Team learning in the context of learning organizations

Abstract

Team learning is one of Senge's (1990) learning organization disciplines that has attracted considerable interest in both academic research (interdisciplinary research) and practice (in terms of developing effective teams). Due to the rapid changes in the organizational internal and external environment, teams have become the most important organizational building block. Teamwork is studied both as a process and as an outcome with the purpose to identify the conditions that contribute to and lead to team effectiveness. Team learning is a process that contributes to and leads to effective teamwork. Team learning is particularly important for organizational learning and effectiveness because anything a team learns or achieves can be transferred to other units and eventually to the entire organization. It is well known that many organizational change projects start at the team level and are later transferred to the entire organization. Team learning can also contribute to the development of a learning organization, as it is the process by which team members, through their interactions and joint sense-making, explore and exploit new knowledge in "the process of aligning and developing the capacity of a team to create the results its members truly desire" (Senge, 1990, p. 236). Team learning is therefore a special kind of individual and organizational mastery that builds on personal mastery, requires continuous assessment of existing mental models, calls for a common vision and thrives on systems thinking. In this way, teams are organizational primary complex, adaptive, learning systems that influence organizational dynamics by creating their own dynamics and momentum for change. However, uncertain, dynamic and ambiguous situations have a particular impact on teamwork and team learning, and deserve a closer look at their dynamics. Therefore, they are particularly important for learning organizations, which prompted guest editors Teresa Rebelo, Paulo Renato Lourenço and Isabel Dordio Dimas to take a closer look at their dynamics in Special Issue (issue one) of volume 29 of The Learning Organization journal (Rebelo, Lourenço, & Dimas, 2022).More specifically, in this Special Issue, de Groot, Leendertse, and Arts (2022) addressed the problem of focused project team learning which has limited impact on organizational learning. The solution could lie in program management, which could promote learning and knowledge transfer from project teams to other organizational units and the parent organization as a whole. In this regard, a case study was conducted on project-based organization involved in five infrastructure programs. Marques-Quinteiro, Uitdewilligen, Costa, and Passos (2022) examined virtual teams and the role of team reflexivity on team performance in decision-making teams. Ryymin and Lamberg (2022) looked at This work is a part of the project "Development of management in the entrepreneurial economy and society" supported by the University of Rijeka, Croatia (Grant No. 18-44 1174).

The mediation model of learning organization, technology acceptance, and service innovation: accommodation purchase managers’ perceptions in Antalya, Turkey: Part II

“…Top managers ; adopting well-thought-out tactics that allocate enough time for implementation, appointing cross-functional teams and allocating resources for activities involving creative behavior, promoting and presenting possibilities for employees to be innovative. Employees must exhibit a high degree of cognitive flexibility to succeed and learn from a scenario, and coaches should concentrate more attention on creating collective forward-looking rather than on looking back at past errors (Rupčić, 2022). Organizations ; workshops can be held by organizations to introduce principles for sustainable SI to employees and reduce uncertainty about the future.…”

The mediation model of learning organization, technology acceptance and service innovation: Part I

“…In addition, projects are an underutilized source of new information and learning for the entire organization. The sharing of project-based information may be essential for enhancing the organization’s capacity for learning (Rupčić, 2022).…”

Leadership and collective learning: a case study of a social entrepreneurial organisation in Sweden

“…These processes often lead to a collective capacity for action within teams (Döös and Wilhelmson, 2011). In essence, continuous dialogue, discussion and interaction in teams become the lifeblood for collective learning (Ohlsson, 2013; Rupčić, 2022; Smith et al, 2019).…”