ORGANISATIONAL BEHAVIOUR

Individual & Organisational Learning.

Presented
by
M K BANDA

OB Lecture Series M K BANDA 1

 Contents
• Individuality and Personality
• Learning in perspective
• Learning Process
• Learning Styles
• Organizations as Learning Systems
• Adaptive and Generative Learning
• Managing the Learning Process

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 Nature of Individuality
• An individual’s behaviour is highly influenced by the prevailing
situation and how his personality interacts with the
environmental factors then at work.
• B = p * Environmental factors at work
• In general an individual’s behaviour at work is influenced by four
factors the:
– nature of the organisation,
– prevailing organisational culture,
– work group to which an individual is assigned to work with and,
– nature of the job. 
• An individual is a unique being with self-concept, self-esteem,
cognitions, self-efficacy and personality.

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 Self - concept
• It is a person’s self-perception as a physical, social spiritual or
moral being.
• Because of self-concept individuals view and recognize themselves
as distinct human beings.
• In general, a person struggles to behave according to his self-
concept at the same time: being a boss, or being a father, or being a
student
• Self-concept would be impossible without the capacity to think.
• Capacity to think brings us to the concept of cognition.
• Cognition is described as a person’s knowledge, opinions or
beliefs.
• Cognition represents “any knowledge, opinion or belief about the
environment, about oneself or about one’s behaviour.”

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 Self - esteem
• Belief about one’s self-worth based on self-evaluation:
– People with high self-esteem see themselves as worthwhile, capable and
acceptable.
– People with low self-esteem view themselves in negative terms - hampered by self-
doubts. 
• Self-esteem varies across cultures:
– individualistic cultures such as EU, US, Canada, and Australia;
– collectivist cultures such as Korea, China, Japan and Kenya.
• Research has shown that individualistic cultures socialize people to focus
more on themselves while collectivistic cultures socialize people to fit into
the community and do their duty. 
• Organisation based self-esteem (OBSE) is the perceived value that
individuals have of themselves as organisational members acting within an
organisational context.

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Organization Based Self-esteem (OBSE)
• The determinants of OBSE include:
– managerial respect, organization structure and
– job complexity.
• OBSE influences the following factors:
– global self-esteem, job performance,
– intrinsic motivation, general satisfaction,
– citizenship behaviour and organizational commitment and satisfaction.
• Managers can help build workers’ on-the-job self-esteem by:
– Being supportive and showing concern for personal problems, interests, status and
contribution
– Offering working variety, autonomy, and challenges that suit individual’s values,
skills and abilities
– Building trust through management – employee cohesiveness
– Having faith in employee’s self-management ability and rewarding each success.

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 Self-efficacy
• Self-efficacy - a dimension of self-esteem - a person’s belief about his chances of successfully
accomplishing a specific task-
– It arises from the gradual acquisition of complex cognitive, social, linguistic and physical skills through
experience. 
– Pushes us to learn from failure in order to succeed. Thus the key to success is failure – developing a
mentality of facing up to challenges and eventually overcoming them.
– Has a cycle relationship with performance.
• Efficacy– performance cycle can spiral toward success or downward toward failure.
• Low self-efficacy is associated with learned helplessness – debilitating lack of faith in one’s ability
to control a situation. 
• Self-efficacy has implications for managers. It requires constructive action in:
– recruiting/selection/job assignment
– interview questions can be designed to probe applicants’ general self-efficacy as a basis for orientation and
training needs identification.
– job design, training and development, self-management goal setting and quality improvement, coaching
leadership and design of rewards.
• Self-monitoring - the extent to which a person observes his/her own self-expressive behaviour
and adapts it to the demand of the situation.

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 Personality
• Personality - the combination of stable physical and mental characteristics that give the
individual his identity better known as traits: how one looks, thinks, acts and feels.
– Traits are the product of interacting genetic and environmental influences. 
• Personality has many dimensions; the big five personality dimensions each made up of a
continuum of values are:
– Openness to experience: intellectual, imaginative, curious and broad-minded
– Conscientiousness: dependable, responsible, achievement-oriented and persistent
– Extraversion: outgoing, talkative, sociable, assertive
– Agreeableness: trusting, good-natured, cooperative and soft-hearted
– Neuroticism (emotional stability): relaxed secure, unworried
• The big five dimensions reveal a personality profile as unique as finger prints.
• These dimensions are not ethnocentric or unique to culture but they are cross-cultural.
• The big five dimensions that correlate positively and strongly with performance would be
helpful in
– selection,
– training and
– appraisal of employees. 

