1. Building a Learning Organisation
Group Members:
Name of the Student Roll No
Nishad Banodkar P1006
Kinnar Majithia P1026
Charusheela Khandale P1024

2. Learning Organisation
Gravin Defines the learning organisation as follows:
Learning organisation is skilled at five main activities such as
1. Systematic Problem Solving
2. Experimentation with new approaches
3. Learning from past experiences
4. Learning from best practices from others
5. Transferring knowledge quickly and efficiently
3 M’s of framework for Learning organisation:
1. Meaning
2. Management
3. Measurement
No learning organisation is built overnight. Success comes from carefully cultivated
attitudes, commitments, management processes that accrue slowly and steadily.

3. Role of learning for improvement
Its not possible for any organisation to improve without learning first. It’s a first step
in order to produce large result set for the desired output.
Continuous improvement requires a commitment to learning is the basic truth of
improvement.
Basic functionality of organisation involves
1. Solving a problem
2. Introducing a product
3. Reengineering a process
These all processes require a new way of learning, seeing the world with a new light
and acting accordingly.
In absences of above, generally companies are found to repeat the old practices.
Thus the change that is proposed remains cosmetic and improvement thus become
fortuitous or short lived.

4. Analysis of 3 Ms…
Scholars are always found talking about various things regarding learning. Their
discussion of learning organisations have often been reverential and utopian, filled
with near mystical terminologies.
e.g.
Peter Senge with his book “The fifth Discipline” describes, “where people
continually expand their capacity to create the result the truly desire, where new and
expansive patterns of thinking are nurtured, where collective aspiration is set free
and where people are continually learning how to learn together”.
Senge thus suggested use of 5 component technologies:
1. Systems Thinking
2. Personal Mastery
3. Mental models
4. Shared Vision
5. Team Learning
According to him, these 5 components play very important part in learning
organisations, pursuing the goal with these 5 polished components takes the
organisation to the new heights of achievements.

5. Analysis of 3 Ms…Continued...
Nonaka characterised knowledge creating companies as place where “Inventing new
knowledge is not a specialised activity…it is a way of behaving, indeed, a way of
being, in which everyone is a knowledge worker.”
All these examples are very idyllic and desirable. No doubt. But at the same time,
they do not provide a framework for action. The recommendations are far too
abstract and too many questions remained unanswered.
e.g. managers cant answer the question like, when exactly company has become
learning organisation? Or what concrete behavioural changes required in
organisation? Or what policies must be there in place? Etc.
Most discussions of learning organisations finesse these issues. Their focus is high
philosophy and grand themes. Sweeping metaphors rather than the gritty details of
practice, three critical issues are left unresolved, yet each is essential for effective
implementation.

6. Analysis of 3 Ms…Continued...
First is the question of Meaning. We need a plausible, well-grounded definition of
learning oraganisation; it must be actionable and easy to apply.
Second is the question of Management. We need clearer guidelines for practice,
filled with operational advice rather than high aspirations.
Third is the question of Measurement. We need better tools for assessing an
organisation’s rate and level of learning to ensure that gains have in fact been made.
Once these 3 Ms are addressed, managers will have a firmer foundation for
launching learning organisations. Without this ground work, progress is unlikely,
and for the simplest of reasons. For learning to become a meaningful corporate goal,
it must be first understood.

7. What is a Learning Organisation?
Surprisingly, a clear definition of learning organisation has proved to be elusive over
the years.
Organisational theorists have studied learning for a long time; the accompanying
quotations suggest that there is still considerable disagreement.
Most scholar view organisational learning as a process that unfolds over time and
link it knowledge acquisition and improved performance.
Some, for example, believe that behavioural change is required for learning; others
on other hand insists that new ways of thinking are enough, nothing extra is requires
to do.
Some cite information processing as the mechanism through which learning takes
place; others proposed shared insights, organisational routines, and even sometimes
memory.
And some think that organisational learning is common, while others believed that
flawed, self-serving interpretations are the norms.
Due to all above conflicts in producing a single unique view on learning
organisation, scholars have first considered a basic definition.

8. What is a Learning Organisation? Continued…
Definition:
A learning organisation is an organisation skilled at creating, acquiring and
transferring knowledge and at modifying its behaviour to reflect new knowledge and
insights.
This begins with simple truth:
New ideas are essential if learning is to take place. Some times they are created
through flashes of insight or creativity; at other times they arrive from outside the
organisation or are communicated by knowledge insiders.
Whatever be the sources, these ideas are the trigger for organisational improvement.
But they can not themselves create a learning organisation.
It has been found that all institutes, companies have been effective in creating new
knowledge or acquiring the same, but all of them have one common thing, i.e. they
are notable less successful in applying the knowledge to their own activities.

