Beyond the Learning Organization

Citation

Taylor, D.W. (2001), "Beyond the Learning Organization", Personnel Review, Vol. 30 No. 1, pp. 119-126. https://doi.org/10.1108/pr.2001.30.1.119.2

The divide between the perceived importance of the organisation’s most valued assets and their treatment sets the scene for this book’s journey into what Gilley and Maycunich call, the “developmental organisation”. They argue that the book offers a blueprint for leaders of organisations and human resource professionals to accelerate the firm beyond the concept of the learning organisation to the highest form of learning, and ultimately, organisational success.

The book guides the reader through the principles of human resource management (HRM) and organisational learning, as if the reader is being introduced to these concepts for the first time. The authors offer a clear summary of the key issues and a guide for action that would be especially useful to practising managers and human resource professionals, though those familiar with the work of Senge (1990) and Pedler et al. (1997) could be forgiven for believing that the authors’ “developmental organisation”, far from moving beyond the learning organisation, resides firmly within it. Gilley and Maycunich have added some detail to the “big picture”, as Senge calls it, detail that is present in the many authoritative HRM texts on the market (for example Leopold et al., 1999; Mabey et al., 1998; Torrington et al., 1998). That said, the authors have designed a simple model that uses strategic HRM to operationalise the concept of the learning organisation, placing development firmly on the agenda.

This commonsense approach to effective development covers an enormous amount of ground, ranging from developmental leadership, through the management of culture, to particular human resource policies and practices regarding compensation and rewards. The structure of the book allows the reader to dip in and out as she or he wishes, though my recommendation would be, at least in the first instance, to read the text from front to back.

The book is divided into four parts, the final part acting as an excellent summary or blueprint for introducing the developmental organisation. Chapters 1 and 2 introduce the reader to the concept of, and blueprint for, the developmental organisation. Readers are asked to identify the type of leadership, organisation and human resources required for transformation. Given that the book is intended as a practical guide, the lack of any thorough debate on organisational learning and the learning organisation is understandable, although even in such a text a more informed debate might have proved useful. Chapter 3 focuses on developmental leadership, combining intrinsic, employee, performance and organisation oriented principles. Here notions of personal accountability, trustworthiness, employee advocacy, developing employees’ self‐esteem, partnership, performance improvement, effective communication, consistency, and strategic, visionary and critically reflective thinking are explored. At the end of the chapter, readers are invited to reflect critically on their level of developmental leadership. Chapter 4 argues that “organisations are systems of various components, each working distinctly yet independently to bring about desired business results” (p. 121). Here Gilley and Maycunich examine the leadership, management practices, structure, culture, work climate and strategy of the organisational system. They apply the organisational effectiveness framework to assess the degree to which these components are aligned to enhance employee growth and development.

Further chapters emphasise the sharing of visions and transformational leadership, the role of human resource professionals, the development of effective human resource planning, developmental learning, career development, and performance management. Gilley and Maycunich offer the reader a summary of the developmental organisation in chapter 12, highlighting the key components.

Beyond the Learning Organization provides an excellent practical reference work for the implementation of organisational change and culture change programmes. Within their book, Gilley and Maycunich ground these initiatives with clear and unambiguous policies and practices, in support of employee and systems development. Practising managers, human resource professionals and those new to the area of organisational learning and development, would find this text an invaluable introduction and summary of the subject.