17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
An Organizational Learning Model That Makes Sense, January 20, 2000
This review is from: How Organizations Learn: An Integrated Strategy for Building Learning Capability (Jossey-Bass Business & Management) (Hardcover)
In my quest to learn about organizational learning, I have probably read the majority of what has been written on this topic. I have found this book by Anthony DiBella and Edwin Nevis to be the most useful in providing insights to capacity development while building on some solid theoretical foundations.
The authors build on the work of giants in organizational development, but their approach is considerably more pragmatic, consistent with the movement of organizational theorists to link their work to practice. They describe the importance of involved leadership and provide examples of how that would look. They note the difficulty of linking specific outcomes to learning inputs, because of the time lags that exist. They note that "learning itself becomes transparent over time, and we fail to recognize what we have learned or accomplished" (DiBella & Nevis, 1998, p. 199). Another feature is the acknowledgment that leadership is not vested in a single individual but rather "is exhibited both vertically and horizontally throughout any organization" (p. 76), a view that is espoused by enlightened leadership writers and valued by employees around the world.
They present organizational learning as a learning cycle, consistent with the beliefs of other theorists and practitioners. By using the learning cycle as a foundation, the authors set up a model of organizational learning as a continuous process, similar to continuous quality improvement processes or the widely recognized experiential learning model of David Kolb.
The authors respond to an identified need for tools to measure organizational learning and offer a variety of methods by which organizations can be analyzed and improved. Their model is grounded in theory, but it offers tools for translating the theory into organizational practice.
In addition to providing a meaningful model, describing organizational learning styles, and identifying facilitating factors (those factors that could be changed to enhance organizational learning capacity), the authors offer practical advice on how to enhance the factors that contribute to more productive organizational learning.
The DiBella/Nevis model is the most concrete and complete of all of the organizational learning resources reviewed. Unlike most of the writings about organizational learning, there is a research base, a research tool, and guidance on planning organizational interventions.
Their model makes sense with what we understand about learning. It also makes sense with what we know about the way organizations work. And helping organizations learn makes sense for individuals and society.
Director of the Center for Learning, Northwestern Michigan College
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10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
In-depth, practical, best book on learning organizations!, September 8, 1999
By A Customer
This review is from: How Organizations Learn: An Integrated Strategy for Building Learning Capability (Jossey-Bass Business & Management) (Hardcover)
I am an organization consultant and have found DiBella and Nevis's book very useful. For instance, they provide a practical framework for assessing learning in teams. This book lacks the usual faddish gibberish surrounding learning organizations. I believe this book is significant, particularly for trainers and consultants. I chose this book to review in-depth for Training Media Review magazine. Solid, useful conceptual presentation.
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5 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Change through learning, February 7, 2000
This review is from: How Organizations Learn: An Integrated Strategy for Building Learning Capability (Jossey-Bass Business & Management) (Hardcover)
There are many books on the change process but few address the learning that must occur by those who are changed. DiBella and Nevis provide a tool for you to analyze the learning capability of your organization, as well as to help you identify those learning leverage points that need to be tweaked for the organization to achieve its goals.
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