AN ESSAY ON ORGANIZATIONAL LEARNING AND ITS BARRIERS

Organizational learning has been the most contentious and fast-growing term among the
business faculties in last decades and has drawn attention of significant numbers of business
personalities. Learning organization is a group of people working together to boost their
abilities to achieve desired results and accomplished the planned objectives of the
organizations (Yadav & Agarwal, 2016). It enhances employees to transform themselves
continually to cope with and excel in the rapidly changing business environment. It helps to
enrich the employees and leaders with knowledge and techniques to survive the ongoing
turbulent business environment through the continuous adaptation and improvement. The
most knowledge management scholars argue that it is not enough for an individual to learn
within the organization (Senge, 2006). They need to be facilitated with new changing
knowledge management and enriched with motivation and encouragement to deal with the
rapidly changing environment. However, one should not neglect the fact that the knowledge
learned gets diffused within the organization. So, Leaders must attempt to influence the
employees to regenerate diffused knowledge to avoid organizational amnesia. Although, it
looks easy to imply organizational learning in business, its application in the organization has
been like a stone to chew due to availability of only few systematic, measurable methods and
several barriers of applications (Tabrizinia, 2016). Nepal has a gradually developing business
environment which is facing many challenges such as limited market, resources, shortage of
competitive employees, traditionally approach of management. The concept of organizational
learning is still in budding stage in Nepalese business environment, however, it is blossoming
with positive note in some private business sectors. Biswakarma (2017) stated that organization
learning doesn’t work effectively mainly in Nepalese service organizations due to existence of
classical and conservative methods of administration. Experts stressed that organizational
learning is not taking its pace in Nepalese organizations due several factors such as power
distance culture, employee resistance to change, lack of leadership training, short-term focus
and lack of motivation. However, they also voiced that these barriers can be tackled with some
effective strategies and planning. This essay discusses about the barriers of learning
organizations currently Nepalese organizations facing and some possible strategies to
overcome them.

Ram jayana | EXCELSIA, 1943463867

 AN ESSAY ON ORGANIZATIONAL LEARNING AND ITS BARRIERS

Experts argue that the scope of organizational learning is very limited because of narrow
professional business environment. However, the culture of engaging in business and
continuing family business by next generations is gradually booming in recent years (Khare,
2016). With expansion of business area, the leaders and directors have initiated to prioritize
organizational learning to improve the efficiency of employees and performance of the
organizations. On the other hand, these organizations are experiencing several barriers which
are hindering application of learning models in Nepalese organizations.

First barrier is leadership style and their power distance. Leaders play key roles in applying
organization learnings and educating their employees about ongoing and upcoming changes in
the organization. They have ability to influence their followers and guide them towards desired
goal with collective effort. However, the leadership style could be one of the barriers of
organization (Rijal, 2016). She echoed that most of Nepalese organizations have authoritarian
or conservative style of leadership which emphasizes on high power distance. These leaders like
to give commands and directives than taking suggestions from the employees. Greater power
distance means employees hesitate to interact with the management and express negative
attitude towards taking initiatives in decision making process (Khatri, 2009). The
transformational leadership style enhances organizational learnings and always promote
continuous improvement. The survey done by Rijal (2016) in Nepalese and Indian
pharmaceutical companies found that the leadership with high power distance is negatively
associated with organizational learnings. These companies, lacked transformational leaders,
mainly followed directive forms of influencing tactics.

Lack of leadership training is another barrier of organizational learning. Leadership training

enables managers to predict the possible challenges the organization to be faced in the
competitive environment and empower them to find effective solutions. The trained leader
always promote team works, collectivisms and two-way communication systems. Lack of
leadership training could pose threats in building learning organization (Walkme, 2017).
Inadequate leadership training leads to poorly run teams and chaos during periods of change.

Ram jayana | EXCELSIA, 1943463867

 AN ESSAY ON ORGANIZATIONAL LEARNING AND ITS BARRIERS

On the other hand, leaders who are equipped to guide learning efforts will boost the morale
and confidence of their teams. The report by Gurung (2002) clarified that the poor learnings in
Nepalese Civil Service was due to lack of leadership training among managers. These managers
opt out of taking responsibility of coaching, monitoring and facilitating followers for continuous
improvements due to lack of proper knowledge. On the other hand, Shrestha’s findings (2000)
also suggested that subordinates did not consider their bosses trained enough to take as
sources of learnings.

