In today's fast-paced markets, business organizations are required to constantly revitalize themselves for long-lasting success. This mandates building and nurturing a no-holds-barred learning orientation. Effective organizations are believed to be configurations of management practices that encourage learning which becomes the basis for competitive advantage. Creating a learning organization is imperative for facilitating the journey to long-lasting success. This paper focuses on organizational learning as an important strategic initiative. The paper bases itself on extensive literature reviews to identify dominant thoughts on organizational learning in different eras. The paper introduces the concept of `the learning iceberg' which identifies the steps to building a strategic learning framework. It also introduces the concept of the `people-strategy matrix' for putting in place a workable learning strategy. In the light of these concepts, the paper discusses the cultural prerequisites and strategic implications of organizational learning.
Modern-day
business environment is ever more challenging and complex.
Dramatic shifts are constantly altering the business landscape.
D'Aveni (1994) calls it as the era of `hypercompetition'
to refer to the new and radically different scenario in
which firms compete. Under the traditional business settings,
firms focus on building a successful strategy that is translated
into a durable competitive position. Hypercompetition, on
the other hand, symbolizes a different way of competing
where firms need to follow different rules of behavior and
respond to the market needs with dynamic and continually
changing strategy.
In
such fast-paced markets, competition is much like shooting
on moving objects. To catch up, organizations need to seize
opportunities, and business entities need to constantly
rejuvenate themselves for long-lasting survival and success.
This requires building and nurturing a no-holds-barred learning
orientation. Learning seems to be the only imperative today
in order to attain a sustainable advantage. Business organizations
need to have an unflinching passion towards promoting a
learning culture. This is the key to enhancing organizational
performance and effectiveness. This eventually results in
a domino effect on competitive advantage. |