9. What is a Learning Organisation? Continued…
Total quantity management, for example, is now taught at many business schools,
yet the number using it to guide their own decision making is very small.
Organisational consultant advise clients on social dynamics and small group
behaviour but are notorious for their own infighting and factionalism.
And GM with a few exceptions (like saturn and Nummy), has had little success in
revamping its manufacturing practices, even though its managers are experts on lean
manufacturing, JIT production and requirement for improved quality of work life.
Organisations that do pass the definitional test- Honda, Corning and general Electric
come quickly to mind-have by contrast become adept at translating ne w knowledge
into new ways of behaving.
These companies actively manage the learning process to ensure that it occurs by
design rather than by chance. Distinctive policies and practices are responsible for
their success, they form the building blocks of learning organisation.

10. Building Blocks
Learning Organisations are skilled at five main activities:
1. Systematic Problem Solving
2. Experimentation with new approaches
3. Learning from past experiences
4. Learning from best practices from others
5. Transferring knowledge quickly and efficiently
Each of these is accompanied by a distinctive mind-set, tool kit, pattern behaviour.
Many companies practice these activities as learning organisations.
But only few of them are consistently successful because they rely largely on
happenstances and isolated examples.
Systems and processes that support these activities are created and integrated them
into a whole system to support daily operations.

11. Systematic Problem Solving
This is the first activity. It hugely relies on philosophy and methods of quality
movement. This idea is broken down into various parts which in turn make this idea
a huge success.
1. Relying on scientific method rather than guess work for diagnosing problems. It
helps in understanding the root cause and thus improves efficiency of problem
solving. (what Deming calls the “plan, do, check, act” cycle is applicable over here).
2. Insisting on data rather than assumptions. Having a concrete data helps to analyse
the situation in better way. It also helps in decision making considerably as decisions
made based on factual data are always far efficient and accurate than those which
are made based on assumptions (Fact based management).
3. Use of simple statistical tools like histogram, pareto charts, regression,
correlation, cause and effect diagrams etc.

12. Systematic Problem on problem solving techniques using standard day
Most training programs focuses Solving continued…
to day life examples which helps to understand the concept in much simpler way.
These tools are very effective and also relatively straight forward and thus are easily
communicated.
Accuracy and precision are essential for learning. Employees must therefore become
more disciplined in their thinking and more attentive to details.
5 Wh type questions are always useful in this kind of approach. They are
Who, What, Why, Where, When and How
Thus answers to all these questions effectively produce good results for this
technique.

13. Systematic Problem Solving -made use of problem solving
Lets analyse famous Xerox machine case which Xerox Machine
process.
Step by step approach
Step to be taken Identify & select problem
Question to be answered What do we want to change?
Expansion/divergence Lots of problems for
consideration
Contraction/Convergence One problem statement. One
“Desired state” agreed upon
What’s next? Identify the gap.

14. Systematic Problem Solving - Xerox Machine
continued…
2nd step in Xerox machine progress is as follows:
Step by step approach
Step to be taken Analyse Problem
Question to be answered What’s preventing us from
reaching the “Desired State”?
Expansion/divergence Lots of potential causes
identified.
Contraction/Convergence Key causes to be identified and
verified
What’s next? Key causes documented and
ranked.

15. Systematic Problem Solving - Xerox Machine
continued…
3rd step in Xerox machine progress deals with solution generation. This is most
important step as solutions generated in this step will only be considered while
making selection for the final solution:
Step by step approach
Step to be taken Generate Potential Solution
Question to be answered How could we make the
changes?
Expansion/divergence Lots of ideas on how to solve
the problem.
Contraction/Convergence Potential solutions clarified.
What’s next? Solution List

16. Systematic Problem Solving - Xerox Machine
continued…
4th step: selecting the most appropriate solution amongst the various solutions:
Step by step approach
Step to be taken Select and plan the solution
Question to be answered What is the best way to do it?
Expansion/divergence Lots of criteria for evaluating
potential solution.
Lots of ideas on how to
implement and evaluate the
selected solution.
Contraction/Convergence Criteria to use for evaluating
the solutions is agreed up on.
Implement and evaluate plans
agreed upon.
What’s next? Monitor the change.
Evaluate solution effectiveness

