SM WEI Jiang School of Managem’t

1. The Learning Company A Strategy for Sustainable Development Mike Pedler John Burgoyne Tom Boydell SM WEI Jiang School of Managem’t

2. 1 The Idea of the Learning Company • Definition: A learning company is an organization that • facilitates the learning of all its members and • continuously transform itself. • Learning Organization Vs. Learning Company • Organization: mechanical sort of word, somewhat • abstract and lifeless • Company:one of the oldest words for a group of people • engaged in a joint enterprise, collective • endeavor and not to identify to a particular • legal form or ownership pattern SM WEI Jiang School of Managem’t

3. 1 The Idea of the Learning Company • Who are our companions? • Employees, owners, customers, suppliers, neighbors, • the environment and even competitors • Action in the Learning Company, two purposes: • ----To resolve the immediate problem • ----To learn from that process • How do companies come to be the way they are? • Three perspectives: • ---- Ideas: companies are a product of the visions and • images that their founders sought to create, and • succeeding generations try to recreate. • ---- Life stage: companies need to be of a form and • behavior appropriate to its age or stage. • ---- Era: companies are shaped by, and fit in with, the • economic and cultural context. SM WEI Jiang School of Managem’t

4. 2 Why is the idea of the learning company relevant now? SM WEI Jiang School of Managem’t

5. The Evolution of Organization Primal Phase: The Pioneer Organization ----characterized by excellence and winning Rational Phase: The Differentiated Organization ----characterized by order, structure, systematic specialization, shake-up, improvement communication and/or self development Developmental Phase: The Integrated Organization ----typically TQM (by Deming), characterized by unity, systematic meaning, purpose, ethics, cooperating, morality, ecology. SM WEI Jiang School of Managem’t

6. Alienation, anger, no transfer of learning, training bureaucracies Not getting the organization any- where, too many changes What about morality and spirituality in organization? Lack of skilled workers P1 P2 P3 P4 Organizational Transformation the Learning Company, TQM Systematic training Organization Development S1 S21 S3 S4 Self- development action-learning S22 Excellence 1955 1965 1975 1985 1995 S23 The Evolution of Training and Development SM WEI Jiang School of Managem’t From systematic training to the Learning Company

7. 1 Learning approach to Strategy STRATEGY 2 Participative policy making 3 Informating 4 Formative accounting & control THE LEARNING COMPANY LOOKING IN 5 Internal exchange 6 Reward flexibility 7 Enabling structures STRUCTURES 8 Boundary workers as environmental scanners LOOKING OUT 9 Inter-company learning 10 Learning climate LEARNING OPPORTUNITY 11 Self-development for all 3 Are You a Learning Company? SM WEI Jiang School of Managem’t

8. STRATEGY LOOKING IN Informating Learning approach to Strategy Formative accounting & control Internal exchange Participative policy making THE LEARNING COMPANY Enabling structures Reward flexibility Learning climate Boundary scanners Self-development for all Inter-company learning LEARNING OPPORTUNITY LOOKING OUT The fishbone SM WEI Jiang School of Managem’t

9. The Biography of Your Company ----Company Biography Activity SM WEI Jiang School of Managem’t

10. Step 1: Small group of people that should be the whole company, could be the board of directors, could be a group representing all the main parts of the company. Step 2: Each member to consider where they think the company is now as figure 1 and to put a master chart on the wall and ask each to put a cross on the line that expresses the view. Step 3: Checking on your own interpretation of where the company is now and establishing some consensus on the question of where you are on the lifeline. Step 4: Focusing on the past and considering some of the events and decisions that have made the company what it is today. Step 5: Using ‘U curve’ method underlying the activities in the company biography activity, in the curve, the diagnosis of present state is dealt with Learning Company Profile. Step 6: Moving down to the future-focused right-hand side of the U-curve, starting with abstract ideas and visions and ending with the first step. SM WEI Jiang School of Managem’t

11. The transforming company 7 5 The wilderness company 4 The established company The dying company 6 3 The rational company 2 The pioneer company 1 The infant company Figure The Life Stages of A Company SUCCESS or COMPLEXITY SM WEI Jiang School of Managem’t TIME or EFFORT

12. Events First steps Phases Strategies, options and alternatives Themes Visions and intentions Diagnosis: how do we wish to change? Past: analysis Present: diagnosis Future: direction Figure The U curve of company biography SM WEI Jiang School of Managem’t

13. Becoming a Learning Company ----How do we get started? SM WEI Jiang School of Managem’t

14. Work with the board of directors • Work out from the human resources department • A joint union and management initiative • Set up a series of task forces • Run a consciousness-raising development • programme • Work with the strategic planning cycle • Begin with diagnosis • Start with a community conference or teach in • Start with one department • Major on one of the key dimensions • (e.g. informating ideas, technology and • software through organization) SM WEI Jiang School of Managem’t