Organizational Change and Learning

 

Organizational Change and Learning

The rapid changes in organizational environment and increasing competition has led to the emergence of organizational learning. According to the studies, the organizations which have built their learning capacities can lead the market and increase their profitability.

Elements of organizational learning –

• ·     Organizational learning is a continuous process which leads to integrated initiatives that produce permanent changes in various areas.
• ·     The three main subsystems of organizational learning are: acquiring new inputs and its analysis is the first one. The new inputs could be change in technology, change in organizational structure or any other changes. Innovation is the main character at this stage.
• ·     The second subsystem is about retaining the new inputs which depends on how well these inputs have been combined with the ongoing process. This is the implementation stage.
• ·     The third subsystem indulges the use of newly acquired inputs in the daily activities of the organization.
• ·     Organizational learning acts as a fuel for its own car. It improves the organizational learning ability of the organizations.

Factors responsible for change –

• Political factors – Changes in the government policies or any other political aspect impacts the operation of the organization.
• Owners – The owners refer to stakeholders who have a say in the decisions impacting the operations of the company directly and indirectly.
• Social factors – Changes might be required to fulfill the changed demands of the customers due to change in trends or any other factor.
• Competitors – Changes would be required to formulate new strategies in order to tackle their competitors and attract a larger share a market than their competitors.
• Technology – For the continuous success of an organization, it would require to adhere to the changes in technology. Whenever there is a better technology in the market, the organization needs to get its technological know-how updated or even changed if required.
• Demographics - Increasing population and shifting age patterns as a result of diverse advances in various places complicate human resource management and necessitate a large number of modifications.

In order to implement the change correctly, the following systematic way could be followed –

• Having an understanding of the above given factors – The first step to solve a problem is to understand it and so is with organizational change.
• Formulation of a vision for organizational change – Creating a vision would provide with reasons for which the change is being made and it would also justify that the change will benefit the organization in long go.
• Forming communication strategy – The information about the change will require to be communicated to all the people in the organization.
• Handling resistance – Everyone might not agree to the change. Therefore, it is necessary to give them appropriate reason as to why the change is necessary.
• Implementing and evaluating change – The last step involves implementing the change and evaluating the results. It is necessary to keep a check whether the change is giving desired/near to desired results or not.

The above steps being followed in sequence will lead to a systematic application of any change that is required for the betterment of the organization.