Corporate Social Responsibility and Sustainability

Overview

Organisations are shaped by complex learning processes which combine current experiences with lessons learned in the past. From an organisational change perspective, organisational learning is an organisation-wide continuous set of processes that enhances the collective ability to perceive, comprehend, and respond to internal and external events. The strategic link between organisational learning theory and organisational change is that, to be competitive in a changing environment, organisations must adapt to survive and prosper, and that adaptive change is a consequence of organisational learning.In terms of organisational leadership, organisational learning is about the astuteness of the organisation’s leadership, and the honesty, capability and curiosity of its members in uncovering problems or areas of improvement that may engender competitive advantage, assessing the risks and trade-offs of possible action, and making and implementing decisions to bring about positive change.The focus of this unit is primarily on organisational change – incremental and modular change (organisation development) and fundamental organisation-wide strategic change (transformation) – and change agency, in particular, change leadership. The unit examines the theory and practice of organisational change and organisational learning and considers how these theories and practices converge to advocate, design and implement development and transformation. Peter Senge’s ‘Learning Organization’ model will be discussed at length, as a central theory integrating organisational learning, change and leadership.

Key Features