17. Systematic Problem Solving - Xerox Machine
continued…
5th step: Implementing the solution selected:
Step by step approach
Step to be taken Implement the solution
Question to be answered Are we following the plan?
Expansion/divergence
Contraction/Convergence Implementation of agreed-on
contingency plan.
What’s next? Solution in place

18. Systematic Problem Solving - Xerox Machine
continued…
6th step: Evaluate the Solution:
Step by step approach
Step to be taken Evaluate the solution.
Question to be answered How well did it work?
Expansion/divergence
Contraction/Convergence Effectiveness of solution
agreed upon.
Continuing problems if any.
What’s next? Verification if problem is
solved or not.
Agreement to address
continuing problems.

19. Experimentation
This activity involves the systematic searching for and testing of new knowledge.
Use of scientific method is essential. It takes 2 main forms:
1. On going programs
2. One-of-a-kind demonstration projects
Ongoing programs are series of experiments designed to produce incremental gain
of knowledge. They are mainstay of most continuous improvement programs and
are especially common to the shop floor. For example, corning, with diverse raw
material and new formulation to increase the yield and provide better grades of
glass.
Successful ongoing programs share various common characters:
1. They work hard to ensure steady flow of several ideas
2. Requires incentive system that favors risk taking.
3. Ongoing programs need managers and employees who are skilled and well
trained to perform the execution of the task.

20. Experimentation Continued…
Demonstration Projects
These are usually larger and more complex than ongoing programs. These include
holistic, systematic, system wide changes introduced on single site and often
undertaken with the goal of developing new organisational capabilities.
These projects share number of distinctive characteristics:
1. These are usually first project to adopt changes and implement the same for which
organisation hoping to see new effects and implement the changes in new system.
Involve “Learning by doing” considerably.
2. Establish policy guidelines and decision rules for later projects of the
organisation.
3. Often encounter severe tests of commitment from employees who wish to see
whether the changed rules have been implemented.
4. They are normally developed by several strong multi-functioning teams reporting
directly to the senior management.
5. They tend to have only limited impact on the rest of the organisational behaviour
if they are not accomplished by explicit strategies for transferring learning.

21. 3. Learning from Past Experience
 This is the 3rd of the five main activities at which Learning Organizations are skilled.
 Companies must review their successes and failures , assess them systematically,
and record the lessons in a form that employees find open and accessible.
 One expert has called this process the “Santayana Review”, citing the famous
philosopher George Santayana, who coined the phrase “Those who cannot
remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”
 Regrettably, too many managers today are indifferent, even hostile, to the past, and
by failing to reflect on it, they let valuable knowledge escape.

22. IBM 360 Computer Series
 A study of more than 150 new products concluded that “the knowledge gained from
failures is often instrumental in achieving subsequent success.”
 This can be simplified by summarizing that “Failure is the Ultimate Teacher.”
 For example: IBM’s 360 computer series which was one of the most popular and
profitable ones was based on the technology of the failed Stretch computer that
preceded it. In this case, as in many others, learning occurred by chance rather than
by careful planning.

23. BOEING
 However, a few companies have established processes that need their managers to
periodically think about the past and learn from their mistakes.
 For example: Boeing 737 and 747 – Both planes were introduced with much fanfare
and with serious problems. Project Homework, a high-level employee group, was
commissioned by senior managers to ensure that the problems were not repeated.
 Project Homework compared the development processes of the 737 and 747 with
those of the 707 and 727 which were the company’s two most profitable planes.
 After working for 3 years, they produced hundreds of recommendations and an inch-
thick booklet; several members of the team were then transferred to the 757 and 767
start-ups, and guided by experience they produced the most successful, error-free
launches in Boeing’s history.

24. XEROX
 Similar retrospective approach adopted by other companies like Xerox, which, like
Boeing, studied its product development process, examining 3 troubled products in
an effort to understand – Why the company’s new business initiatives failed so
often?
 Senior management invited ADL(Arthur D. Little – consulting company which
focused on its past successes) consultants from around the world to a 2-day
“jamboree”, featuring booths and presentations documenting a wide range of the
company’s most successful practices, publications and techniques.

25. British Petroleum
 BP established a post-project appraisal unit to review major investment projects,
write-up case studies and derive lessons for planners that were incorporated into
revisions of the company’s planning guidelines.
 For this, a 5-person unit reported to the board of directors and reviewed 6 projects
annually. The bulk of the time was spent in the field interviewing managers and such
type of review is conducted regularly at project level.
 These approaches highlight the recognition of the companies towards productive
failure as contrasted with unproductive success.
 Productive Failure – Leads to insight, understanding, and thus, an addition to the
commonly held wisdom of the organization.
 Unproductive Success – Occurs when something goes well but nobody knows why.