Similarly, resistance to change creates an obstacle in organizational learning process. It is the

common barrier of the organizational learning that Nepalese business firms experiencing. The
major reasons of employees’ resistance to change are administrative style, poor
communication and engagement, fear of job loss, lack of trust and unknown future of the
organization (Paycor, 2019). In context of Nepalese organization, mainly government service
organization, the degree of resistance to change is comparatively higher than private sectors.
The primary reason of given situation is bureaucratic system of administration (Shakya, 2009).
The employees in these organization have been working since long time and following
traditional methods of operation. Besides, they are strongly empowered with authority by laws.
Hence, they hardly prefer to behave positively with changes coming in the organization. For
instance, these organizations took a long time period to transform its operation from manual to
digital system because of employee’s resistance (Basyal & Seo, 2017, Dhami & Futo, 2010). The
organizations are still struggling to digitalize the operations completely.

Motivation is the key factor to enhance employees’ engagement in the organizations.

Motivated employees always try their best to achieve desired goal of the company and do not
hesitate to accept any sort of changes coming in the organization. Szulanski in Mclaughlin,
Paton & Macbeth (2008) stated lack of motivation as barrier of organizational learning because
it halts the transfer of knowledge among employees. In Nepalese organizations, the most of
leaders prefer high power distance structure and do not emphasize the motivation to improve
employees’ performance. Lack of motivation prevents the employees being inspired to learn
and grow in the organization. A report by Maharjan (2012) shows that the companies with

Ram jayana | EXCELSIA, 1943463867

 AN ESSAY ON ORGANIZATIONAL LEARNING AND ITS BARRIERS

higher employees’ motivation are more innovative and quicker adaptative to learning process
in comparison to the organizations with low motivation.

The fifth barrier of organizational learning is organizational defensive routines. According to

Argyris (1993), defensive routines are any actions that prevent employees in organization being
embarrassed and threatened. These are conscious or unconscious acts that inhibit actors
experiencing shameful. Defensive routines arise due to fear of loss of personal identity that
leads to learning anxiety (Michelsen and Thorsteinsdottir, 2010). Employees always find excuses
for not being engaged and motivated in learning and decision-making process if this anxiety
exists. Hence, both Argyris and Michelsen & Thorsteinsdottir concluded that organizational
defensive routine is one of the key barriers of organizational learning. In Nepalese
organizations, mainly in government sector, this factor is the prominent reason for inhibiting
changes and learning process in the organization. They try to avoid the changes and accept new
technology in the organization due to fear of being embarrassed and insulted from others.

Many researchers claimed that every organizations should analyze the obstacles of learnings
critically and promptly initiate to implement necessary actions to enhance learning
environment in organizations. Since these barriers could prevent employees from being
innovative, updated, and experienced with new systems and technologies, it is duties of leaders
to imply suitable strategies to overcome these barriers. A long-term strategy management
could help to minimize the impacts of such resistance. There are several possible strategies
that help to improve organizational learnings. The foremost and prominent one is strategic plan
to prepare employees during organizational changes. As employee’s resistance to change is a
barrier of organization learning, management should design strategy to overcome such
behavior of employees. However, regardless of how properly organizations manage to change,
there is always going to be resistance. So, effective strategy enhances to minimize the effect of
resistance. Effective employee engagement, dividing change process into many segments,
proper communication about change, explanation of need of change, relevant training and
empowerment of employee are some managerial procedure of resistance to change (Paycor,
2017).

Ram jayana | EXCELSIA, 1943463867

 AN ESSAY ON ORGANIZATIONAL LEARNING AND ITS BARRIERS

The second measure of improving organization learning is leadership training. Leaders have
great ability to influence their employees in an organization. A trained leader can lead his
follower towards the vision and objectives by enriching and empowering them (Hasson et
al.,2016). The report by Hasson et al. found that the leadership training intervention had
positive effects on managers’ perceptions of individual-level and on employees’ perceptions of
organizational-level aspects of organizational learning. For instance, the employing the trained
leader, Kulman Ghising, had drastic impact on behavior and perceptions of employees of Nepal
Electricity Authority (Spotlight, 2018). He has been able to transform the company from
continuous loss to profitable by using same resources. The employees, who resisted to change
before, have now progressive perceptions towards the organization.

