From Organizational Learning to Theory U

15 1.1 Literature Review In this chapter I will consider eight authors that provide a definition of the Learning Organization. The core of most definitions is that organizational learning is a change within the organization that occurs as the organization acquires experience. The question then becomes: changes in what? Knowledge is the outcome of learning. The core definition of Argote (2011) is that Organizational Learning can be analyzed through a framework which is formed by a context: as a start of an operation for an organization; the organizational context: it affects the experience that the organization acquires and interacts with experience to create knowledge; and finally by the knowledge: the results from organizational learning, embedded in the context and concerns future experience (Argote, 2011). Argyris and Schon’s (1974) Organizational Learning theory is based on the understanding of two mode of activities: “Espoused theories” that represent what someone says they would do in a certain situation and comprised their beliefs, attitudes, and values and a “Theories-in-use” that represent what they actually do. Another important consideration that Argyris (1993) writes is that while in building learning organization we have to be vigilant about detecting and correcting errors, dedicated to producing innovations, and ready to change to meet the demands of the environment, which itself is often changing (Argyris, 1993). David Garvin (1993), professor at the Harvard Business School, writes about three critical question that are still unresolved and must be considered before a company start creating a learning organization; each of these are necessary for an effective enhancement. The first one regards the meaning: we need a plausible, well-grounded, easy-to-apply definition of a learning organization which can be easy to apply. Second one is management: we need better operational guidelines for practice, filled with operational advice rather than high aspirations. Finally, better tools for measurement can assess an organization's rate and level of learning to ensure that gains have in fact been made. You can't manage something if you can't measure it (Garvin, 1993). “An entity learns if, through its processing of information, the range of its potential behaviors is changed” (Huber, 1991, p.89). This author, reflect on four concept-processes: Knowledge acquisition is the process by which knowledge is obtained; Information distribution is the process by which information from different sources is shared and leads to new information; Information