26.  Case-studies and post-project reviews can be performed with little cost other than
manager’s time.
 Companies can take the help of faculty and students at the local colleges or
universities as they bring fresh perspective and view internships and case studies as
opportunities to gain experience and learning.
 Computerized Data Banks – Established by a few companies to speed up learning
process.
 Paul revere Life Insurance – Management requires all problem-solving teams to
complete short registration forms describing their proposed projects if they hope to
qualify for the company’s award program.
 The company then enters these forms into its computer system and can immediately
retrieve a listing of other groups of people who have worked or are working on the
topic, along with a contact person. They can then call up the person with the
required relevant experience.

27. 4. Learning from Others
 Apart from the learning through reflection and self-analysis, sometimes, the most
powerful insights come from looking outside one’s immediate environment to gain a
new perspective.
 It is also referred to as SIS – Stealing Ideas Shamefully. Even companies in
completely different businesses can be fertile sources of ideas and catalysts for
creative thinking.

28. Benchmarking
 Benchmarking helps in understanding practices rather than observing results.
 It is a disciplined process which:
 Begins with a thorough search to identify best-practice organizations
 Continues with careful study of one’s own practices and performance
 Progresses through systematic site visits and interviews
 Concludes with an analysis of results, development of recommendations, and
implementation
• It may be time-consuming, but it may not be terribly expensive.

29. Customers
 It is yet another fertile source of ideas; conversations with customers invariably
stimulate learning.
 Customers can provide:
 Up-to-date product information
 Competitive comparisons
 Insights into changing preferences
 Immediate feedbacks about service and patterns of use.
 Companies need these insights at all levels, from executive suite to shop floor.
 At Motorola, members of Operating and Policy committee, including the CEO,
meet personally, on a regular basis with the customers.

30. Customers (contd..)
 Customers can’t always articulate their needs or remember the most recent problems
they have had with a product or service. For that, the managers must observe them
in action.
 Example: Xerox employs a number of anthropologists at its Palo Alto Research
Center to observe users of new document products in their offices.
 Digital Equipment has developed “contextual inquiry” – an interactive process that
is used by software engineers to observe users of new technologies as they go about
their work.
 Milliken created “first-delivery teams” that accompany the first shipment of all
products; team members follow the product through the customer’s production
process to see how it is used and then develop ideas for further improvement.
 Learning can occur only in a receptive environment. Learning Organizations
cultivate the art of open attentive listening.

31. 5. Transferring Knowledge
 Ideas carry maximum impact when they are shared broadly rather than being held
in a few hands.
 Knowledge transfer can take place through mechanisms like:
o Written, Oral and Visual reports
o Site visits and tours
o Personnel rotation programs
o Education and training programs
o Standardization programs

32. Reports
 Purposes served:
o Summarize findings
o Provide checklists of dos and don’ts
o Describe important processes and events
 Reports cover a multitude of topics from:
o Benchmarking studies
o Accounting conventions
o Newly discovered marketing techniques
 Now, written reports are often supplemented by Videotapes which offer greater
immediacy and fidelity.

33. Tours
 Tours are a popular means of knowledge transfer, especially for large,
multidivisional organizations with multiple sites.
 To introduce to its managers to the distinctive manufacturing practices of New
United Motor Manufacturing Inc. (NUMMI), its joint venture with Toyota,
General Motors developed a series of specialized tours; some were geared to upper
and middle managers, while the others were aimed at lower ranks.
 Each tour described the policies, practices and systems that were most relevant to
that level of management.
 Reports and Tours are cumbersome ways of knowledge transfer. The gritty details
that lie behind complex management concepts are difficult to communicate
secondhand.

34. Personnel Rotation Program
 In many organizations, expertise is held locally: in a skilled computer technician, or
a savvy global brand manager or maybe in a division head. Those in daily contact
with these experts benefit enormously from their skills.
 Their field of influence is narrow and transferring them to different parts of the
organization helps in sharing their knowledge. Transfers maybe across different
levels.
 Example: A supervisor experienced in just-in-time production might move to
another factory to apply the methods there. A successful division manager might
move to a lagging division to invigorate it with already proven ideas.

