Transforming anglian water

IntroductionIt is believed that endurance of an shaping in contemporary era of globalization & ease is directly correlated to the extent to which it utilizes advanced development engine room tools and practices radical Quality counseling.The concept of nurture Organization was introduced by Chris Argyris and further researched and explained by Sange (1990). Sange delimit reading Organization as the presidency in which you can non not learn because learn is so insinuated into the fabric of life. He further defines larn Organization as a group of people continu on the wholey enhancing their force to create what they want to create.The settle of this assignment is to study Anglian body of pissing in the light of erudition Organization and1. Investigate the extent to which the geological formation could in reality claim to be a education Organization.2. Identify those factors that may antagonize the concept of nurture Organization in Anglian water and call into apparent motion the investments do.3. Explain if Anglian pee can sustain the ideals and practices of a Learning Organization. eyepatch exploring the definitions and characteristics of Learning Organizations, the case study of Anglian urines willing be investigated and comparisons will be drawn.Chris Argyris differentiates between first order or angiotensin converting enzyme hand-build education versus second order or double loop learnedness. Learning is further explained as detection and correction of errors. Single loop attainment detects the errors and because functions within the construct of validations predominateing inconstant star to achieve the desired military issue. Double loop encyclopedism challenges the governing unsettled itself and aims at producing drastic cultural modifications within the organization. Argyris further divides organizations into forge I and cast II. Model I represents the traditional bricks and mortar culture, a some characteris tics of which are Achieve the purpose as the actor defines it, Win, do not lose, Suppress Negative Feelings, Advocating courses of actions which discourage inquiry, Defensive relationships, low freedom of excerption.Model II represents a teaching organization, the characteristics of which are Valid Information, Free and inform choice, Internal Commitment, Sharing control, Surfacing conflicting expectation, Minimally defensive relationships, in high spirits freedom of choice, Increased likelihood of double loop training.Considering the preceding(prenominal) view point, Anglian water clearly falls in the Model II grade of double loop breeding. In the 1990s it diversified into new markets, conducted employee merriment surveys and acted on the entrusts of it. The oversight clearly had a vision to introduce and sustain drastic cultural changes and move towards becoming a accomplishment organization. This was achieved to a great extent finished employee empowerment & impl ementation of alteration journey which en adequated incumbents at all levels to develop attitudinal and behavioral change to be able to cope up with turbulent and enigmatical environment.Argyris further introduces us to the concept of triple loop learning (Learning how to learn) which is in continuation to single loop (What to do) Double Loop (Learning what to do). Triple Loop Learning questions the social structures and strategies of learning and how our mental map affects the way we behave. It is considered as the highest level of organizational learning and restructuring. Triple loop learning leads to restructuring of current carcasss and functiones. Dialogues are initiated with in the organization in the form of collective learning abilityfulness to understand the basis of pattern of hierarchies policies, procedures etc and RESTRUCTURING within the organization takes place.A Learning Infrastructure is created where existing structure is studied, dialogue is initiated and new and to a greater extent effective structures are proposed. Focus then is on developing competencies and skills of respective(prenominal)s teams organization and hence emerges a Learning Organization. Anglian pee as an organization seems to have all the characteristics that the Triple Loop learning mentions as that of a Learning Organization. At Anglian water, face to face converse is given ut almost importance amongst employees university of Water was established to integrate , jump extinct and accredit all forms of learning develop skills and competencies that was required to move Anglian water to the twenty-first century and place it as a global player. scratch Senge (1990) remarks The rate at which organizations learn may become the only sustainable source of warlike advantage. He differentiates between adaptive and fat learning. Adaptive Learning is the initiation of a fellowship into the community of Learning Organization. Generative learning utilizes the power o f creativity and innovation to reconstruct those systems and processes that govern consequences. Senge, in his much acclaimed book The fifth make grow explains the five disciplines which correspond to him are cucial in building a learning organization.The first discipline individualised Mastery concentrates on learning of each and every individual in the organization resulting in Learning organization as a whole. Individual goals and tools to measure the proximity to these goals are developed. Significant evidence of Personal Mastery can be found at Anglian water by dint of the door of the concept of travellers whose four guiding doctrines were a willingness to get to roll in the hay myself, a desire to develop myself, a desire to develop my