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 Locus of control
• People vary in terms of how much personal responsibility they take for their
behaviour and its consequences.
• They tend to attribute causes of their behaviour primarily to either themselves or
environmental factors.
• Locus of control is a dimension of personality that explains personal responsibility for
behaviour.  
• Locus of control produces distinctly different behaviour patterns.
• Internal locus of control – people with this trait attribute behavioral outcomes to
own actions or abilities. ‘Internals’ tend to blame negative events such as failing
exams on personal shortcomings.
– Entrepreneurs for example, succeed because of their internal locus of control helps them
overcome setbacks and disappointments. They see themselves as masters of their own fate.
• External locus of control – ‘Externals’ tend to attribute an exam success to
something external such an easy exam or a good lucky day and attribute failure to an
unfair exam or problems at home. 

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 Attitudes and Behaviour
• It is generally assumed that attitudes somehow influence
behaviour such as voting for someone, working hard, or quitting
the job.
• Attitude is defined as a learned predisposition to respond in a
consistently favorable or unfavorable manner with respect to a
given object, person or action.
• Attitudes affect behaviour at a different level than do values.
• Values represent global beliefs that influence behaviour across all
situations.
• Attitudes on the other hand relate to behaviour directed to specific
objects, persons, situations or actions.
• Values and attitudes are generally in harmony.

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 Learning in perspective
• Wrong assumptions about learning:
– Learning associated with teachers, textbooks and classrooms.
– Prime responsibility for learning lies with teachers.
– Teachers through training and experience are the experts.
– Students are mere passive participants in the learning process:
their job is to observe read and memorize what the teacher
assigns and then to repeat in examinations.
– Textbooks symbolize that learning is primarily concerned with
learning abstract ideas and concepts.
– The classroom symbolizes the assumption that learning is a
special activity cut off from the real world and unrelated to
one’s life.
• As a result of these assumptions, the concept of learning seems to
be irrelevant to daily lives of work even though to-day’s business
environment is changing rapidly requiring managers and workers to
adapt to the changes through learning.
• The ability to learn is an important skill.
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 Adult Learning Environment
• Five characteristics of learning environment:
– adult learning is based on a psychological contract of
reciprocity - it is based on a mutual and equal balance of giving
and getting.
– adult learning is experience based and the motivation for
learning comes from problems and opportunities arising from
the learners own life experience.
– adult learning environment emphasizes personal application
and the main goal of adult learning is to apply new skills,
knowledge and attitudes to the solution of their practical
problems;
– adult learning environment is individualized and self-directed:
the person’s learning goals and styles are different.
– the adult learning environment integrates learning and living.
The two goals in the learning process are to
– learn specifics of a particular subject matter and to
– learn about one’s own strengths and weaknesses as a learner.
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 Individual Learning Process

Concrete
Experience

Testing Implications
of Concepts in Observation and
New Situations Reflection

Formation of
Abstract
Concepts

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 Learning Process
• Several observations about the model are:
– the learning cycle is continuously recurring,
– continuously testing concepts in experience and
– modifying them as a result of observation of the experience;
• Thus all learning is relearning and all education is re-education;
• The direction of learning is governed by one’s felt needs and
goals,
• Hence the process of learning is erratic and inefficient when
personal goals are not clear;
• Since the learning process is directed by needs and goals,
learning styles become highly individual in both direction and
process.

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 Learning Process
• Effective learners rely on all four different learning modes:
– concrete experience,
– reflective observation,
– abstract conceptualization and
– active experimentation.
• Therefore,
– Effective learners involve themselves fully and openly, and without
bias in new experiences.
– In the first instance they must be able to reflect on and observe the
experience from many perspectives;
– Secondly they must be able to create concepts that integrate
observations into logical sound theories;
– Thirdly, they must be able to use these theories to make decisions and
solve problems.

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 Learning Process &
Behavioural Characteristics
• An orientation toward concrete experience focuses on being
involved in experiences and dealing with human situations in
a personal way.
• This learning style emphasizes the perception of feeling,
focusing on uniqueness and complexity of present reality as
opposed to theories and generalizations,
• It is an intuitive approach as opposed to the systematic and
scientific approach to problems.
• Such persons enjoy relating to others; they are good at
intuitive decision making and they function well in
unstructured situations.
• They have an open-mind approach to life.

