Organisational Behaviour LO27052

From: AM de Lange (amdelange@gold.up.ac.za)
Date: 07/26/01


Replying to LO27012 --

Dear Organlearners,

Hamidali Syed <hamidali_syed@hotmail.com> writes:

>What are the Major Characterstics of learning organisations?

Greetings Hamidali,

I would like to stress one almost to the point of being the only major
charcteristic:
. To create within the organisation an environment such that
. EVERY member of it WILL learn SPONTANEOUSLY.

I have stressed the "every" in the sense that a LO can never be satisfied
should even merely one member be excluded. I have stressed the "will" in
the sense that it becomes impossible not to learn spontaneously. I have
stressed the "spontaneously" to indicate that no learning should be
forced, not even subtile or indirect.

Children, when still toddlers, have a curious way of expressing this
spontaneous learning. They say "I will do it self" and they are quite
determined to learn doing it self!

There is a quantity from the hard-core sciences which helps us to decide
whether any particular change for a physical system will be spontaneous or
non-spontaneous. It is called the "free energy" F (two words, one
concept). The particular change of the system will be spontaneous only
when the "free energy" F of the system decreases for this change. For
example, wood will burn because there is a lowering in the free energy.
But a rock will not burn because the free energy cannot lower any further.

I am sure that just as we have physical "free energy", we also have
spiritual "free energy". Learning is one of many spiritual changes. A
person cannot learn self when that person is not filled (fueled) by
spiritual free energy to do so. This means that in any LO the organising
of free energy is most important. For example, the wasting or usurping of
spiritual free energy should be avoided in a LO. Furthermore, also the
regular regeneration of spiritual free energy become crucial to keep up
the LO.

>Differentiate between content and process theories of motivation?

For me "having enough free energy F for a particular change" and
motivation is one and the same thing! With this I want to stress four
things. Firstly, motivation must focus on a particular process and its
structural outcome. Secondly, having not enough motivation is just as
tragic as having no motivation at all. Thirdly, motivation applies only to
spontaneous behaviors (changes). Fouthly, after having used up the
motivation for a particular change, motivation has to be regained for the
next particular change.

Should you want to know more about "free energy", use Google's
advanced search engine with URL
< http://www.google.com/advanced_search >
Put in the window EXACT PHRASE: free energy
Put in the window DOMAIN: learning-org.com

With care and best wishes,

-- 

At de Lange <amdelange@gold.up.ac.za> Snailmail: A M de Lange Gold Fields Computer Centre Faculty of Science - University of Pretoria Pretoria 0001 - Rep of South Africa

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