across-the-board potential with and through and through new(prenominal)s, an ability to link my personal schooling to the development of Anglian water.The second discipline of Mental Model is the framework of cognitive processes of ou r mind which de nameines our thought and action process. Argyris concept of theories of action is similar to the Mental Model concept and govern actual behavior. Espoused theory is what we would like others to believe as our actual action theory. Anglian Water does not seem to have control the Mental Model theory in its learning curve. The third principle of systems intellection or the ability to see interrelationships / circular causations (where a variable is both the cause and effect of other)is prevalent in the practice of shimmy Journey , Total Quality wariness , Change Agent Networks.The ordinal principal of shared vision (build on individual vision of its members) is not comfortably supported at Anglian Water. bandage the vision and apprize statements were rolled let on in the 1990s it is unclear if these were created through the interaction between leaders and employees of the organization. It seems more likely that the vision and values were communicated from su mmit meeting to bottom. The fifth discipline of team learning or genuine thinking together was highly get aheadd by the leadership at Anglian water and is corroborated with the team and group formations through the methodology of Transformational Journey.Victoria Marsick states that learning organizations exact deep change in the mind sets of people as rise up as the culture of the organization and socities. Gephart , Marsic & Van Buren 1997 emphasize on Continuous Learning at the system level which at Anglian Water was initiated in the form of Transformational Journey and University of Water. Knowledge generation and sharing was made possible through the introduction of University of Water which aimed at acknowledging, integrating, supporting and accrediting all forms of learning in the company. The concept was further given a gain with the establishment of an intranet for randomness exchange and communication.Systematic Thinking condenser which enables employees to attai n linkages and feedback loops. The presence of the concept of systematic thinking can be illustrated by the feedback statements of employees on the Journey being a good learning bed OR the findings of the employee satisfaction survey that clearly demanded a cultural change in Anglian Water.Greater Participation and accountability by a larger percentage of employees is promoted by Anglian Waters through various methods such as employee satisfaction survey , employee empowerment , transformational journey that saw the vocalismicipation of more than 3000 employees, new HR Performance Management Policies. Culture and structure of rapid communication and learning was introduced with the advent of the 2 year long traveler role and Aqua University. Rapid communication was facilitated through the installment of Intranet.Pedler, another major pioneer, in his work Blue prints of a learning company characterizes such organizes through the usage of five themes.Strategy is explained through i. Learning progress to system was seen in the efforts to promote team working and cooperation through transformational journey which would have a direct bearing on the usable effectiveness and business performance.ii. Participative Policy making is deficient in Anglian Waters organizational learning. looking in encompassesi. Informating or use of information technology to inform and empower employees by giving them access to information was being practiced at Anglein Water through installation of clear the throat their intranet system.ii. Internal Exchange was facilitated through the introduction of Total Quality Management i.e. Each department treated the other as Internal nodeiii. pliant Accounting and control andiv. reward flexibility are missing from the grounds of Anglian Water.Enabling structures are flexible organizations which revisit & reformat structures, goals, objectives to align with the interest of employees, shareholders and suppliers. Post privatization, Anglian Water reorganized its business, restructured to a coddle organization, encouraged cross functional and individual participation to facilitate constructive change. Transformational Journey empowered employees to arrange for their own support and skill development.Looking out encompassesi. Boundary workers as environmental scanners, which refers to the collection of information from the outer stakeholders of an organisation in order to establish their needs is observable through the introduction of TQM a key element of which is to be sensitive to client requirements and to respond rapidly to themto achieve customer satisfaction (Stark, 1998)ii.Inter-company learning which entails fall in with customers and suppliers in training experiences, research and development and job exchanges is conspicuous by its absence in Anglian Water.Learning Opportunities dialogue ofi. Learning Climate encourages employees to set about continuous improvement, learn from their experiences a nd make cartridge holder to question practices and try out new ones. Establishment of university of water by Anglian Water for the sole purpose of learning and development of employees attests the presence of Learning Climate in the company.ii. self-importance Development opportunities for all was encouraged at Anglian Water through the introduction of Transformational journey which was a holistic strategy knowing to prepare and go employees for the technical and emotional challenges of operating in a turbulent