Browsing by Subject "organizational learning"

Now showing 1 - 3 of 3
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    Community Engagement Professionals as Inquiring Practitioners for Organizational Learning
    (Institute of Higher Education, 2019) Weiss, H. Anne; Norris, Kristin E.; School of Education
    This essay examines the inquiry activities that community engagement professionals (CEPs) can utilize to support organizational learning. We advocate for an inquiry approach that focuses on improvement and informing community-engaged practices and organizational change. By unpacking why inquiry is imperative for CEPs and outlining the tensions that may arise, we introduce three concepts: inquiry consists of different yet connected activities including, but not limited to, assessing student learning; CEPs are key knowledge workers in higher education; and, finally, CEPs can and should leverage inquiry to inform institutional planning and systematically align policies, processes, and procedures to demonstrate our public missions for society and other key stakeholders.
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    Examining Organizational Learning For Application In Human Service Organizations
    (2007-09-18T16:57:56Z) Busch, Monique; Barton, William H., 1949-; Chism, Nancy Van Note; Hostetter, Carol; Lyles, Marjorie A.; Pike, Cathy
    This study examines organizational learning (OL) with member organizations of a state association for children and family services. OL has been studied in business organizations, but the concept has value in the context of Human Service Organizations (HSOs) as well. HSOs face increasing demands for accountability through evaluating outcomes, requiring new organizational skills and activities. The state association has collected outcome data from member organizations for nine years, and has recently provided external consultants to help organizations interpret and make use of the information to improve organizational functioning. The process of OL was measured pre- and post-external consultation using an OL questionnaire developed by Templeton, Lewis, and Snyder (2002). Sixty-two member agencies received questionnaires and 42 responded for a response rate of 67%. Qualitative semi-structured interviews were conducted with 11 CEOs/Executive Directors of HSOs. The OL questionnaire was found to have sufficient reliability and validity for the sample of HSOs in the study. Two factors were identified through factor analyses, Organizational Culture and Environmental Awareness. Satisfaction with an external consultant was not found to be related to increased OL. In the qualitative findings, the origins of learning themes that were identified were External Pressures, Philosophy, Planning, and Financial Pressures. The facilitating factor themes identified were Leadership, Philosophy, New Staff/New Leadership, Willingness, Planning, and Training. The perceived obstacles to OL were Resistance, Philosophy, Finances, and Time. External consultants were found to contribute to Evaluation, Awareness, Motivation, and Training. The main practice implication of the study is the identification of an instrument that may be used to examine OL in HSOs. The identification of facilitating factors and factors that may impede OL is a valuable contribution, as is the use of a standard definition of OL. The educational implications are for awareness in the education of future leaders by introducing OL and the application to HSOs. Future research is needed to address the development or modification of a better matched instrument for use with HSOs.
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    The Mutual Impact of Global Strategy and Organizational Learning: Current Themes and Future Directions
    (Wiley, 2015-05) Hotho, Jasper; Easterby-Smith, Mark; Lyles, Marjorie A.; School of Business
    Despite the interest in issues of knowing and learning in the global strategy field, there has been limited mutual engagement and interaction between the fields of global strategy and organizational learning. The purpose of our article is to reflect on and articulate how the mutual exchange of ideas between these fields can be encouraged. To this end, we first conduct a review of the intersection of the fields of global strategy and organizational learning. We then present two recommendations regarding how the interaction between the two fields can be enhanced. Our first recommendation is for global strategy research to adopt a broader notion of organizational learning. Our second recommendation is for global strategy research to capitalize on its attention to context in order to inform and enhance organizational learning theory. We discuss the use of context in a number of common research designs and highlight how the scope for theoretical contributions back to organizational learning varies with the research design that is adopted.