Discuss the factors that serve as impediments to organizational learning and how these impediments can be overcome

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

Two are complexity of the environment and internal conflicts (Weick &
Ashford, 2001). First, when an organization is faced with a complex environment, it is
often difficult to determine cause and effect, which is useful for learning to occur. This
difficulty arises from the fact that there are multiple contributing elements in complex
environments that may serve to act and interact to cause organizational problems.
Targeting the relevant variables and their combinations is often a difficult if not
impossible task in a complex environment. Second, internal conflicts in the organization
inhibit organizational learning. Individuals, teams, departments, and subcultures are often
so at odds with one another that they are unable to concentrate long enough to engage in
learning. Energy is drained by the conflict, energy that is needed to examine actions and
processes that may promote learning. Therefore, organization members must be trained in
communication and conflict-negotiation skills so that the processes contributing to
learning can be unencumbered by misunderstanding and dissension.