The Sense in Organisational Learning, Knowing and Sense making Essay Example for Free

The sentiency impression in Organisational Learning, wise to(p) and Sense making EssayExperience in Learning Learning is the acquisition of companionship, ideas, concepts, be and any other kind of element that kitty be acquired. Learning is the retention of association. It is also a skill such as using official documents, creating crafts or plainly driving a car. Learning involves pr achievementice. Practice is a way of retaining go overing. But most of all, learning is a pitch in behaviour. As far as I could remember, I learned to walk, speak and do many types of activities in the house by the acquisition of these knowledge and experiences. Either I would learn by following and mimicking gestures that the elder people would show me or I would engage into the experience of the concept. For example, I learned not to run fast d give birth the stairs because one time that I did, I take flight three flights and bumped my head. I learned how to remember the names of many relatives by repeatedly seeing them in family gatherings. Conversing with these people required me to utter their names and so that helped me remember their names and how I was link up to them. As I layed impressal learning, other official documents where available for me to increase knowledge and experience. Reading books was a way to learn how to know things. Before operating machines such as household appliances or laboratory machines, it is imperative to acquire instruction manuals so that I could transform myself into soulfulness who did not know how to operate the machine into someone who k parvenue how. And therefore there was a definite change in behaviour because of this. Learning things on your own is different when learning inside an memorial tablet.Experience in Participating in an shaping there are cardinal general kinds of thespians in an disposal or in a group endeavour. One can either be an active or a passive participant. Active confederacy involves d oing different roles at different times depending on the need of the organisation. In group discussions for example, one can be an initiator, regulator, informer, service or an evaluator. All these roles must be launch in the whole group embodied by its participants in order for the group to develop and evolve its visions. Another insight I gathered from participating in organizations is that one can learn fully if one keeps an open mind and heart. Each participant has his unique mortal moulded from a definitive history. Each person has his own ideas and learning style. If participants do not cooperate in the organizations, it go out be harder to achieve objectives. Sometimes, participating in an organization requires one to via media some comfort zones. There will be moments when a co-participants idea does not match your own. Sometimes, this will be cause of conflict. However, after the exchange and debate on the idea, conflict is soon resolved. Even at times when breakdown of the organization occurs, this will also signify that the conflict was resolved. I cannot be one-half part of an organization. Participation in an organization must be whole for it to be worthwhile. Being a part of an organization means adhering to its vision, mission and goals. If a person cannot embrace the organizations objectives, wherefore his participation will be futile. From what I observed, when organizations have members that are half dealrs of the organizations goals, their participation in the organization are half done as well. Their motivations to act on the organizations needs are also superficial and the tendency to protect ones self sake over the groups interest is stronger.Four Learning Theories Learning whether it involves an individual or a group is possible. Four theories of learning guide many teachers, managers and leaders into helping their constituents acquire knowledge and experience. The behaviourists, cognitive, do-gooder and situational orientation of learning are four theories that have been developed in the field of learning. The Behaviourist hypothesis developed by practitioners of psychology believes that a person learns according to how the environment gives it instructions. Experimental procedures have been use to study behaviour in this discourse. The Cognitive orientation does not believe so. Scholars of the cognitive theory believe that the individual learns due to its mental abilities. The process of knowing or cognition was the one leading the act of learning therefore learning relied more on an individuals thinking capacity. The Humanist betterment followed a certain process of growth patterned from human growth. Learning for these theorists involves a persons evolution of needs that Maslow and Rogers have defined. The Situational orientation in learning relies on the involvement of a person to different community events and practices. Through individuals participation to these frameworks, learning is experienc ed and thereby achieved.The Organizations capability of learning, sensing and knowing The individuals that constitute the organization bring all their learning abilities into the organization thereby helping the organization achieve goals. When organizations are able to achieve their goals, learning, champion making and knowledge achieved is not only claimed by each participant in the organization but the organization as a single entity as well. organizational knowing creates three kinds of knowledge. Tacit knowledge is found the experience and expertise of participants. Explicit knowledge is visualized as rules and routines that participants undergo. Cultural knowledge can be found in the organizations assumptions, beliefs and values. The corporate culture idiom has been coined due to the effort to package cultural knowledge of the organization so that it can be taught to employees.New knowledge is achieved by sharing and compound