Responding to Communities of Practice (CoPs) LO22130:
From: "Malcolm Burson" <mburson@mint.net>
> ... The very process TJ describes of "slipping around the
> boundaries" in order to pursue what the participants saw as crucial to
> their ongoing learning and success almost inevitably brought them into
> conflict with those higher in the organization who found that the group
> was "out of control" from their point of view. In one case, management
> was ruthless in closing down the group as punishment for exceeding their
> mandate; in others, the groups withered for lack of support.
>
> Isn't this just another example of what's likely to happen when the
> commitment to self direction and empowerment confronts the reality of
> management's control needs?
>
> Sorry to sound cynical.
Dear MALCOLM and others following this thread,
As you have indicated, organisational learning and organisational control
should be studied together. One area where this seems to have happened is
Organisational Cybernetics. Here is a reference:
Espejo, R., Schuhmann, W., Schwaninger, M., and Bilello, U. (1996).
Organizational Transformation and Learning: A Cybernetic Approach to
Management, Wiley, Chichester.
The central ideas seem to be the following:
An organisation, in order to be viable, requires certain basic minimum
elements and interactions within itself. [These elements and interactions
have been specified in the so-called Viable System Model, VSM, first
produced by Stafford Beer.]
# Some of these interactions might be viewed as contributing to
'managerial control'. Some other interactions might be viewed as
contributing to 'organisational learning'.
# There is a problem of balancing between the above two types of
interaction for the continued survival and fitness of the organisation.
Otherwise, the organisation might invest too much on its present or too
much on its future, either way endangering its viability.
# Therefore, there is a need for another set of interactions which will
continuously ensure that an effective balance is indeed maintained [or, in
cybernetics terms, the 'residual variety' is absorbed].
In the above book, there are some explicit suggestions about how these
interactions might happen in practice. The book appears to improve the
original VSM by adding further details and specifying the functions of
some of the sub-systems with greater precision.
I am sending a copy of this message to Prof. Raul Espejo (the first
author) of the above book for his kind information and valuable comments.
Cheers!
DP
----------------
Prof. D. P. Dash
Xavier Institute of Management
Bhubaneswar 751013
India
--"DP DASH" <dpdash@ximb.stpbh.soft.net>
[Host's Note: thank you, DP, for this reference which is new to me! In association with Amazon.com, this link...
Organizational Transformation and Learning : A Cybernetic Approach to Management by Raul Espejo (Editor), Werner Schuhmann, Markus Schwaninger (Contributor), Ubaldo Bilello (Contributor) http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0471961825/learningorg
..Rick]
Learning-org -- Hosted by Rick Karash <rkarash@karash.com> Public Dialog on Learning Organizations -- <http://www.learning-org.com>