Furthermore, creating a culture that reward learning helps to improve organizational learning.
The culture in organization influences its life such as members’ learning, interactions,
perceptions, their expectations, commitments and their own work in the institution (Preskill &
Torres, 1999). Creating a culture that reward learning begins with leaders by updating
commanding style; showing followers how to be instead of saying ‘do this’, applying new logic
of attractiveness and building psychologically safe environment for learning. The key factors of
the environment include rewarding for efforts of right actions, opportunities of training and
practices and encouraging to tackle fear and shame related to mistakes (Collinson & Cook,
2007).

Finally, employee engagement is another key element that boosts learning in the organizations.
According to Kahn (1990), employee engagement means attachment members of firms with
their work and performance. Employee engagement brings job satisfaction, performance
efficiency and emotionally attachment to job (Hussain & Ishak, 2017). When employees are
emotionally attached to their job, they always seek to learn and update their knowledge to
improve their performance. The survey done by Hussain and Ishak in the commercial bank of
Malaysia explored that employee engagement has positive impact on organizational learning.

To sum up, organizational learning is and indispensable tool for any firms to enhance their
performance, efficiency and profitability. It facilitates employees to update their knowledge

Ram jayana | EXCELSIA, 1943463867

 AN ESSAY ON ORGANIZATIONAL LEARNING AND ITS BARRIERS

about working pattern and change perceptions towards their jobs and workplace. However, the
barriers rooted in the organization hinder the implication of organizational learning effectively.
Organizational learning can be intensified through transformational leadership, motivation and
rewards, creating environment for learning and growth. Hence, the management always should
allocate enough time to formulate strategies to improve organizational learning.

References
Argyris, C. (1993) Knowledge for Action. A guide to overcoming barriers to organizational
change, San Francisco: Jossey Bass

Basyal, D. K. & Seo, J. W. (2017). Employee resistance to change and technology acceptance in
Nepal. South Asian Studies, 32(2), p 349.

Biswakarma, G. (2017). Role of power distance in integrating social capital with learning
organization towards perceived jobs in Nepalese service organizations. RA Journal of Applied
Research, 2(9), via google scholar.

Collinson, V. & Cook, T. F. (2007). Organizationa learning: Improving learning, teaching and
leading in school system. Thousand Oaks: SAGE publication. Retrieved from
http://web.a.ebscohost.com.excelsia.idm.oclc.org/ehost/detail/detail?vid=3&sid=715ff1eb-
4c2c-498b-8da8-4a029763546f%40sessionmgr4007&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d
%3d#AN=467180&db=nlebk

Dhami, D. K. & Futo, I. (2010). Implementation of challenges of e-Governance in Nepal and

possible steps towards solutions In ResearchGate, Proceedings of the 8th International
Conference on Applied Informatics Eger, Hungary. Retrieved from
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Gabor_Kusper/publication/265837563_Proceedings_of_
the_8th_international_conference_on_applied_informatics_ICAI_2010_Eger_Hungary_January
_27-30_2010_2_Volumes/links/5659ab6008aefe619b22de5d/Proceedings-of-the-8th-
international-conference-on-applied-informatics-ICAI-2010-Eger-Hungary-January-27-30-2010-
2-Volumes.pdf#page=423

Ram jayana | EXCELSIA, 1943463867

 AN ESSAY ON ORGANIZATIONAL LEARNING AND ITS BARRIERS

Gurung, M. M. (2002). Organizational learning and Nepalese civil systems. The Nepalese Journal
of Public Administration, year 34, number 1, issue 93. Retrieved from
file:///C:/Users/Aar%20K%20Jayana/Downloads/RS678_Mahendra%20Man%20Gurung.pdf
Hasson, H., von Thiele Schwarz, U., Holmstrom, S., Karanika-Murray, M. & Tafvelin, S. (2016),
"Improving organizational learning through leadership training", Journal of Workplace Learning,
Vol. 28 No. 3, pp. 115-129. https://doi.org/10.1108/JWL-06-2015-0049