these three types of knowledge. With wise know ledge, the organization has the capacity to act on decisions that help the organization transform their potentials. Although new alternatives are achieved, new uncertainties are also acquired but essential to the organizations ability to form new knowledge is the capacity of the organization to evolve facing challenges of its industry and ever changing environment.The key argument is that any organization is the way it runs through the processes of organizing This means that we must define organization in terms of organizing. Organizing consists of the resolving of equivocality in an enacted environment by means of interlocked behaviors embedded in conditionally related processes. To summarize these components in a less terse manner, organizing is directed toward information processing in general, and more than specifically, toward removing equivocality from informational inputs. (Weick 197990-91) Besides knowledge making, the organization also goes through the process of mind ma king. If decision making leads to decisions, sense making leads to the sense of the organizations existence of its decisions thereby breaking all kinds of elements that leads to ambiguity and confusion in the organizations processes. Sense making is essentially answering Weicks question, How can I know what I think until I see what I say?.In dealing with organizational issues, sense making requires us to appear for explanations and answers in terms of how people see things rather than rather than structures or systems. Sense making suggests that organizational issues strategies, breakdowns, change, goals, plans, tasks, teams, and so on are not things that one can find out in the homo or that exist in the organization. Rather, their source is peoples way of thinking. (Universiteit Twente, 2004) Sense making is a better tool in arriving at information for use in the workplace. Studies have proved that sense making has been no-hit in understanding deaf culture, in reflective think ing in the nursing practice, has been experienced in media education in classrooms with students, and proven beneficial for hard discourses such as sexism, racism and the like. While Weick evince sense making in the retroactive context, Gioia and Mehra deemed the importance of prospective sense making as well. These two approaches further cement the invaluability of sense making in organizations. Each time that participants work towards a everyday goal, they are compelled to gather past knowledge, experience and facts, make sense out of it collaboratively to learn a new tool that will help the organization achieve their prospects that they envision in the future. Conceptualization of the future in organizations therefore is facilitated by sense making. In this light, sense making further accommodates a strategic tool that helps organizations articulate their common visions which can be called prospective sense-giving while the tools that helps organizations decipher differences i n actions so the that their option may work well for their group can be termed as retrospective sense-discovering.Furthermore, the belief of sense making being partly deliberate and part emergent makes it a powerful tool for organization management, leadership and organizational learning. At best, sense making is an on-going process much like what learning is. There is no limit to learning. The fact that man has yet to use 97% of his brain capacity, that there is much need for compassion in the world tells many scholars that there is much sense in the notion of sense-making.Summary Learning is the ability that sets man apart from the rest of the animal kingdom. Although there is learning in other animal species, organizational learning has captured mans ability to prove himself as an smart as a whip animal in the social context. When a person enters and organization, he sets himself as a member of a whole. As a participant of the whole, the individual synergizes his learning capa cities, styles and objectives with other members of the whole. Learning of the individual found in the whole is made possible only if the organization is able to learn first. With the learning tools of sense making, the organization is able to form new knowledge. The knowledge formed has characteristics not found in individual learning. The knowledge formed from sense making in organizations hold both retrospective and prospective senses of the organization as a whole. Elements that form this knowledge is derived from the embodied behaviour, cognition, experience and growth patterns of each individual making the collective acquire its own behaviour, experience, growth pattern and intelligence. Reflecting on my own learning capacities including development of my own senses, I can prepare myself as I become a part of an organization. Many people enter organizations thinking that they are social institutions fully inorganic. With further understanding of sense making, I have become ful ly aware that organizations are alive because not only do they reproduce (forming other torpedo organizations, become global organizations and multinationals), react to stimulus (such as currency fluctuations, technological breakthroughs), grows (such as increase in revenue, increase in employees), they also essentially learn, produce knowledge and ultimately try to make sense in this world.ReferencesArgyris, C. and Schon, D. (1978) Organizational Learning a theory of action perspective, Addison-Wesley, Reading MA.Brookfield, S. (1987) Developing Critical Thinkers intriguing Adults to Explore Alternative Ways of Thinking and Acting, Open University Press, Milton Keynes.Burke, P. (2000) A Social History of Knowledge, Polity Press, Cambridge.Choo, Chun Wei (2006) The Knowing Organization How organizations use information to construct meaning, create knowledge and make decisions, Oxford Uni. 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