Organizational learning happens frequently within an organization and allows the organization to stay competitive in an everchanging environment.

It is a process of improvement that can increase efficiency, accuracy, or profits, to name a few
examples.
Organizational learning is an aspect of organizations and a subfield of organizational studies. As an aspect of an
organization, organizational learning is the process of creating, retaining, and transferring knowledge. Knowledge creation,
knowledge retention, and knowledge transfer can be seen as adaptive processes that are functions of experience.
[1]

Experience is the knowledge that contributes to the procedural understanding of a subject through involvement or

exposure. Research within organizational learning specifically applies to the attributes and behavior of this knowledge and
how it can produce changes in the cognition,routines, and behaviors of an organization and its individuals.[2]
Individuals are predominantly seen as the functional mechanisms for organizational learning by creating knowledge through
experience.[3] However, individuals' knowledge only facilitates learning within the organization as a whole if it is transferred.
Individuals may withhold their knowledge or exit the organization. Knowledge that is embedded into the organization, in
addition to its individuals, can be retained. [4] Methods to embed knowledge extend beyond retaining individuals to using
knowledge repositories such as communication tools, processes, routines, networks, and transactive memory systems. [5][6]
As a subfield, organizational learning is the study of experience, knowledge, and the effects of knowledge within an
organizational context.[7] The study of organizational learning directly contributes to the applied science of knowledge
management (KM) and the concept of the learning organization. Organizational learning is related to the studies
of organizational theory, organizational communication, organizational behavior, organizational psychology,
and organizational development. Organizational learning has received contributions from the fields of educational
psychology, sociology, economics, anthropology, political science, and management science.[8]

Units of Learning[edit]
Organizational learning is one of the four organizational units of learning: individual, team, organizational, and interorganizational. Organizational learning "involves the process through which organizational units (e.g. groups, departments,
divisions) change as a result of experience." An example of organizational learning is a hospital surgical team learning to
use new technology that will increase efficiency.[9]

Individual Learning is the smallest unit at which learning can occur. An individual learns new skills or ideas, and
his productivity at work may increase as he gains expertise. The individual can decide whether or not to share his
knowledge with the rest of the group. If the individual leaves the group and doesnt share his knowledge before leaving,
the group loses this knowledge.[10] In their study of software development, Boh, Slaughter and Espinosa (2007) found
that individuals were more productive the more specialized experience they had with a certain system. [11]

Group Learning is the next largest unit at which learning can occur. Group learning happens when individuals
within a group acquire, share, and combine knowledge through experience with one another. [12] There are conflicting
definitions of group learning among researchers studying it. One belief is that group learning is a process in which a
group takes action, gets feedback, and uses this feedback to modify their future action. [13] Another belief is that group
learning happens when a member shares his or her individual knowledge with other group members. Once this
happens, individual learning turns into group learning. [10]Reagans, Argote, and Brooks (2005) studied group learning by
examining joint-replacement surgery in teaching hospitals. They concluded that increased experience working together
in a team promoted better coordination and teamwork.[14] Working together in a team also allowed members to share
their knowledge with others and learn from other members.

Organizational Learning is the way in which an organization creates and organizes knowledge relating to their
functions and culture. Organizational learning happens in all of the organizations activities, and it happens in different
speeds. The goal of organizational learning is to successfully adapt to changing environments, to adjust under

uncertain conditions, and to increase efficiency.[15] According to Argote (1993), managers in manufacturing plants saw
organization learning occur when they found ways to make individual workers more proficient, improve the
organizations technology, tooling, and layout, improve the organizations structure, and determine the organizations
strengths.[3]

Inter-organizational Learning is the way in which different organizations in an alliance collaborate, share
knowledge, and learn from one another. An organization is able to improve their processes and products by integrating
new insights and knowledge from another organization. [16] By learning from another organization, an organization is
able to cut time costs, decrease the risks associated with problem solving, and learn faster. Learning from another
organization can mean either applying the same ideas used by that organization or modifying these ideas, thereby
creating innovation.[16] Interorganizational learning occurs frequently in fixed business models, such as franchising. The
franchisee looking to use the franchisors brand has to learn how to use the organizations business model before
starting a franchise.[17]

OL :

The technical perspective assumes that organizational learning is about the effective processing, interpretation of,
and response to, information both inside and outside the organization.

The social perspective on organization learning focuses on the way people make sense of their experiences at work. These
experiences may derive from explicit sources such as financial information, or they may be derived from tacit sources, such
as the feel that skilled craftsperson has .The more tacit and embodied forms of learning involve situated practices, and
socialization into a community of practice

LO
Learning organizations [are] organizations where people continually expand
their capacity to create the results they truly desire, where new and
expansive patterns of thinking are nurtured, where collective aspiration is set
free, and where people are continually learning to see the whole together.
(Senge 1990: 3)
The Learning Company is a vision of what might be possible. It is not brought
about simply by training individuals; it can only happen as a result of learning
at the whole organization level. A Learning Company is an organization that
facilitates the learning of all its members and continuously transforms itself.
(Pedler et. al. 1991: 1)
The following characteristics appear in some form in the more popular
conceptions. Learning organizations:
Provide continuous learning opportunities.
Use learning to reach their goals.
Link individual performance with organizational performance.
Foster inquiry people to share openly and take risks.
Are continuously aware of and interact with their environment.

ELEMENTS