modifies its existing norms, procedures, policies, and

objectives (learning from mistakes).
Deutero-learning: organization learn how to carry out single-loop learning

and Double-loop learning.

First two learning types generate the third.

Double-loop learning and Deutero-learning are concerned with the why

and how to change organization.

Single-loop is concerned accepting change without questioning

underlying assumptions and beliefs.

Three Major Thrusts Related to

Org. Learning

Knowledge Creation
- Tacit Knowledge, & Explicit Knowledge
Dynamic Capabilities
- Strategic depends on learning, & learning depends on
capabilities
- 3 most popular concepts: Core competency, Strategic intent ,
Stretch & leverage .
Chaos Theory
- Technique that can be used for studying complex and dynamic
systems to reveal patterns of order
- small steps can generate big actions.

The Knowledge Spiral

Socialization describes the implicit sharing of tacit knowledge, often even

without the use of languagefor example, through experience. It is
prevalent in Japanese corporate behavior.

Externalization converts tacit to explicit knowledge, often through the

use of metaphors and analysisspecial uses of language.

Combination, favored in western corporations, combines and passes

formally codified knowledge from one person to another. "An MBA
education is one of the best examples of this kind" ; there is, incidentally,
almost no MBA education in Japan.

Internalization takes explicit knowledge back to the tacit form, as people

internalize it, as in "learning by doing." Learning must there- fore take
place with the body as much as in the mind

CROSSAN, LANE, AND WHITE'S UNIFYING FRAMEWORK

FOR
ORGANIZATIONAL LEARNING (1997)

"Organizational learning is the process of change in individual and

shared thought and action, which is affected by and embedded in the
institutions of the organization

Four basic processes link these levels, involving both behavioral and
cognitive changes. These are labeled intuiting, interpreting, integrating,
and institutionalizing
Intuiting is a subconscious process that occurs at the level of the
individual. It is the start of learning and must happen in a single mind.
Interpreting then picks up on the conscious elements of this
individual learning and shares it at the group level.
Integrating follows to change collective understanding at the group
level and bridges to the level of the whole organization.
Institutionalizing incorporates that learning across die organization
by imbedding it in its systems, structures, routines, and practices

CROSSAN, LANE, AND WHITE'S UNIFYING

FRAMEWORK FOR
ORGANIZATIONAL LEARNING (1997)

STRETCH AND LEVERAGE

Hamel and Prahalad defined stretch literally as "a misfit between [a firm's]
resources and [its] aspirations" .

On one hand, there are many firms that are well endowed with resources
but lack sufficient "stretch" in their aspirationsoften a complacency
associated with being "number one."

On the other hand, there are firms that have meager resource bases but
are driven by very high ambitionthat is, by an abundance of stretch in
aspirations. This is what allows the small David to take on the big Goliaths

But stretch is not enough: firms also need to learn how to leverage a
limited resource base. This can be done in various ways

1.

Concentrating

2. Accumulating
3. Complementing
4. Conserving
5. Recovering

CHAOS THEORY FOR STRATEGIC

MANAGEMENT

Long-term planning is very difficult

Industries do not reach a stable equilibrium

Dramatic change can occur unexpectedly

Short-term forecasts and predictions of patterns can be made

Guidelines are needed to cope with complexity and uncertainty

Contribution of the Learning School

Simple methods enable to explain complex phenomena.

Encourages decentralization vs. centralization (no need to have

omnipotent leader).

Helps us to see strategy as a learning process (individual and

collective).

Helps organizations create, and come up with novel and

interesting strategies.

Larger practice in professional organizations.