MANAGEMT7033 Essay: The Learning Organisation.

The following essay sets out to analyse the role of coaching and mentoring in developing the competence level of the employees in an organisation. Organisation learning has been developed upon the objective of increasing the working and leadership ability of the existing workforce. The learning procedure focuses on employee engagement in an organisation through imbibing problem solving attitudes and cooperative teamwork. Due to constant change in the working environment, the employees seek for knowledge provision pertaining to different working field. For example, an organisation may have two working generations- Generation X and Generation Y. The working ability and approach of these two succinctly differs to each other. The former generation is expected to build association with working trend. Organisational Learning helps people adapt according to the upcoming circumstances so that challenges can easily be overcome (Hitt 2013).  

From the CEO to the waged manufacturing labourer- organisational training is indispensably essential for every individual of the total workforce. According to Vivas Lopez and his fellow researchers, organisational culture is a definitive factor for team building and psychological understanding of the employees to their fellow workers.

The paper investigates how effectively coaching and mentoring create opportunities for skill development within an institution or an organisation. The report is constructed in four major divisions- literature review, theoretical interpretation, empirical study of the topic and evidence analysis.

As per the definition formed by Dodgson (1993), organisational learning is a routine work conducted by the firms in order to build knowledge and supplement. While running a business, a firm may face different problems in terms of business, finance, marketing and technicality. In order to improve these shortcomings, the companies shoulder responsibility to edify the employees how they should venture to solve the problems in their respective fields.  

Peter Senge in his interpretation of organisation learning stated that OL helps an individual develop his problem- solving attitude through a collective teamwork. Taiwen Feng emphasised on Environment Management System (EMS) as a key element of organisational earning.

Organisational learning can be mobilised through effective coaching and mentoring. This is done through the interventions of the organisational leaders and the trainers. Training needs are shorted out in order to specify the fields required by the employees. Nonaka’s dynamic theory in developing organisational knowledge can be elucidated to understand the concept of knowledge management of a company. The mentors who are deployed for providing training to the employees skilfully handle Knowledge Management. The relation between knowledge management and organisational culture impinges the mentors while educating their subordinates.

The mentors are responsible for moulding the new comers in such a way that they become rigorously responsive towards the problems they face in course of their work. However, the success of learning process of an employee depends on the practicality of mentoring associated with a particular industry. Zahir Irani examines that Fuzzy Cognitive Mapping (FCM) in organisational mentoring is one of the strongest and most effective tools used by the trainers. It necessitates the adaptation of decision- making tools in a working environment.

The mentors of an organisation objectify some innovative strategies in order to substantiate the quality training procedure. These strategies are known as ‘The 4Ps of Innovation’.  These are:

1. Product Innovation
2. Process Innovation
3. Position Innovation
4. Paradigm Innovation

The 4Ps of innovation are associated with the business development of a firm via the skill development of the employees (Anderson  2013).

1. Product Innovation:  Through coaching and mentoring, the employees are trained to think out of the box for improvisation of product design and branding.  An example of GlaxoSmithKline product Horlicks can be taken in order to establish the fact of product innovation. The first five years of the twenty first century witnessed intriguing downfall of the food product. However, product innovation training and regular corporate coaching helped the product revive in the market.  
2. Process Innovation: After analysing the root cause of business failure, the employees are provided substantial training and coaching regarding process innovation. In this case, the ability of business analysis is developed within them.  They are literally taught how to improvise different process in manufacturing and delivering the products and/or services.
3. Position Innovation: Re-position of the product type is considered as the strategy of position innovation. The mentors provide the employees with information pertaining to the corporate academic and practical aspects.
4. Paradigm Innovation: Coaching on Paradigm Innovation is provided to the employees in order to build a sense of community building among them. Setting a product paradigm in a business needs proper communication of the employees and proper correlation of work.  The mentors provide adequate examples to the mentees regarding the coordination with each other.

The organisations provide coaching to the employees in two different ways-

1. Internal Coaching: The senior employees deployed within the organisation generally perform it.
2. External Coaching: In this case, the process is outsourced to a third party organisation that provides coaching and corporate training to the newly joined employees.

