Just adding to At's (and others') detailed comments about organisational
learning in Higher Education.
Firstly, I am more comfortable speaking about organisational learning
rather than striving to be a "learning organisation." The former term
describes a journey, the latter a (idealistic?) destination.
Until recently I held the position of "Organisation Development Manager"
at a large (32,000 student, 5,550 staff) and prestigious research
University in Australia. With a staff of 12 mine was the only position of
its kind in the country combining IT training, HR policy, general
training, leadership skills for academics, internal consulting, structural
review and promotion and classification for the non-academic staff.
Having seen inside the "belly of the beast" I can only echo the comments
several people have made about the negative and painful conflicts between
and within disciplines and departments, the constant internecine feuding
and politics, and the staid, if not backward view many academics hold of
teaching and learning. The "banking model" of education still lives large
in higher education. (For those in the US, I also visited and had
discussions with colleagues at several US institutions including Harvard
and my colleagues there told of many of the same experiences.)
For Higher Education (especially research-based institutions) to move
along the organisational learning path a number of fundamental changes
need to be discussed including:
1. The way so many academics use and misuse power both in relation to
students and to more junior staff. This would mean changing reward and
recognition structures and re-thinking what higher education should mean
in the next century, not the last.
2. Re-thinking the role of non-academics and how they are professionally
and personally validated or de-validated in University life
3. Re-discovering process over content. (see At's post) The half-life of
much knowledge now is 3 years and falling. As with the MIT example, we
destroy love of learning and inquisitive thinking with huge, expert-driven
classes that all too often still revolve around "set piece" lectures that
deliver facts which at times are already out of date. (One of our young
staff here asked me recently why I thought her Professor would take the
time to load his lectures on the WWW so students could read them, then
deliver them word for word in a lecture without comment or addition!)
4. Re-discovering academic values - the search for truth, dialogue and
learning for learning's sake and communicating those values to students
and the public. I often used to ask senior academics what their
department or faculty stood for and all too often the answer was "everyone
knows" assuming everyone knew what University life stood for. In my
experience, they don't!
And much more could be said of course.
I had some good times in Higher Education and made some good friends but I
did not see much that looked like organisational learning. What depressed
me was how many academics wanted to see change and how they were at times
punished for breaking professional ranks and expressing concern.
For a bunch of people that espouse free thought and the un-bridled pursuit
of knowledge I sure met a lot of sheep (and cowards) who went "baa"
whenever they were told!
This is not to say there are not many higher education organisations
striving to do better, but the old prestigious Houses of Learning will
take a long time to change in my opinion.
Philip Pogson
--Philip Pogson <Philip_Pogson@oz.sas.com>
Learning-org -- Hosted by Rick Karash <rkarash@karash.com> Public Dialog on Learning Organizations -- <http://www.learning-org.com>