Hussain, I. A. & Ishak, N. A. (2017). The relationship between organizational learning and
employee engagement, in the perspective of young employees from commercial banks in
Malaysia. Journal of Business and Economic Development, 2(1), 57-62. Retrieved from
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Ibiwani_Hussain/publication/323868131_The_Relations
hip_Between_Organizational_Learning_and_Employee_Engagement_in_the_Perspective_of_Y
oung_Employees_from_Commercial_Banks_in_Malaysia/links/5ab088a7458515ecebeb2178/T
he-Relationship-Between-Organizational-Learning-and-Employee-Engagement-in-the-
Perspective-of-Young-Employees-from-Commercial-Banks-in-Malaysia.pdf

Kahn, W. A. (1990). Psychological conditions of personal engagement and disengagement at

work. Academy of Management Journal, 33, 692–724.Google Scholar

Khare, V. (2016, February 22). A learning organization. New Business Age. Retrieved from
https://www.newbusinessage.com/MagazineArticles/view/1430

Khatri, N. (2009). Consequences of power distance orientation in organizations. Journal of

Business Perspective, 13(1). Retrieved from
https://doi.org/10.1177/097226290901300101

Maharjan, S. (2012). Association between work, motivation and job satisfaction of college
teachers. Administration and Management Review, 24(2), 45-55.

Michelsen, C. & Thorsteinsdottir, H. H. (2010). Deffensive routines and their origins (Master
Thesis, University of Lund). Retrieved from

Ram jayana | EXCELSIA, 1943463867

 AN ESSAY ON ORGANIZATIONAL LEARNING AND ITS BARRIERS

http://lup.lub.lu.se/luur/download?func=downloadFile&recordOId=1619775&fileOId=2435853

Othman, R. & Hashim, N. A. (2015). Organizational amnesia: The barrier to the organizational
learning (An Academic Track, University of Kebangsaan Malaysia). Retrieved from
https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/wbs/conf/olkc/archive/oklc3/papers/id308.pdf

Paycor. (2019, July 17). Overcoming employee resistance to change in the workplace. Retrieved
from
https://www.paycor.com/resource-center/change-management-in-the-workplace-why-do-
employees-resist-it

Preskill, H. S. & Torres, R. T. (1999). Evaluative inquiry for learning in organizations. Retrieved
from
http://web.b.ebscohost.com.excelsia.idm.oclc.org/ehost/ebookviewer/ebook/bmxlYmtfXzYzMj
Y4X19BTg2?sid=195d545b-693a-454d-a457-
93e45d67c9da@sessionmgr102&vid=8&format=EB&rid=3

Rijal, S. (2010). Leadership style and organizational culture in learning organization: A

comparative study. International Journal of Management and Information System, volume 14, n
5. Retrieved from
https://clutejournals.com/index.php/IJMIS/article/view/19/17

Senge, P. (2006). The Fifth Discipline: the art and practice of learning organization. Doubleday
Dell Publishing Group, Broadway, New York.

Shakya, R. K. (2009). Why civil service reforms fail? – A case of Nepal. Administration and
Management Review, 21(2). Retrieved from
file:///C:/Users/Aar%20K%20Jayana/Downloads/3046-Article%20Text-10546-1-10-
20100430.pdf

Ram jayana | EXCELSIA, 1943463867

 AN ESSAY ON ORGANIZATIONAL LEARNING AND ITS BARRIERS

Shrestha, R. B. (2000). Management development in Nepalese organizations. Administration

and Management Review, Vol 2, No. 12, pp 45-56.
Spotlight. (2018, Nov 8). Kul Man Ghising: A moment of brilliance and abundance. Retrieved
from
https://www.spotlightnepal.com/2018/11/08/kul-man-ghising-moment-brilliance-and-
abundance/

Szulanski, G. (1996), ‘‘Exploring internal stickiness: impediments to the transfer of best practice
within the firm’’, Strategic Management Journal, Vol. 17, pp. 27-43.

Tabrizinia, S. (2016). Organizational Learning. Management Science Letters, 635-640. Retrieved

from
http://www.growingscience.com/msl/Vol6/msl_2016_50.pdf

Walkme. (2017, April 1). 7 barriers to organizational learning. [Blog Post]. Retrieved from
https://blog.walkme.com/7-barriers-to-organizational-learning/

Yadav, S. & Agarwal, V. (2016). Benefits and barriers of learning organization and its five
Discipline. Journal of Business and Management, volume 18, issue 12. Retrieved from
http://www.iosrjournals.org/iosr-jbm/papers/Vol18-issue12/Version-1/D1812011824.pdf

Ram jayana | EXCELSIA, 1943463867