Mentors in the business organisations perform different roles. The following diagram depicts the roles of the mentors in different segments of an organisation:

Followings are the 5Cs that are dealt with during the employment of mentor or coach in a corporate-

• Contract: Contract of the Mentors or the coaches may be voluntary or organised by a company. Voluntary mentoring is done by the third party mentors who offer coaching and mentoring sessions to the organisations.
• Context:  The mentor fixates the actual objective or the business aim of an organisation while edifying the mentees. Particularisation of the objectives helps both the trainers and the trainees decide career development option and success planning criterion.  
• Culture: Culture of the coaching or mentoring looks into the presence and availability of the senior executives from a particular organisation. When the employees receive senior level support from the company, they consider the coaching process a successful one.
• Circumstance: Proper circumstances are fixated through adequate budget for the provision of talent development program. It is also examined whether the companies are eligible to outsource typical and core business objectives to the external coaches and the mentors.   
• Content: Content of coaching and mentoring is decided by ensuring the subject matter of the session. For example, Cadbury may provide or outsource coaching on the topic of extending franchise business in Belgium.

The mentors are expected to adapt the learning theories while performing talent development programmes. Follow up of these learning theories helps them cope up with better training circumstances. There are three “Unique Theories of Organisational Learning”. These are:

1. i)  Experimental Learning Theory
2. ii) Adaptive and Generative Learning Theory
3. iii) Assimilation Theory

Experimental learning theory has been one of the most vital and widely adapted theories i organisational learning. This theory was generated by Kurt Lewin and John Dewey. Experimental Learning Theory is an integration of experimental works in an organisation and personal innovation skills. The scholars like Lewin and Dewey have always believed that learning cannot be judged by its outcomes but by the way it is conceived. However, the belief now seems irrelevant in the age of performance. Experimental Learning theory inspires the learners to engage in the practical works rather than going through different theoretical works and simply mug up the terms defined in those books. The mentors are responsible in showing the learners a way of doing practical works in an organisation (Wisdom et al. 2014). Experimental Learning theory helps a learner develop its creative skill as it provides space to them. According to Dewey, education should be received only through the construction and reconstruction of direct experience. The best usage of ELT is noticed in McDonald’s where the employees are left for their own work to perform. However, they are guided when needed. This is how the growth of the employees is caused. Some of the scholars have found ELT as non performing act as they think that organisational learning should be result oriented. Since every profit organisation performs their business work for profit maximisation, ELT can be quite risky  in extending he profit margin. In the modern day situation, experimental Learning Theory can only be used through constant intervention of the senior mentors or the organisational coaches.

Two different moodes are used in experimental learning theory:

1. Concrete Experience
2. Abstract Conceptualisation
3. Concrete Experience: concrete experience is the mode of knowledge grasping. The employers are passed through direct working experiments. They may commit mistakes or they may not. Through constant process oof experiencing the work they learn to gain perfection thus strengthening their job profile. The mentors and he coaches are the vital guiding force behind letting the employers or the learners learn from the experiment.
4. Abstract conceptualisation: Abstract conceptualisation means that the employees learn and develop their ideas of their own after gaining concrete experience. The mentors lead the by showing the learners easy way to gain knowledge from the working experience.

1. Reflective Observation (R O ) and
2. Active Experimentation (A E ). These four components together make a learning cycle in ELT.

After conceptualising the process, the learner is taught to reflect the observation he has noticed during the learning process of the live work. He, then incorporates different modes of observation and finally participates in active experients (Hilden and Tikkamäki 2013).

After steady incorporation of different concepts in learning procedure, the learner involves in active experiment of business. This again driven by the mentors who inspire the learners to be innovative in nature  (Arends 2014).

Adaptive and Generative Learning theory was designed by Kolb. Kolb was highly influenced by the work of Peter Senge. The theory discusses the mode of adaptation and cognition through assuming and generalising the images of a learner’s surrounding. These are the most crucial components of a learner (Kolb 2014). On top of that, the mentors play very important role in building linkage between the learners and these components. The mentors are to build essential disciplines while coaching the employees. There are four major disciplines that are used as tools for the training purpose. These four disciplines are “personal mastery, team learning, formation of shared vision, system thinking” (eric.ed.gov, 2017).

According to Kolb, there are differences between adaptive and generative learning. Hence, the mentors are to point out the basic differences between these two learners(Kolb 2014). The mentors and the coaches are supposed to focus on the adaptation of the existing knowledge and idea that the learners already possess and try to amend those ideas with new thought process thus creating space for improvisation. On the contrary, in urgent need the generative learning theory is required. In this case the learners are given solid training on exploitation and exploration of the knowledge and resources available at immediate moment. This idea was developed by James March. According to March, the existing knowledge should be properly exploited by the learners (the process of exploitation is obviously directed by the mentors); and new options and experiments should be explored by them. The latter procedure can be well guided by the mentors depending on their experience in different fields (Garvey, Stokes and Megginson 2014).

