Re: Future of HR in LOs LO3364

pcapper@actrix.gen.nz
Mon, 23 Oct 1995 14:11:39 +1300

Replying to LO3359 --

Michael McMaster writes:

"Successful change" and "learning" are a tautology for me."

I do not think this holds. It seems to me that part of the business of
organisational analysis is to identify what dysfunctional learning is
taking place and why.

For example a situation here in New Zealand which I have alluded to before
involves the collapse of a viewing platform in a national park where many
died. The public enquiry data invites the interpretation that people
working in the responsible department had 'learned' over a number of years
that good performance was defined as working out how to do engineering
tasks on the cheap and through the application of 'clever' construction
short cuts. Much collective learning effort appears to have been devoted
to getting better at this at the expense of safety.

There is no doubt that lots of learning took place - but the defined
envelope in which learning took place was certainly dysfunctional.

It also seems to me that this example tells us something about the other
current thread on individual and organisational learning. In this case it
might be argued that individuals undertook personal learnings which were
real and which received positive feedback within the organisation,
resulting in personal satisfaction. However the perversity of the
organisational system resulted in a highly dysfunctional, and eventually
tragic, organisational learning outcome

--
Phillip Capper
WEB Research
Wellington
New Zealand

pcapper@actrix.gen.nz