The increasing competition in the market has compelled organizations to devise strategies for enhancing performance to gain a competitive advantage. Organizations globally promote a culture of learning to promote individual and collective performance aimed at achieving organizational goals. Through the learning process, employees adapt to changing environments and show their ability to learn and acquire new knowledge. Organizational learning is a process of creating, retaining, and transferring knowledge within the organization. Organizational learning is viewed as an internal dynamic organizational process aimed at integrating resource capabilities. Organizational learning is broad, covering diverse organizational topics. The paper seeks to examine the needs for organizational learning and its impact on employee development and institutions' growth.
The Need for Organizational Learning
Organizational learning has gained significant importance in the last decades as both individuals and institutions seek to gain from the process. All fields of an organization require organizational learning to improve performance and build a strong relationship among employees and management. Organizations need learning to adapt to changing global business environment. The 21st-century market is characterized by changes in the way people operate and interact due to advancement in technology (Jehanzeb & Bashir, 2013). An organization can only continue appealing to new customers if it adapts to new technologies. Not only is the technology changing, but also the norms surrounding the use of these technologies. For instance, in the past two decades, organizations did not require an online platform; however, today, social media platforms are essential for every business. Organizations require social media to frequently share updates with customers through tweets, Facebook, and other platforms. It is through continuous learning that organizations adapt to a changing environment and adopt new skills.
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Another need for organizational learning is to increase bright and consensus vision for employees' future growth and development (Camps et al., 2013). The entire organization needs learning to adapt to long term success and to utilize human resource management. This is achieved by creating a challenging job through rotation, development, and enrichment, changing available patterns, and changing the thinking habits. An organization like Toyota value organizational learning, and it looks for every opportunity to identify the root cause of a problem and countermeasures. Toyota applies "the five ways," which seek to identify the root cause and the appropriate measures to solve the issue.
Impact on Employee Development
Organizational learning is essential for developing individual employees. Continuous learning increases career competencies, especially from employee training and development programs. Organizational learning allows employees to learn the soft and technical skills required for the specific job position (Camps et al., 2013). Professionals, especially those placed in the department of information technology, require learning and training to retain their abilities and talents according to the current market situation (Jha, 2016). Young graduates prefer working in organizations that provide room for learning to better their future and develop skills and abilities to cope with emerging technologies (Saadat & Saadat, 2016; Søberg & Chaudhuri, 2018 ). As the demand for learning software and program system increase, employees have shown need to join the training and other learning programs to promote their diverse careers.
Organizational learning increases employee satisfaction leading to excellent results. Employees feel satisfied when working in an organization that cares about them by creating learning programs to boost their abilities. Companies that provide learning opportunities through training and developmental platforms for their employees achieve a high level of satisfaction and low turnover (Jehanzeb & Bashir, 2013). Employees increase their loyalty and want to stay in an organization that puts effort into promoting their future. Although good salaries and incentives create loyalty, employees, mostly millennial generation, prefer working in an organization that offers personal and professional growth (Jehanzeb & Bashir, 2013). Lastly, organizational learning increases employee performance and further constructive changes. Continually learning
Impact on Institutional Growth
Organizational learning benefits the organization by increasing market growth and ensuring the business stays solvent and competitive. According to Namada (2018), organizational learning increases competitive advantage leading to business success in the global market. Although it is expensive for the organization to offer learning programs to all employees, learning acts as a positive investment for the market. Learning programs ensure the transfer of information in the current business environment. Organizations must maintain a culture of learning to allow employees to expand their knowledge and gain a competitive advantage (Jehanzeb & Bashir, 2013). Companies like Microsoft understand the benefit derived from learning hence ensure continuous learning programs and training for employees. In return, the company gains knowledge of the global market leading to continuous growth (Saadat & Saadat, 2016). Apart from increasing profit, organizational learning provides difference within their native markets. More so, companies can utilize training and development programs to build a positive image as the best employer in the job market.
Organizational learning is a contributing factor to the improvement of organizational performance and effectiveness. Investment in organizational learning is justified by its impact on developing individual and organizational performance. When organizations offer learning programs, employees reveal high commitment, reflected through high performance (Saadat & Saadat, 2016). Constrictive work-related performance and attitude are influenced by an employee's perception of their employers. According to Jehanzeb & Bashir (2013), the strong emotional engagement between employees and employers is a central element in overall organizational performance. Lastly, organizational learning yield growth through increased employee retention. Companies like Microsoft, Apple, and Toyota have revealed that one way to retain highly qualified employees is by providing a learning opportunity ( Søberg & Chaudhuri, 2018) . Experienced employees are significant assets, and companies lose highly for losing them (Jehanzeb & Bashir, 2013). Managers that offer learning opportunities to employees to grow their profession report low turnover and high productivity. Organizations need to think seriously about investing in organizational learning to retain employees and increase performance.
Conclusion
In summary, businesses need learning programs to adapt to changing environments like advancements in technology and utilizing its human resource management. Employees benefit from organizational learning through increased career competencies, increased job satisfaction, and increased skills resulting in high performance. Organizational also benefit from learning programs through growth in the market, increased performance, and high employee retention. Through continuous learning and training, individuals and organizations gain experience, knowledge, and grow their talents.
References
Camps, J., Oltra, V., Aldás‐Manzano, J., Buenaventura‐Vera, G., & Torres‐Carballo, F. (2016). Individual performance in turbulent environments: The role of organizational learning capability and employee flexibility. Human resource management , 55 (3), 363-383.
Jehanzeb, K., & Bashir, N. A. (2013). Training and development program and its benefits to employee and organization: A conceptual study. European Journal of business and management , 5 (2).
Jha, V. (2016). Training and development program and its benefits to employee and organization: A conceptual study. International Journal of Scientific Research in Science and Technology , 2 (5), 80-86.
Namada, J. M. (2018). Organizational learning and competitive advantage. In Handbook of Research on Knowledge Management for Contemporary Business Environments (pp. 86-104). IGI Global.
Saadat, V., & Saadat, Z. (2016). Organizational learning as a key role of organizational success. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences , 230 , 219-225.
Søberg, P. V., & Chaudhuri, A. (2018). Technical knowledge creation: Enabling tacit knowledge use. Knowledge and Process Management , 25 (2), 88-96.
