Selim Yazici asks:
>1) Is it possible to measure learning in organizations? If yes, how?
>2) Are questionnaires the best and reliable way to measure organizational
>learning? If yes, what topics can be listed? Is there anyone who can
>provide me an example of the questionnaire?
My (partial)answers:
1) Yes. For "how," please see below.
2) No.
Measuring organizational learning is (at least) as difficult as measuring
human learning. We have more than a hundred years of struggle with
measuring human learning and no simple answers. Of all the ways we have
devised for measuring human learning, questionnaires are probably the
least satisfying.
Like human learning, the "best" way to measure organizational learning will
depend upon:
A. What was being learned
B. For what purpose you are measuring it
Do you want to know how long the learning lasts within the organization?
That means you must measure "retention." Do you simply want to know how
much effort the organization expended trying to learn? You need an effort
index, or other evidence of effort expended. Do you want to know how
accurately knowledge was transferred from one place (inside or outside) to
another (inside) the organization? Then you need some kind of "test" -- a
recall test, or a recognition test, or a production test, or ... etc. Do
you want to know what the organization can do differently (better) because
of some learning it presumably did? Then you need to have performance
measures -- preferably not from the opinions of those doing the performing
(questionnaires) but from objective data or third-party judgment.
I feel a bit like the Cheshire Cat in Alice in Wonderland who, when asked,
"Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?" answered
with, "That depends a good deal on where you want to get to." [The
incident continued with Alice admitting, "I don't much care where ...," to
which the cat replied, "Then it doesn't matter which way you go."]
--"John Gunkler" <jgunkler@sprintmail.com>
Learning-org -- Hosted by Rick Karash <rkarash@karash.com> Public Dialog on Learning Organizations -- <http://www.learning-org.com>