An Empirical Study on the Presence of Learning Organizations in the Telecommunication Industry of Sri Lanka
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Date
2013
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Uva Wellassa University of Sri Lanka
Abstract
One of the toughest challenges faced by managers in the contemporary workplace is to get
people focused on adaptive changes in order to meet the demands of a turbulent and rapidly
changing environment (Bierly et al, 2000; Daft, 2011) .The global expansion of organizations
and technological advances predict that organizations should think in new ways and learn new
values and attitudes as a strategic choices in order to compete in the new marketplace (Heifetz
and Laurie, 2003). As technology and globalization are accelerated, organizations find
themselves incorporating a learning culture to solve performance challenges, meet new
customer expectations and to face the rising costs of doing business.
increased
substantially in the past twenty years. There is little doubt that an organizational culture oriented
towards supporting learning can lead to improved performance. Many studies confirm this, and
also suggest that the path towards performance improvement is highly complex and
idiosyncratic (Harrim, 2008).But what is clear from research and practice is, organizations need
tools to help them figure out where they are and where they need to be.
The importance of learning was first put forward by a Chinese philosopher, Confucius (551 -
479 BC) and he believed that everyone should benefit from learning (Thomas and Allen, 2006).
Even though the original idea of LO has been around for many years it was only popularized in
the 1960s-1980s by the work of major writers such as Senge (1990)Argyris (1993) Watkins &
Marsick (1993) Braham (1996) Denton (1998) Garratt (1995) Schein (1996) and Pedler et al.
(1997) in the field (Yeo, 2005). These definitions are linked by the common theme “viewing
organizational learning as a driver of organizational performance and competitive advantage”.
This theme reinforces the earlier view that as members learn collectively, they (as an
organization) will react more strategically to external challenges and perform better than their
competitors (Yeo,2005).
The intense changes which are now taking place on the global arena are bound to have extensive
implications for nations, organizations and individuals. Hence, the management concepts and
frameworks put forwarded by the pioneers in the field has becomes less realistic and practical in
countries where the socio, economic and legal fabrics are mainly influenced through sheer
politics and bureaucracy. Hence, this study attempts to reveal that creating LOs will eventually
help organizations to manoeuvre against the unforeseen changes and create belongingness
among employees (what is identified as a learning community).
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Keywords
Technology, Science and Technology, Marketing, Business Management, Telecommunication