Elsevier

Organizational Dynamics

Volume 32, Issue 1, February 2003, Pages 46-61
Organizational Dynamics

Designing Learning Organizations

https://doi.org/10.1016/S0090-2616(02)00137-7Get rights and content

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INTRODUCTION

Many leaders face problems when trying to redesign their organizations. Stuck in the paradigm of the 20th century, they are more comfortable with the multidivisional form of command and control than the new form of learning organizations and knowledge-creation firms. Leaders often apply band-aid fixes, such as teams, without implementing a change in their fundamental beliefs and organizational design. Without these fundamental changes, they are doomed to fail at truly becoming learning

THE LEARNING ORGANIZATION WEB

In the fast changing world of global commerce, an L-form is needed to stay ahead of the pack. An L-form is more than adaptive; it is transformational. Thus, it engages everyone in the exploration, exploitation, and transfer of knowledge, increasing the collective learning throughout the organization and the capacity to create its future. The transformational nature of an L-form requires an organizational design that focuses both on components and their connections. The components include

DNA—THE 4 Bs FRAMEWORK

The information age has given way to the knowledge revolution. Thus organizational design has shifted to developing highly adaptive and transformational firms that require a new DNA to become L-forms (Fig. 2).

The L-form web design requires a framework to drive the transformation and generative learning processes. The 4 Bs framework is the glue that provides cohesion and connections. This glue forms the DNA of the learning organization. It is the lifeblood that makes the web work and gives it

IMPLICATIONS FOR MANAGERS

Managing learning organizations requires an understanding of more than just the processes of organizational learning. These processes are largely adaptive in most companies, but they flourish in a company designed to increase collective and generative learning throughout the organization. Collective and generative learning lead to transformation in L-forms with egalitarian cultures, transformational leaders, integrating mechanisms, horizontal structures, empowered knowledge workers, and

SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY

The criteria for organizational design are derived from: H. Mintzberg, “Organizational Design: Fashion or Fit,” Harvard Business Review, January–February 1981, 1–16; H. Mintzberg, Mintzberg on Management: Inside Our Strange World of Organizations (New York: The Free Press, 1989); and the 5-star model from J. R. Galbraith, Designing Organizations: An Executive Guide to Strategy, Structure, and Process (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2002).

On process theories of learning organizations: see D. A.

Acknowledgements

I would like to acknowledge Drs. Noel Tichy and Dave Ulrich at the University of Michigan business school, and Richard L. Daft at Vanderbilt’s Owen Graduate School of Management. I have been greatly influenced by their future-oriented work and encouraged by their support.

Constance R. James has had outstanding careers in both industry and higher education. After receiving her bachelor’s in economics and M.B.A. in finance from the University of Michigan, she worked at IBM Corp. in marketing. She then worked in financial and strategic management at Bendix and Burroughs Corporation, where she won awards for redesigning budgeting and strategic planning systems. She went to work as assistant to the president at Pepperdine University, where she developed its strategic

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Constance R. James has had outstanding careers in both industry and higher education. After receiving her bachelor’s in economics and M.B.A. in finance from the University of Michigan, she worked at IBM Corp. in marketing. She then worked in financial and strategic management at Bendix and Burroughs Corporation, where she won awards for redesigning budgeting and strategic planning systems. She went to work as assistant to the president at Pepperdine University, where she developed its strategic planning and budgeting systems.

In 1998, James received her Ph.D. from UCLA’s Anderson School. Her award-winning doctorate focused on corporate strategy and organizational learning. She has lectured nationally and internationally on corporate and business strategy and learning organizations. She currently teaches general management, business policy, strategy, and ethics, and international management in the Business Administration Division of Seaver College, Pepperdine University.

James is a member of the Malibu Rotary Club and the founder and faculty sponsor of Pepperdine Rotaract, a student club dedicated to service and building professional connections. She consults with numerous companies and sits on several boards.

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