35. PPG in Chehalis
 This instance from PPG demonstrates Line to Staff transfer.
 PPG constructed a new float-glass plant in Chehalis, Washington and employed
radically new technology as well as innovations in HR management.
 All workers were organized into small, self-managing teams with responsibility for
work-assignments, scheduling problem solving and improvement, and peer review.
 After several years running the factory, the plant manager was promoted to Director
of HR for the entire glass group. Drawing on his experiences at Chehalis, he
developed a training program geared toward first-level supervisors that taught the
behaviors needed to manage employees in a participative, self-managing
environment.
 This example suggests that education and training programs are powerful tools for
transferring knowledge but for maximum effectiveness they must be linked
explicitly to implementation.

36. Xerox and GTE
 Xerox exemplifies the implementation of learning. When Xerox introduced
problem-solving techniques to its employees in the 1980s, everyone from top to
bottom was taught in small departmental or divisional groups led by their immediate
superior.
 After an introduction to concepts and techniques, each group applied what they
learned to a real-life work problem.
 GTE’s Quality: The Competitive Edge program: At the beginning of the 3-day
course, each team received a request from company officer to prepare a complete
quality plan for their unit, based on the course concepts, within 60 days.
 Discussion periods of 2 to 3 hours were set aside during the program so that teams
could begin working their plans. When the reports submitted by the employees were
implemented, GTE produced dramatic quality improvement.

37. AT&T’s CQA
 CQA – Chairman’s Quality Award, is an internal quality competition with a twist.
The twist is that the awards are given not only for absolute performance but also for
improvements in scoring from the previous year.
 On 1000-points, Gold, Silver and Bronze Improvement Awards are given to units
that have improved their scores 200,150 and 100 points respectively, thus providing
the incentive for change.
 An accompanying Pockets of Excellence program simplifies knowledge transfer.
Every year, it identifies every unit within the company that has contributed at least
60% of the possible points in each award category and then publicizes the names of
these units using written reports and e-mail.

38. Measuringmaxim – “If you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it.”
 A well-known Learning
 Traditionally, the solution has been “Learning Curves” and “Manufacturing Progress
Functions.”
 Both concepts date back to the discovery, during the 1920s and 1930s, that the cost of
air-frame manufacturing fell predictably with increases in cumulative volume. These
increases were viewed as proxies for greater manufacturing knowledge, and most
early studies examined their impact on the costs of direct labor.
 Later studies expanded the focus, looking at total manufacturing costs and the impact
of experience in other industries including shipbuilding, oil refining and consumer
electronics.
 Typically, learning rates were in the 80% to 85% range (meaning that with a doubling
of cumulative production, costs fell to 80% - 85% of their previous level), although
there was wide variation.

39. BCG – on the logic of Learning Curves, firms like Boston Consulting Group argued
 Drawing Experience Curves
that industries as a whole faced “Experience Curves”, costs and prices that fell by
predictable amounts as industries grew and their total production increased.
 With this observation, consultants suggested, came an iron law of competition.
 To enjoy the benefits of experience, companies would have to rapidly increase their
production ahead of competitors to lower prices and gain market share.

40. Learningcurves areExperience Curves aerospace, defense, and
 Both these and still widely used, especially in the
electronics industries.
 BOEING has established learning curves for every workstation in its assembly plant;
they assist in monitoring productivity, determining work flows and staffing levels, and
setting prices and profit margins on new airplanes.
 Experience curves are common in semiconductors and consumer electronics, where
they are used to forecast industry cost and prices.

41. A For companies hoping to become Learning Organizations, these measures are
 few Concerns..
incomplete.
 They focus on only a single measure of output (cost or price) and ignore learning that
affects other competitive variables like quality, delivery or new product introductions.
 They suggest only one possible learning driver (total production volumes) and ignore
both the possibility of learning in mature industries, where output is flat, and the
possibility that learning might be driven by other sources, such as new technology or
the challenge posed by competing products.
 Perhaps, most important they tell us little about the sources of learning or the levers of
change.

42. Half-Life Curve to the discussed concerns, was developed by Analog
 Half-Life Curve, in response
Devices, a leading semiconductor manufacturer, as a way of comparing internal
improvement rates.
 A half-life curve measures the time it takes to achieve a 50% improvement in a
specified performance measure.
 When represented graphically, the performance measure (defect-rates, on-time
delivery, time to market) is plotted on the vertical axis and the time scale (days,
months, years) is plotted on the horizontal axis.
 Steeper slopes then represent faster learning.

