Organizational Learning and Environmental Change Essay

Organizational Learning and Environmental Change - Essay Example This paper examines the various approaches to learning which an organization can adopt so that learning challenges in environment are not only recognized right in time but also ingrained into the operations of the organization and reflect in employees' learning to derive competitive advantage. This paper eamines the relevance of the Revans formula which emphasizes the importance of keeping pace in the learning process. All organizations can be viewed as offering some kind of solution to the problems of their stakeholders in the widest and deepest marketing sense. An essential blueprint for the organizational survival is derived from the writing of Revans(1980,1982) . Revans(1980) posited that in order for an organization to succeed the learning(L) within an organization must be greater than or equal to the rate of change(C)in the environment (L C). This is called the Raven formula. This concept maintains that organisations must become 'learning organisations' if they are to survive the changes in the external environment that affect the business and its' operations. Revans recommended action learning to essentially mean removing the gap between ideas and actions, between thinking and doing, action and learning as parts of each other. Revans coined the phrase," "helping each other to help the helpless" .Revans philosophy is based on three concepts of honesty about self, all knowledge ought to be ac tion oriented and most action should lead to camaraderie. An immediate example can prove Revans theory in relation to stakeholders of any organization. Organization like airlines -offering the services of air travel-were faced with a new and emerging niche of customers who were upwardly mobile professionals with high spending powers in early 1990s.This new niche of customers which emerged from the airlines environment was a result of prosperity brought about by globalization and opening up of economies and international markets. These travelers did not merely have an expectation of basic air travel need from airlines but expected a host of value additions in terms of menu, behaviour, off board facilities etc.Successful airlines that read into the trend and honestly went about implementing the necessary marketing plan reorientation through concrete actions like altering inflight menus, increasing airport facilities, changing the seats and space ,training the employees and above all i nstilling a team spirit while bringing about this overall change emerged as the best airlines of the world while others lagged behind. A living example is Singapore Airlines. The Revans formula worked secretly behind these success stories in that such airlines ensured that the rate of the organizational learning process was greater than that posed by the changes in their environment. Thus the employees of the organizatio