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 Learning Process &
Behavioural Characteristics
• An orientation toward effective observation focuses on:
understanding the meaning of ideas and situations by
carefully observing and impartially describing them
• The emphasis is on understanding rather than practical
application, reflection rather than action;
• People with reflective orientation enjoy thinking about
meaning of situations and ideas and are good at seeing their
implications.
• Such people are good at looking at things from different
perspectives. They rely on thoughts and feelings to form
opinions.
• Such persons value patience, impartiality and considered,
thoughtful judgment.

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 Learning Process &
Behavioural Characteristics
• An orientation toward abstract conceptualization
focuses on: using logic, ideas and concepts; and
• Emphasis is on thinking rather than feeling, a concern
with theorizing rather than intuition – a scientific
rather than artistic approach to problems.
• Such a person enjoys systematic planning,
manipulation of abstract symbols and quantitative
analysis.
• Such persons value precision and analyzing ideas.

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 Learning Process &
Behavioural Characteristics
• An orientation toward active experimentation focuses on:
actively influencing people and changing situations and
• The emphasis is on practical applications rather than
reflective understanding, pragmatic with what works rather
than absolute faith, an emphasis on action rather than
observing.
• Such people enjoy and are good at getting things
accomplished. They are willing to take risks to achieve their
objectives.
• They value having an impact and influence on the
environment around them and like to see results. This is
typical of entrepreneurs.

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 Learning Styles
• Each person’s learning style is a combination of the four
basic models.
• By considering two dimensions on continuum Abstract
Conceptualization AC – Concrete Experimentation CE and
continuum Active Experimentation AE – Reflective
Observation RO a learning style type grid can be
constructed as shown:
• Four learning style types are:
– Divergent
– Assimilation
– Convergent and
– Accommodation.

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 Learning Styles

Abstract

Accommodative Divergent Learning

Learning Style Style
AC
–
CE

Convergent Learning Assimilative

Style Learning Style

Concrete
Active Reflective
AE – RO

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 Learning Styles
• Divergent learning emphasizes concrete experience and
reflective observation.
• Strength lies in imaginative ability and awareness of meanings
and values.
• Primary adaptive ability is to view concrete situations from
many perspectives.
• Adaptation by observation rather than by action.
• Such person performs better at generating alternative ideas
through brainstorming.
• Divergers’ are interested in people, they are imaginative and
feeling oriented.
• This style is characteristic of individuals from humanities and
liberal arts backgrounds.
• Counselors, human resource managers, OD specialists tend to
be characterised by this learning style.
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 Learning Styles
• Assimilation style: the dominant learning abilities are abstract
conceptualization and reflective observation.
• Strength lies in inductive reasoning, creation of theoretical
models and in assimilating disparate observations into
integrated explanations.
• It is less focused on people but is more concerned with ideas
and abstract concepts.
• The style is characteristic of individuals with basic science and
mathematics background. Such persons are found in planning
and research departments.

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 Learning Styles
• Convergent learning style: the style is primarily abstract
conceptualization and active experimentation.
• Strength lies in problem-solving, decision making and practical
application of ideas.
• They are good at hypothetical, deductive reasoning focused
on a specific problem.
• Such persons are controlled in their expression of emotion.
• They prefer dealing with technical tasks and problems rather
than with social and interpersonal issues.
• Convergers have specialized physical science background and
is characteristic of systems analysts and technical specialists.

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 Learning Styles
• Accommodative learning style: the style places emphasis on
concrete experience and active experimentation.
• Strengths lie in doing things, carrying out plans and tasks and
getting involved in new experiences.
• The adaptive emphasis is on opportunity seeking, risk taking
and action.
• Plans and theories are discarded when they do not fit arising
situations.
• Such persons solve problems intuitively through trial and
error manner, relying on other people for information rather
than own analytic ability.
• They are at ease with people, sometimes impatient and
pushy.
• Their educational background is in the technical or practical
fields such as business. In organizations, they are found in
‘action-oriented’ jobs like marketing, sales or management.
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 Summary
• The learning model is a four-stage cycle:
– concrete experience
– observation and reflection
– formation of abstract concepts and generalizations leading to
– hypotheses to be tested in future action
• The learning cycle is continuously recurring. Effective learners rely on four
different learning modes:
– concrete experience,
– reflective observation,
– abstract conceptualization and
– active experimentation.
• Each person’s learning style is a combination of the four basic models classified
into four learning style types:
– Divergent
– Assimilation
– Convergent and
– Accommodation.

