Collaborative Cultures

OMM625: Learning Organizations & Effectiveness

Dr. Diane Hamilton

April 28, 2012

David was working in Doha, Qatar for Weill Cornel Medical University, when he found himself talking to a young man, Balla, from Kenya who does accounting for a local financial services company. Balla started discussing the differences between American culture and the one he came from. In Kenya, he said, everyone is very community-focused; but people from the United States function as completely separate individuals. Bella described how he and his Kenyan friends get together frequently for an entire day to cook, talk, and watch the women braid each other’s hair. He said that in the States, people place more importance on individual activities, with families rarely even having meals together.

At that moment David realized how true his statement was and how he had learned so much from his cross assimilation between other cultures. Bella was correct in speaking of American learning. Learning has become less community-based in the United States. More and more, learning is focused on web-based training and distance learning. And yet, according to research, people learn best (Tacit) by interacting with others in a real world context. “As Michael Polanyi (1967: 4) wrote in The Tacit Dimension, we should start from the fact that 'we can know more than we can tell'. He termed this pre-logical phase of knowing as 'tacit knowledge'” (Smith, 2003, p. 1). Technology (Explicit) can foster social isolation; and learning in isolation has serious limitations for most people. Explicit knowledge is defined as, “Articulated knowledge, expressed and recorded as words, numbers, codes, mathematical and scientific formulae, and musical notations. Explicit knowledge is found in books, on the web, and other visual and oral means,” (Business, 2012, p. 1). It is important to find ways of using technology to build community, not destroy it.

Technology works best, when it helps create learning environments that are collaborative. Creating learning programs for teams of two or more people takes advantage of collaborative activities including partnered dialogue, peer teaching, and team-based problem-solving exercises. Research has shown people don’t learn as well from highly controlled eLearning tutorials, lecture-driven seminars, or videotaped presentations. They learn better by experimenting, asking co-workers for help, and following menu prompts. Good learning programs should not over control the learning process but let the learner have time to explore and experiment.

People generally learn more from activities and real world experiences than they learn from technology-delivered presentations. The challenge is how to use technology to get learners away from computers and into the real world for live experiences. Having technology pose problems for the learners to solve instead of just providing answers gets learners totally involved. It teaches them how to think, how to search for information, and how to turn information into actionable knowledge and valuable skills. Creating knowledge is not something learners absorb, but something learners create. Technology is used most wisely when it doesn’t simply provide information but helps learners create their own meaning, knowledge, and value. Garvin (2000) mentioned; “Learning after all, is seldom an unmixed blessing. There are normally competing interests at stake, and some parties will benefit at the expense of others. Executives must; therefore, work hard to encourage objective, open-minded inquiry,” (p. 190).

If learners must use eLearning by themselves, make sure they are given many opportunities to communicate with others in their immediate environment about the learning material. They can interview others on the job, ask questions, get information, or seek help.

Bobbie shared with her learning team how it was over twenty years ago, and explained how learning was a sharing of ideas and information, while face to face with the teacher. She further stated; an advantage if learners are to learn remotely, then they should be assigned one or more cyber-buddies, and build face-to-face, voice-based, and/or email-based dialogue about the learning material and its application to their work.

References

Business Dictionary.com (2012), Explicit Knowledge, Retrieved April 28, 2012 from http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/explicit-knowledge.html

Garvin, David A. (2000). Learning in action: A guide to putting the learning organization to

work. Boston: Harvard Business School Press.

Smith, M. K. (2003) 'Michael Polanyi and tacit knowledge', the encyclopedia of

informaleducation, www.infed.org/thinkers/polanyi.htm.