John, I know my original note was about the role of process-centred
improvement and learning, i.e. small-scale learning. However, your note
says
>After all, if organisational learning is nothing more than small-scale
>learning, how could it last beyond the tenure of those individuals who
>engaged in the small-scale learning?
A thought or two about this.
Let's think about our oldest industries and commercial organisations.
The UK started machine-assisted manufacturing in the late 1700's, and it
reached its peak in at the turn of the last century. Parallel to the
development of the level of sophistication of that 'design and build'
was the continuation, even a re-invention, of the apprenticeship system.
This system of apprenticeship had been started in medieval times, if not
before. I'm sure the Ancient world had such a system. Apprenticeships
were long periods of bonding .. a word used to cover many attributes of
attachment and association between a Master Craftsman and a trainee. My
father served a seven-year apprenticeship as a railway locomotive
builder. The trainee graduated through visible skill and accrued
experience to be a Journeyman. (We still use the term "improver" in the
UK to acknowledge that an apprentice has reached a recognisable stage in
his long learning process.) Only the best reached Master status. The
recognition of this Master-ship was facilitated by the establishment of
Worshipful Companies, who selected the best of the best. I don't know
how many such Companies there were, but I do know that over 100 houses
or halls of such Worshipful Companies were destroyed in the Great Fire
of London in the 17th century.
Of course they were seats of power. The Lord Mayor of the City of
London (there is a distinct City within the metropolis .. a bit like the
Wall St area of N.Y. I guess) gets his title and status from such an
idea. He is usually a banker, and the title and awarding ceremony is a
21st century continuation of those medieval systems. The main
Worshipful Companies have their annual dinners, and conduct elaborate
ceremonies to appoint the current year's Master. We even have a train
called the Master Cutler .. it runs from London to Sheffield, the old
centre of steel making and manufacture of fine table cutlery.
Apprenticeships were the one-to-a-few training systems of the day. It
was small-scale. The process was lengthy simply because the extraction
and translation of tacit knowledge to explicit knowledge is, as we know,
hard, and requires much time and effort. The apprentice schools of the
late 19th century and those of the present century were and are larger.
The large engineering companies after W.W.II developed specialised
training schools, and trained hundreds of apprentices.
And so John, I suggest this may be an answer to how could it last beyond
the tenure of those individuals who engaged in the small-scale learning?
The power and status attached to the Craft associations was established
to DO JUST THAT.
If I can take your words, with small changes ..
the goal (if not the consistent achievement) of those who promoted
organisational (the craft association's) learning was to create
knowledge that outlasted the individual knowers, that somehow inhered in
the organisation itself.
However, what intrigues me is how we can create replacement systems that
can serve the needs of the modern-day apprentices and can somehow
transfer complex and detailed skills to our modern-day apprentices.
Except we don't call them, nor consider them as apprentices in the old
sense.
Re how would I describe the nature of the emergent component(s) of
organisational learning?
I don't know yet. I'm trying to identify and understand what these
components are. Are they new would be my second question ..or are they
re-inventions of older knowledge.
I'm still thinking about your last question.
Roy
-- Roy Greenhalgh Associates Tel: (+44) 1454.294200 Townwell House FAX: (+44) 1454.294200 Cromhall Wotton under Edge Gloucestershire GL12 8AQ United KingdomLearning-org -- Hosted by Rick Karash <rkarash@karash.com> Public Dialog on Learning Organizations -- <http://www.learning-org.com>