In the last two decades, organisations have had to respond continually to the pressures of change in order to keep abreast of the variations in the economic climate amidst technological advances. The learning organisation was seen as the vision that would help organisations keep ahead of the ever-changing demands. The most influential model has been Senge’s (1990) five disciplines of the learning organisation encompassing personal mastery, mental models, shared vision, team learning and systems thinking, and most discussions of the learning organisation draw on his theorising to a greater or lesser extent. Central to the concept of the learning organisation is knowledge and the individual, in particular, how knowledge is stored and shared across the organisation. To make the distinction between the organisational level and the individual level more salient, I developed the Individual/Organisational Orthogonal Model (I/O Orthogonal Model), which separates individual learning from organisational learning. The model assumes a social constructivist perspective. The aim of the model was to explore a range of concepts examined by Senge and other theorists across different groups of stakeholders, while questioning the assumption of shared culture or shared vision. To develop a more sophisticated understanding of the individual learning dimension, the model identifies the need to draw on the literature from psychology and education on the nature of learning, especially those theories which take a social constructivist perspective. Theories about interest and motivation are also included because they attempt to explain why individuals vary in their engagement with learning. Phase one of the empirical research addressed the question from the perspective of staff and management within the organisation using the case-study approach. This thesis examined trust from the traditional types of trust (i.e. incremental, span of trust, low trust etc), then compared the new construct of a workable level of trust with other recent conceptualisations of trust that have been realised in situations where there is a need for individuals to build trust quickly. Most importantly, this research gives credence to the importance of the context of the industry in which it is being conducted. The findings illustrated that advancement through becoming a learning organisation and advancement through becoming leaner and meaner by way of downsizing appears to be incompatible. The I/O Orthogonal Model proved a valuable starting point in identifying key gaps in the literature reviewed and as it suggested, some of the personal and emotional aspects came out in the findings. / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ADTP/235963 |
| Date | January 2006 |
| Creators | Young, Nola Gail, University of Western Sydney, College of Arts, Social Justice and Social Change Research Centre |
| Source Sets | Australiasian Digital Theses Program |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
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