According to
Rifkin and Fulop (1997) four terms are used in the literature for these
distinct themes: organizational learning, learning organization, learning
environment and learning space. In this paper the authors are concerned with
collective learning, and therefore the discussion herein after will concentrate
on organizational learning and the learning organization. Table 1 provides
numerous definitions of organizational learning/learning organization. The
definitions of Argyis (1977), Ducan and Weiss (1979) and Huber (1991) relate to
organizational learning, whereas the remaining definitions relate to the
learning organizations.
Organizational
learning is the set of processes used to obtain and apply new knowledge,
behaviour, tools, and values (Bennis and Nanus, 1985). It includes the
development of insights, associations and conclusions about the effectiveness
of past actions and their influence on future actions (Fiol and Lyles, 1985).
Organizational learning aims to reflect on experience and to self-organize
systems, structures and actions to meet changes appropriately, even if this
means some drastic departure from established norms (Morgan and Ramirez, 1983).
It involves shared assumptions, perspectives, and reference points that result
in agreed decision rules or heuristics for action. According to Shrivastava
(1986) these heuristics form the organization's knowledge. Learning takes place
throughout all levels of the organization, within and among systems, divisions,
departments and teams. Essentially, the entire system learns as it interprets
signals from the environment and plans for the future change.
For learning to
take place at an organizational level there need to be processes and structures
in place to help people create new knowledge, so that they can continuously
improve themselves and the organization. An organizational structure that is
process-oriented and founded on a strong TQM culture can significantly improve
an organization's learning capacity inasmuch as it can be used to guide human
patterns (Soloman, 1994; Love et al., 1998a).
Newcombe (1999)
suggests that parent organizations rarely learn from their projects because
they do not have in place the mechanisms to capture knowledge. At an
inter-organizational level, Newcombe (1999) suggests that strategic partnering
can maximize learning between construction organizations. Conversely, at an
intra-organizational level, Scott and Harris (1998) propose a methodology for
generating feedback to engender organizational learning in construction organizations.
Scott and Harris (1998) found that most project feedback systems in place were
informal and unstructured and therefore prohibited effective learning from
taking place. Similarly, in Australia Tucker et al. (1996) found from their
research that in contracting organizations without a quality system in place
feedback was based on an ad hoc system, that is, when problems occurred.
大神,没有翻译完吧?不是四段吗?