43. Half-Life Curve (contd..)are graphed for 7 divisions.
 Here monthly data on consumer service
 Division C is clear winner: even though it started a high proportion of late deliveries,
its rapid learning rate led eventually to the best absolute performance.
 Divisions D, E, G have been far less successful.

44. Half-Lifestraightforward – Companies, divisions or departments that take less
 The logic is Curve (contd..)
time to improve must be learning faster than their peers, which will translate into
superior performance in the long run.
 The target of 50% is a measure of convenience; it was derived empirically from
studies of successful improvement processes at a wide range of companies.
 Unlike learning and experience curves, they work on any output measure, not
confined to cost or price and are easy to operationalize, they provide a simple
measuring stick and allow ready comparison among groups.

45. Half-Life Curve - Weaknesses
 They focus only on results.
 Some types of knowledge take years to digest, with a few visible changes in
performance for longer periods. Creating a total quality culture, for instance, or
developing new approaches to product development are difficult systemic changes.
 Because of their long gestation periods, half-life curves or any other measures
focused solely on results are unlikely to capture any short-run learning that has
occurred.
 A more comprehensive framework is needed to track progress.

46. Organizational Learning Stages
 Organizational learning can be traced through 3 overlapping stages:
1. Cognitive – Members of the organization are exposed to new ideas, expand their
knowledge, and begin to think differently.
2. Behavioral – Employees begin to internalize new insights and alter their behavior.
3. Performance Improvement – With changes in behavior leading to measurable
improvements in results: superior quality, better delivery, increased market share, or
tangible gains.
 Because cognitive and behavioral changes typically precede improvements in
performance, a complete learning audit must include all 3.

47.  Surveys, questionnaires and interviews are useful for this purpose.
Organizational Learning Stages (contd..)
 At cognitive level, they would focus on attitudes and depth of understanding.
 At PPG, a team of HR experts periodically audits every manufacturing plant,
including extensive interviews with shop-floor employees to ensure that concepts are
well-understood.
 To assess Behavioral changes, surveys and questionnaires must be supplemented
with direct observation.
Eg: Domino’s Pizza uses “mystery shoppers” to assess managers’
commitment to customer service at its individual stores.
 Other companies invite outside consultants to visit, attend meetings, observe
employees in action, and report what they have learned.
 A comprehensive learning audit also measures performance.

48. First Steps to becoming Learning Organization
 Learning organizations are not built overnight.
 Most successful examples are the products of carefully cultivated attitudes,
commitments, and managerial processes that have accrued slowly and steadily over
time.
 To become learning organization: Foster an environment that is conducive to
learning. There must be time for reflection and analysis, to think of strategies and
invent new products.
 Training in brainstorming, problem solving, evaluating experiments and other core
learning skills are therefore essential.

49. Steps (contd..) is to open up boundaries and simulate the exchange of ideas.
 Another powerful lever
 General Electric CEO Jack Welch considers this such a powerful stimulant of
change that he has made “boundarylessness” a cornerstone of the company’s strategy
for the 1990s.
 Managers can create Learning Forums which foster learning by requiring employees
to wrestle with new knowledge and consider its implications.
 Coupled with a better understanding of the “three Ms,” the meaning, management
and measurement of learning, this shift provides a solid foundation for building
learning organizations.

50. Definitionslearning means the process of improving actions though better
 Organizational of Organizational Learning
knowledge and understanding.
 An entity learns if, through its processing of information, the range of its potential
behaviors is changed.
 Organizations are seen as encoding inferences from history into routines that guide
behavior.
 Organizational learning is a process of detecting and correcting error.
 Organizational learning occurs through shared insights, knowledge and mental
models… and builds on past knowledge and experience – that is, on memory.

51. Stages of prototypes (what is a good product?)
1. Recognizing Knowledge
2. Recognizing attributes within prototypes (ability to define some conditions under
which process gives good output).
3. Discriminating among attributes (which attributes are important? Experts may differ
about relevance of patterns; new operators are often trained through apprenticeships).
4. Measuring attributes (some key attributes are measured; measures may be qualitative
and relative).
5. Locally controlling attributes (repeatable performance; process designed by expert,
but technicians can perform it).

52. Stages of Knowledge (contd..)
5. Locally controlling attributes (repeatable performance; process designed by expert,
but technicians can perform it).
6. Recognizing and discriminating between contingencies (production process can be
mechanized and monitored manually).
7. Controlling contingencies (process can be automated).
8. Understanding procedures and controlling contingencies (process is compeletely
understood).

53. THANK YOU