8.4.2 Double loop learning and the learning organisation
Knowledge also has a value that is not determined through its possession. It is also determined through the processes that impact the acquisition, transfer and expansion of the knowledge required by an organisation. This is both a knowledge management and a learning process that can promote an organisation's agility and responsiveness to new and emerging customer demands. In other words, the value of knowledge is often tied to how fast individuals and teams within an organisation can learn. It is valued by the organisation, however for its strategic capacity to enhance productivity in the dollar value sense.
Senge (1992) stated:
Organisations only learn through individuals who learn. Individual learning does not guarantee organizational learning but without it no organizational learning occurs. (Senge, 1992:139)
This perspective and subsequent research reinforced the need for generative learning, as encapsulated in Argyris's 'double-loop learning' (Argyris & Schon, 1978), to translate individual learning into organisational learning.
Figure 1 Single-loop, double-loop learning (Argyris, 1962 & 1977)
Generative learning emphasises continuous, double-loop experimentation and feedback. Double-loop learning enhances the continual search for solutions while instilling behaviours and a culture where learning is embraced. Unlike adaptive learning, generative learning requires a new mindset and the capacity to create new visions for future realities. Senge (1992) suggested that generative learning is composed of:
- Systemic thinking;
- Shared vision;
- Personal mastery;
- Team learning; and
- Creative tension between the vision and changing the current reality.
Essentially, generative learning builds in a redesign process based on optimal problem solving. This is in contrast to adaptive learning or single-loop learning where the focus is on solving current problems without examining the root causes of the problem or the learning behaviours that underpin the problem-solving process. As such, adaptive learning reinforces improvement by incremental steps more common to the managerial approach to leadership and problem solving.
Given the need for rapid change or the ability to respond to new operational realities, adaptive organisations are viewed as much less able to use learning to sustain and generate competitive processes, structures, people or systems.
The learning organisation and organisational learning have at their core the translation of information (or data) into business success through individual, team, organisational and wider learning processes. The cycle of learning is addressed by a number of authors.
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