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 Review questions

• How true is it that learning best achieved through

experience?
• Explain what is meant by the statement “the
direction of learning is governed by felt needs and
goals”.
• Explain the learning methods of assimilation and
accommodation.
• Who is a divergent learner and who is a convergent
learner?

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 Sample Exam Question

• Organizations learn to adapt to the ever-changing

environmental factors and such learning usually
reflects the learning styles of the dominant
managers.
• With reference to the statement above:
• Explain the learning styles of organizations
• Discuss the process of managing the learning process
of an organization

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 Reference

• Kolb D A, Osland J S Rubin I M, (1995)

Organizational Behavior: An Experiential
Approach Prentice Hall, New Jersey. Chapter 3

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 Organizations as
Learning Systems
• Organizations learn and develop distinctive learning
styles through their transaction with the
environment
• The open systems view dictates that organizations
adapt through learning and practical application of
knowledge.
• Organizations adapt by differentiating into units each
of which deals with one part of the external
conditions.
• The different units develop characteristic ways of
thinking and working together – different styles of
decision making and problem solving.

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 Organizations as
Learning Systems
• Differentiation is part of an organization’s adaptation and
effectiveness.
• The result of differentiation is to create a corresponding
internal need to integrate and resolve the conflict of interest
in the different learning styles.
• Differences in learning styles are resolved through
confrontation and integration of different learning styles -
resolved through dominance by one unit over others resulting
in imbalanced organizational learning style.
• Conflict between units is a function of manager’s learning
styles rather than job and role demands.
• Manager’s learning styles are an important factor in achieving
integration among functional units.

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 Adaptive and Generative Learning
• Successful organizations are distinguished by their
ability to learn.
• Continuing success in a changing world requires
ability to explore new opportunities and learn from
past successes and failures
• Argyris described two types of learning: i) single loop
learning responding to feedback and ii) double loop
learning that questions assumptions underlying
theories.

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 Adaptive and Generative Learning
• Single loop learning is referred to as adaptive
learning - a coping approach that measures the
present situation and takes corrective action to
improve on the situation.
• Double loop learning is referred to as generative
learning – consisting of continuous experimentation
and feedback in an on-going analysis of how
organizations define and solve problems.
• Generative learning is a creative response, rather
than a coping response.

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 Managing Learning Process
• Organizations employ parallel learning structures - defined as
part of the organization that operates alongside the normal
bureaucracy with the purpose of increasing organizational
learning by creating and implementing new thoughts and
behaviours.
• Parallel learning structures promote a climate conducive to
innovation, learning and group problem – solving.
• In managing the learning process, experimenting is useful for
examining the education process and for understanding
managerial problem – solving and organizational adaptation.

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 Improving individual and organization
learning
• Learning should be an explicit objective that is pursued as
actively consciously and deliberately as profit and
productivity.
• Managers and organizations should budget time to learn from
their experiences;
• Nature of the learning process is such that opposing
perspectives - action and reflection, concrete involvement and
analytical detachment – are all essential for optimal learning.
• When one perspective dominates others, learning
effectiveness is reduced.
• Most effective learning systems are those that tolerate
differences in perspectives.

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 Summary

• Organizations learn through transaction with the environment and

through choice of how to relate to that environment.
• Conflict between units is a function of manager’s learning styles
rather than job and role demands.
• Successful organizations are distinguished by their ability to learn.
• Organizational success requires ability to explore new opportunities
and learn from past successes and failures.
• Argyris described two types of learning:
– single loop learning and responding to feedback (adaptive learning) and
– double loop learning that questions assumptions underlying theories
(generative learning).
• Continuing survival and success requires generative learning.
• Organizations employ parallel learning structures which are part of
org operating alongside normal bureaucracy with the purpose of
increasing organizational learning by creating and implementing
new thoughts and behaviours.
OB Lecture Series M K BANDA 36
 Review Questions

• Explain why and how organisations learn. Is

organisational learning necessary?
• Compare the two learning styles of
organisations and explain their advantages
and disadvantages.
• Do organisations in Zambia need parallel
learning systems?

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 References

• Kolb D A, Osland J S Rubin I M, (1995)

Organizational Behavior: An Experiential
Approach Prentice Hall, New Jersey. Chapter 3

OB Lecture Series M K BANDA 38

 THANK YOU

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