Advances in Developing Human Resources

1 In Developing Human Resources DOI: 2003; 5; 132 Advances in Developing Human ResourcesVictoria J. Marsick and Karen E. Watkins Organization QuestionnaireDemonstrating the Value of an Organization's Learning Culture: The Dimensions of the The online version of this article can be found at: Published by: On behalf of: Academy of Human resource Development can be found at: Advances in Developing Human Resources Additional services and information for Email Alerts: Subscriptions: : : Citations at COLORADO STATE UNIV LIBRARIES on April 2, 2010 from in Developing Human ResourcesMay 2003 Marsick, Watkins / THE VALUE OF A LEARNING CULTURED emonstrating the Value of anOrganization s Learning Culture.

2 The Dimensions of the LearningOrganization QuestionnaireVictoria J. MarsickKaren E. WatkinsThe problem and the organizations seek tobecome learning organizations. Yet, implementation is elusiveand is not often based on research about what constitutes alearning culture. Over the past 16 years, a model of a learningorganization was developed that draws on both the literatureand organizational case studies. However,organizations wanteda way to diagnose their current status and guide change, andscholars wanted better measures of learning to compare organi-zations and to explore links between organizational learningand the performance of the firm.

3 The solution was to developand validate an instrument that addresses these :learning culture; learning organization; measurement;knowledge capitalWorkplaces their psychological contract and the demands they place onemployees at all levels to learn and work faster are changing at exponen-tial rates. Organizations often expect that learning and knowledge creationwill take place continuously for individuals and that they will share whatthey know in ways that promote learning in groups and throughout the orga-nization. This article is based on the premise that Human resource develop-ers must redefine their relationships to leaders if they wish to influence theconversation taking place among senior leaders about the need to cultivatestrategic/informal learning to improve performance and reach strategicgoals.

4 Human resource development (HRD) has some opportunity evenwhen restricted by reporting positions and levels of authority toproactively influence the direction, pace, and salience of learning inAdvances in Developing Human Resources Vol. 5, No. 2 May 2003 132-151 DOI: 2003 Sage Publications at COLORADO STATE UNIV LIBRARIES on April 2, 2010 from workplaces. To best play that role, we have argued for a model of changeguided by organizational learning diagnostics that are used to assess gaps,guide interventions, and subsequently measure changes (Gephart, Marsick,Van Buren, & Spiro, 1996; Marsick & Watkins, 1999).Several advocates of the learning organization have developed diagnos-tic tools for the learning organization.

5 An analysis of such instruments grewout of a project carried out by Gephart, Marsick and Van Buren through theAmerican Society for Training and Development (Gephart et al., 1996). Oneconclusion was that many instruments have diagnosis and intervention astheir purpose but are informed primarily by a change agent s practice, not byresearch. Instruments without a research base can stimulate change butmake it hard to understand preferred pathways to success based on a collec-tive record across organizations of outcomes, dynamics, and conditions ofinterventions. Instruments sometimes imply that improvement will result ifan organization adopts recommended practices.

6 But many factors affect thesuccessful adaptation of practices, including an analysis of the organiza-tional systems contributions to degree of success. Research can help trackthese factors and help change agents and decision makers make informedchoices about how to modify model and instrument described in this issue the Dimensions of theLearning Organization Questionnaire, or DLOQ grew out of our researchand practice and has subsequently been tested and modified throughresearch studies such as those exemplified by but not limited to thoseincluded in this issue. The DLOQ measures important shifts in an organiza-tion s climate, culture, systems, and structures that influence whether indi-viduals learn.

7 Workplace learning in our model is thus conceived as the lit-tle R&D that provides for ongoing experimentation, using lessons learnedto draw a link between learning outcomes and changes in resource developers typically promote continuous learningopportunities for individuals. Continuous learning at the individual level isnecessary but not sufficient to influence perceived changes in knowledgeand financial performance. It is argued that learning must be captured andembedded in ongoing systems, practices, and structures so that it can beshared and regularly used to intentionally improve changes in learning is particularly significant in today s workplacewhere employees may frequently change jobs or hoard what they knowbecause they feel sharing knowledge could be detrimental to their own suc-cess.

8 It is our hope that the findings from our work may nudge organizationstoward seeing that it is not enough to hold individuals accountable for learn-ing continuously without also building the organization s capacity to sup-port, encourage, and make use of that learning. Most important, we hopeMarsick, Watkins / THE VALUE OF A LEARNING CULTURE133 at COLORADO STATE UNIV LIBRARIES on April 2, 2010 from that they will see that it is good business to invest in and reward learning and that they will not realize these benefits if they do not also attend to theelements of the culture that now squelch Basis for the DLOQ: OurUnderstanding of LearningOur views of organizational learning began with a mutual observationthat significant learning, even transformative learning, was usually the leaststructured.

9 Yet models of adult learning were generally based on an assump-tion of an educator structuring learning experiences. We were hardly alonein pondering this, but we were significantly alone in our focus on the work-place where structure was the rule, not the exception, for training (Marsick,1988; Watkins, 1992). Structured training is still valued and important, forexample, as embodied in competency models or performance , there is an increased awareness that much valuable learning hap-pens informally on the job, in groups, or through conversations (J. M. HuberInstitute for Learning in Organizations, 2002). To support such learning,one needs to build a learning climate and culture.

10 Climate and culture arebuilt by leaders and other key people who learn from their experience, influ-ence the learning of others, and create an environment of expectations thatshapes and supports desired results that in turn get measured and at the Individual LevelOur theory of informal and incidental learning (Marsick & Watkins,1990, 1997), based on early work by John Dewey (1938) and Kurt Lewin(1946), helps explain how people shape this climate or culture for takes place when disjunctures, discrepancies, surprises, or chal-lenges act as triggers that stimulate a response. Individuals select a strategyor action based on their cognitive and affective understanding of the mean-ing of the initial trigger.