Acquisition and sharing of knowledge in the organisation help the learners create substantial team work. The theory of assimilation links behaviours of the employees and the practical implementation of their thought process. There the role of the employees becomes more expressive. The mentors are deployed to generate knowledge acquisition and sharing power in the learners who are still novice in different genres of work (Shafritz, Ott and Jang 2015). A refined learning orientation is created by the training experts who facilitate the learners or the workers gain validated and useful knowledge about a particular organisation or about the industry they are working in. The purpose of the mentors is always surrounded by the maximisation and capitalisation of the organisational benefit.  

The mentors or the coaches in an organisation are shouldered the responsibility to make use of the theoretical or the model works of organisational learning in order to generate individual or organisational confidence in an employee or more than one.

There are different modes of strategies for the mentors to perform best practices in mentoring and coaching the new employees in an organisation. The prime strategy for the mentors is the creation of collaborating environment (Saraf et al. 2013). Since an organisation is built up by different talented individuals, there is a vital need for team building. The mentors are often found to navigate collaborative work of the employees. It is highly required for understanding the need of the organisation as well as performing cohesive team work (Beattie et al. 2014).

Mentors and coaches keep providing routine feedback about the gradual developemt of the employees. This provides them with certain understanding and scrutiny of their performance. These feedback necessitate the employees work according to their level of gradual growth and development (Engeström 2014).

According to motivational theory, reward and recognition inspires and motivates the employee in application of the best performance. The performance level is judged by the mentors who keep thorough invigilation over the performance of the working individuals or groups. Recognition and rewards are given in different forms. These forms may be monetary, promotional or incremental. Celebrating rewards for the employees is one of the most fortifying strategies initiated by the mentors (Marsick and Watkins 2015).

Mentoring helps the employees boost their engagement and participation in an organisation. The employees are often found to be out of the main chain of the organisations because of continuous shift of employment. However, mentoring in an organisation helps them understand the need of the organisation for the employees and vice versa (Harvey et al. 2014). This feeling of engagement generates morale within an employee. This is no doubt the morale of professionalism and sense of belonging to the company or the organisation they work in. Realising the importance and value of organisational culture and professional objective is channelized through solid mentoring by the professional experts and the coaches. The development of morale within Sean McDermott was actually devised by his coach Andy Reid, as the head of McDermott has confessed.  The morale was not the one that taught him learn the good values about his company. It rather taught him that the company belongs to him (II and II, 2017). Hence, he cannot avoid certain duties that he has to perform for the sake of his own organisation. This feeling generates constructive enthusiasm and lets the employees become the most valuable stakeholders of a company (Real, Roldán and Leal 2014).

 With the usage of any of the above theories or all of them, the mentors or the coaches can retrieve creative thoughts from the employees. Since mentoring is not just a teaching process, it is rather a process of thorough interaction between the coaches and the learners; the best attributes are always sought after from the employees during the mentoring session.  This is done in order to achieve the organisational goal within a shorter period (Irani et al. 2014 ). The new ideas can be of introducing new products in the market or introducing new service criterion for the customers or introducing new strategy for marketing or managing human resource. This is how the mentors extract the leadership qualities from the employees and this is one of the main focuses of any organisation. A new leader is always searched for (Hawkins 2013).

Importance of veteran employees is always seen through their mentoring. An effective mentoring can help the employees in their personal development process (Parker et al. 2015). Personal development brings in the leadership or managerial quality in the young employees who are often known to have less experience in business. Development of communication skill and decision- making skill is often fortified by the existing mentors in a company. Thus, the learners gain professional maturity (Ellinger and Kim 2014).

Though a mentor provide professional assistance and support to the employees in a company, the main objective lies in making them professionally independent and they develop decision making ability of the workers (Sessa and London 2015). The empowerment of the employees is mobilised through the team building session. Since team building session is the most value making process during the course of coaching and mentoring, the mentors are often found to encourage the workers by assigning them professional projects in team. The AEGN Australia is found to have realised the importance of team building through organisational learning process channelized by the mentors (Fundraising & Philanthropy Australasia Magazine 2017)

Several instances are found in the history of corporate world pertaining to a vast improvement of employability which has been driven forth by the interventions of mentors. The interventions are not similar to organisational training, which is often enforced by the trainers belonging to the human resource department of an organisation.  The effectiveness of the mentors and the trainers is quite different in reality. There is no mentoring schedule where the classes are taken to develop employee character and working personality. Mentoring and coaching in an organisation is often performed through assisting hand during the job and showing right path to the employees. The main objective of mentoring is to ensure organisational objective. The mentors utilise their experience in motivating the newcomers who seem to be novice with high quality working structure.  It can thus be  concluded that the effectiveness of the mentors and coaches in organisational learning is nonnegotiable. Their application of knowledge and OL model while coaching the employees is highly effective causing overall growth of the employees.

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