Going Beyond Total Quality: The Characteristics, Techniques, and Measures of Learning Organizations

Abstract

The popular total quality management (TQM) approach has tended to focus on internal processes, rather than external issues such as competitiveness and market appeal, and is more reactive and adaptive than anticipative. The time has come to go beyond TQM and to understand the nature and application of organizational learning. Learning organizations envision change, are committed to generating and transferring new knowledge and innovation, and have learned how to learn. TQM may be embedded in the learning organization, but TQM is but the first step or wave in transforming and creating organizations which continuously expand their abilities to change and shape their futures. This article first defines and identifies the characteristics of a learning organization, then explores some techniques to develop and transform an organization into a learning organization, and finally suggests some traditional and newer techniques, such as data envelopment analysis (DEA), as ways to measure and evaluate organizational learning.

Logistics Managers' Learning Environments and Firm Performance

“…Most importantly, learning occurs more readily in environments where the culture and systems exist to support work-related learning (Leonard-Barton 1992). Thus, a critical unifying element among the various conceptualizations of the learning organization is the creation of an environment or culture that facilitates and values continuous learning and rewards progress as well as results (Lundberg 1995;Luthans, Rubach, and Marsnik 1995). Our research examines the extent to which logistics managers perceive that their firms are creating such working environments.…”

“…However, considerable ambiguity continues to surround its exact definition (Leitch et al 1996;Luthans, Rubach, and Marsnik 1995). Synonyms for the learning organization include the smarter organization , the knowledge-creating company (Nonaka 1991), the learning laboratory (Leonard-Barton 1992), and the learning company (Pedler, Burgoyne, and Boydell 1991).…”

The relationship among organisational learning, continuous improvement and performance improvement: An evolutionary perspective

“…Notwithstanding insightful propositions about the linkage, the above-mentioned and other similar researches thus far (for example, Hill, 1996;Love et al, 2000;Luthans et al, 1995) are almost conceptual in nature. Though several researches use an empirical approach, they are just based on case studies.…”

The relationship between the learning organization concept and firms' financial performance: An empirical assessment

“…Most definitions focus on the importance of acquiring, improving, and transferring knowledge, facilitating individual and collective learning, and integrating and modifying behaviors and practices of the organization and its members as a result of the learning (Appelbaum and Reichart, 1998;Leitch, Harrison, Burgoyne, and Blantern, 1996). Additionally, learning organizations are generally described as being market-oriented; having an entrepreneurial culture as well as a flexible, organic structure; and having facilitative leadership (Lundberg, 1995;Luthans, Rubach, and Marsnik, 1995;Slater and Narver, 1995;Watkins and Marsick, 1996b).…”