Assignment 2: Mitigating Legal IssuesDue Week 5 and worth 200 pointsAs you are reviewing the growth of your selected company, you are noticing how diversity and sexual harassment issues are impacting

Identifying the Organizational Learning Issues

1. Assess the organization’s culture as it relates to shared knowledge, then specify the significant issue(s) that you discovered with the culture. Determine the disconnect you observed between the culture and organizational learning using three (3) of the five (5) mystifications. Support your response with at least one (1) example of each selected mystification within the organization.

Insight power is an electronics manufacturing company operating in the United States of America. They are outsourcing their products all over the world. The company owns a large number of manpower of about more than one thousand employees coming from the diverse background and social culture. The employees of the organization are not able to work efficiently due to lack of knowledge sharing system of the organization. The management is not making effective decisions to ensure proper sharing of knowledge in between the employees.

The biggest issue being faced at the organization is lack of appropriate connection in between the employees and management. The management is the main decision making entity at the organization. Due to the same reason, the employees do not feel any ownership of the suggested changes by the management. Also, the employees are quite afraid of the change due to some reservations over the change. The lack of coordination in between the management and employee cause resistance from the employees towards the change. It also reduces the development and performance of employees as a team (Andreadis, 2009). For example, when the management implements the decisions for the employees without taking their suggestions, then the employees feel no ownership towards the organization.

The second mystification is the lack of training program for the new hiring at the organization. The employees despite their experience need a proper overview of the new environment for proper functioning. The lack of such training program disturbs the employees’ relation and reduces organizational productivity (Boone, 2014). For example, when a new employee starts working at a particular station with older employees, the lack of new cultural overview causes mistakes from the new worker and aggravates the staff overall.

The third significant mystification is the lack of a proper continuous development program. Learning is a continuous process; however, when the organization does not facilitate the employees with new methods of performing things, then it degrades the employee morale, and it also causes a decrease in their motivation level (Forman, 2014). For example, when an employee needs certain training for performing a particular job more effectively; however, the organization does not arrange training for the same then it leads towards degradation of employee motivation and dedication level.

2. Give your opinion on the current Organizational Learning Mechanism(s) (OLMs) that hinder organizational learning. Support your response with one (1) example of training or learning initiative (e.g., sharing knowledge, training programs, working as a team, experiences, procedures, processes, etc.) and the outcome when it was applied to the organization.

The author believes that the organizational culture and organizational learning mechanisms are the most significant obstacles towards organizational learning. The current organizational learning mechanism is working towards the decrease in confidence level, moral level, dedication level, and motivation level of the employees. As the organization does not pay certain attention towards their development and suggestions; therefore, they do not feel any ownership for the organization (Li & Kozhikode, 2011). The lack of training culture, participative decision making, knowledge sharing, effective procedures, etc. is holding the employees from providing any productive suggestion towards the organization. As the organization is not paying certain attention towards the team development; therefore, all the employees are making an individual effort for completing their own assigned task instead of completing the significant tasks for the organization as a team. (Boone, 2014)

If the organization takes an initiative of launching sharing knowledge mechanism at the organization, then it will be providing a significant opportunity to all the individuals for sharing their concerns with the management. The employees will start to feel ownership towards the organization with a certain increase in their dedication level. It will improve teamwork for the organization and will increase organizational productivity at the same instant (Mehmood & Qadeer, 2012). For example, if an employee shares a better method for performing any current job at the organization, then the management will be able to save their operational cost while providing benefit to the employees performing the same job. It will also raise their confidence to work towards any suggestions as a team for the betterment of the organizational productivity.

3. Determine which one (1) of the following OLMs is suitable for replacing the identified OLM(s) that hinder organizational learning as a corrective action to facilitate the transition from individual to organizational learning: Off-line/Internal, On-line/Internal, Off-line/External or On-line/External. Justify your selection.

The author believes that the online/internal is the best applicable OLM suitable for replacing with the current OLM at the organization. The biggest reason for the same is that as it is an initiative, which means that the employees might have some significant ideas in their mind for the organizational betterment already. If the organization hires any expert from outside without properly consulting the employees, then it will demoralize them even further (Li & Kozhikode, 2011). Therefore, the organization needs to initiate the learning program internally for developing a positive culture. Afterward, the organization can move towards external learning. The selected OLM will vehemence both learning and working at the organization. This will provide an opportunity to the employees for performing online experimentation to identify the working or non-working of the idea (Mehmood & Qadeer, 2012). All the employees will be able to learn as per their own pace. The organization will be able to develop appropriate criteria after proper experimentation to bring convincing improvements.

4. Evaluate the norms of the organization’s learning culture to determine the source(s) that currently prevent productive learning by applying two (2) of the following norms: inquiry, issue orientation, transparency, integrity or accountability. Provide at least one (1) example of each of the selected norms’ manifestation within the organization in your evaluation.

The inquiry is the biggest norm creating obstacles towards the organizational learning. The reason behind the same is that the management is more concerned with the resolution of problems from the top instead of inquiring and resolving cause problem. For example, if there is a frequent failure of equipment at the workplace, then the management is more concerned with timely rectification and operation of the equipment (Forman, 2004). The management does not show the required interest towards the reasoning behind the frequent failure of the equipment. It is quite possible that the employees are not able to operate the equipment effectively leading to the frequent equipment failure. If the management inquires the same problem properly, then they will be arranging training for the employees leading to better operation of the equipment and the reduction of frequent problems with the equipment (Boone, 2014).

The second hindering norm at the organization is transparency. The employees lack certain confidence that the management will provide the required insight and brainstorm to their suggestions. Therefore, the employees resist sharing such suggestions with the management (Andreadis, 2009). For example, if an employee has an idea for bringing certain improvement in the productivity of particular equipment; however, they are aware that the management will not be considering their suggestion in an appropriate required manner. Therefore, due to the same reason, they will not share their concern with the management. Also, if the management does not share the benefits of a particular decision with the team members, then they either will resist the change or will not accept the change in an effective manner.

References

Andreadis, N. (2009). Learning and organizational effectiveness: A systems perspective. Performance Improvement, 48(1), 5-11. doi: 10.1002/pfi.20043

Boone, S. (2014). Using Organizational Learning to Increase Operational and Conceptual Mental Models Within Professional Learning Communities. Journal Of Psychological Issues In Organizational Culture, 5(3), 85-99. doi: 10.1002/jpoc.21152

Forman, D. (2004). Changing perspectives from individual to organizational learning. Performance Improvement, 43(7), 16-21. doi: 10.1002/pfi.4140430707

Li, J., & Kozhikode, R. (2011). Organizational learning of emerging economy firms. Organizational Dynamics, 40(3), 214-221. doi: 10.1016/j.orgdyn.2011.04.009

Mehmood, S., & Qadeer, D. (2012). Organization Learning as a Mediating Mechanism between TQM and Organizational Performance: A Review and Directions. SSRN Electronic Journal. doi: 10.2139/ssrn.2283319