Learning Organization: The need for organizations to restructure!

‘Expect the unexpected’ - as the saying goes, the COVID-19 crisis has brought attention to the value of digital learning. Everything has grown up with technology, even workforces that were formerly thought unsuitable for online mode such as field workers, contractors, and distributors.

As the world evolves on a daily basis, every generation has the need to adapt and change in a meticulous timeframe. As a result, in today's society, continuous learning is required for survival and success. Technological changes get a tremendous impact on our daily life; therefore organizations need more significantly advanced learning methodologies than the world earlier.

Besides, globalization has transformed the corporate world into a dynamic global conglomerate for business communications. Indeed, as competition intensifies, adopting learning organization methodology as a strategy has become a necessity for a company's success and development.

Adopting such techniques allow a business to develop and acquire information in order to survive and grow in today's fast-paced world.

According to the World Economic Forum, Fortune 500 companies have an average lifespan of 40 to 50 years as many of them are bought, sold, split, or merged, but many others simply cease to exist as they are operating with outdated ideologies, methodologies and practices.

Top-rated companies like Google, Starbucks and Boeing are good examples of being a learning organizations as they indulge in effective training programs continuously.

Every firm intends to be a learning organization for number of reasons. Who wouldn’t like to work for a company that motivates employees to learn, perform and even make mistakes seeking multiple opportunities that allow them to grow?

Organizations that comprehend how to identify and incorporate everything: people, ideas, context, history and goals would be better positioned to compete in the future. A change in one component would have unpredicted consequences in other areas.

The learning organization is one that encourages both individuals and groups towards continuous learning and sees this as the foundation for a long-term competitive environment at all levels.

Peter Senge, a well-known management theorist outlined the principles that must be interpreted while incorporating learning in an organization:

1. It deals with genuine assessment and analysis that identifies both personal and organizational needs that contribute to organizational goals as well as personal and professional development.
2. Realizing our own mental strategies enable us to be intellectually honest about what we perceive and be precise in identifying underlying issues.
3. A shared vision or mutual understanding of the desired future is a prime factor for individuals in the organization especially when the person’s and organization’s visions align.
4. Individuals learn efficiently and be effective with decisions in a focused group environment than they would when they are on their own. It is the discipline of collaboration, support, and building capacity in everyone, in an organization.
5. Individuals, policies, organizations, decisions and relationships are the interconnected components of a greater vision.

The above principles depict significant roles in an organization as the reasons to build a culture in which learning is continuous - in the form of online sessions, mentorships, on-the-job training, webinars, eLearning, in-person coaching - the approach depends on the learning goal.

Transition is never easy but it is a requisite for businesses. If an organization has outgrown its current structure or is encountering difficulties as a result of an outbreak, then it is time to consider restructuring possibilities in order to maximize productivity and prevent failure.

Restructuring might be varied from merging organizations to forming a conglomerate. Following are some of the reasons why an organization requires restructuring: dynamism in the business environment, changes in work structure and operations, leveraging market opportunities, the satisfaction of corporate needs, internal management difficulties and inadequate company leadership.

They happen as a consequence of significant external pressures – from the market, shareholders, and the Board - as well as an expected or apparent decline in profitability.

Businesses have utilized restructuring as a tactic to enhance profitability or alter strategy extensively in recent decades. Majority of re-organization initiatives are opportunistic.

Restructuring - A Strategic Tool

To succeed today, organizations must be customer-centric, and its structures must adapt to reflect these changes. The intention to observe and influence consumer trends through periodical modifications is a non-financial motivation for restructuring.

If restructuring is part of an organization's ultimate financial goals, it would have a significant impact on its long-term financial performance.

To sum up, learning is a continuous process that yields efficient outcome. Prime institutions like ISBR are friendly and cohesive atmospheres where teachers are readily accessible and students could best develop their own management potential in order to build excellent business abilities in a rewarding environment as it enables students to adopt a qualitative research project with the betterment of the future analyzing new trends in learner behavior, knowledge consumption, and predicting the future of learning in top enterprises.

About the author

The article has been written by Prof. Amit Kanchanbaras, HOD- Finance & Ex Area Chair – Placements, ISBR Business School

Note: The views expressed in this article are solely author’s own and do not reflect/represent those of Shiksha