MODELS OF ORGANIZATIONAL LEARNING: PARADOXES AND BEST PRACTICES IN THE POST INDUSTRIAL WORKPLACE

A research project studied Canadian organizations that are using informal organizational learning approaches to embed ongoing learning within the actual work processes. Five organizations that self-identified as learning organizations at mature stages of development were studied in depth. No organization was a paragon of organizational learning. This phenomenon was much less an outcome than an ongoing process of managing paradoxes. Each research site provided both examples of the dilemmas that challenged them continuously and examples of creative responses to these dilemmas with which they were experimenting with varying degrees of success. These paradoxes included the tensions inherent in action versus reflection and the need to achieve the task by attending to the process; the need for structured leadership as well as freedom and autonomy; the challenge of translating values into action; the use of conflict and confrontation to enable collaboration; and the balancing of individual and organizational learning needs. Responses to these dilemmas are, respectively, mentoring relationships, communities of practice, skill development, shared set of values; shared leadership, participative decision making; values clarification, gap examination, behavior modeling; interpersonal skill training, time for reflection, multi-user feedback; and maintaining the balance. (Contains 36 references.) (YLB) Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document. Models of Organizational Learning: Paradoxes and Best Practices in the Post Industrial Workplace