and uncertain environment.To Summarize, whether Anglian Water can claim to be a learning organization, I would like to include a fewer ideas organized by artwork Kleiner states as Why Bother?i. Because we want superior performance and competitive advantageii. For customer relationsiii. To avoid declineiv. To improve choicev. To understand riskinesss and diversity more deeplyvi. For innovationvii. For our personal and uncanny well beingviii. To increase our ability to manage changeix. For energized act work forcex. To expand shrinkariesAbove mentioned ten points are autocratic results of a masteryful learning organization. Anglian Water when viewed in the light of the above mentioned results comes out as a winner in the field of learning organizationsThe next step is to identify factors that may undermine the concept of Learning Organization in Anglian Water.Senge states that the role of a leader is to build a shared vision. Though the vision and value statement that were released at Anglien Water were designed to inculcate new attitudes and behaviors, no evidence of participation of employees in shared vision building exercise is found.Shell (1997) also talks of Creative tension as a characteristic of Learning Organization. This enables innovation and visioning the future and further working towards a commonly agreed goal. However, this capacity to vision the future seems to be lacking in the employees of Anglian Water. This was more t han evident when in 1990 Ofwat recommended a price reduction of at least 17.5%. and this finale hit the company hard. It suffered tremendous losses and had to initiate a major cost reduction strategy. If the government decision had been predicted by the visionaries of the company, they would have had time to prepare ground for the turbulence that they faced as a result of this Change.Davenport and Prusak (1998) are concerned with the magnitude of importance that has been given to Information technology centric Knowldege Management in Learning Organizations. They state that it is more important to build a culture conducive to knowledge and learning quite that emphasizing on information storage, retrieval and transfer. Clarke and Cooper state that in their goal to be a learning organization, Anglian Water rolled out a complete Knowledge Management Policy. However, their Intranet, despite of being called trade Harnessing Anglian Waters Knowledge appears to play only a secondary wi nding role.One of the major characteristics of Learning Organization is Experiential Learning. Polanyi (1967) characterizes existential learning as tacit or not highly conscious. Lave and Wenger term the process as legitimate peripheral participation which further dilutes lessons learnt. Employees under sack experiential learning might not be capable of fully apprehension the reasons for success or failure. Thought Processes that are different from that of the value systems of a learning organization might be considered null and void.Marsick points out that when an organization is undergoing change and simultaneously assessing feedbacks, a confused and chaotic spot is bound to emerge. Multiple feedbacks emerge resulting in reception to various signals at the kindred time. Envisioning the environmental factors that would affect the well being of the company in future and predicting the types of challenges that the company should be ready for becomes very difficult. A comminuted r andom fluctuation, often called Noise can induce the path of choice (Capra 1996). It is hence expected of a learning organization to analyze well the various feedbacks and signals and prepare for the future challenges. It appears that the visionaries ay Anglian Water missed the point and hence future environmental challenges could not be well predicted.A few other vital characteristics of a Learning organization, mentioned by Pedler, seem to be missing at Anglian Water are Formative Accounting and jibe, Feedback loops being built in policy making process. Formative Accounting and control insists on accounting , budgeting and reporting systems that are designed to help people understand the operations of organizational finance.However, It is important to add up here scholars often caution against one size fits all approach to creating the learning organization (Marsick). Hence, it should not be a mandatory criteria for companies to dunk all characteristics defined by all scholars in the field of learning organizations.The third step is to analyze if Anglian Water can sustain the ideals and practices of a Learning Organization. If we refer to that portion of case study which is called The future, what flat comes to our mind is that Anglian Water can not sustain the ideals and principles of a learning organization.When Anglian Water adopts a major cost reduction strategyin 1998 99 it seems to be moving away from the concept of Learning Organization. 10% of the employees (400 in number) were seen losing their jobs. While Learning Organizations are all about Investment in social, gentleman and intellectual capital Cost reduction strategies include downsizing, low levels of risk taking, short term focus minimal levels of employee training and development, and narrowly defined career paths (Schuler and Jackson, 2006168) These practices are in stark contrast to senior managements petition to change Anglian Waters approach to doing business to entrepreneurial, i nnovative and outward looking (Jenkins, 20081)Cost Reduction would further mean minimizing overheads and it is take for granted that the worse affected areas would be pitying Resources & logistics. Under serviceman Resources, most of the benefits such as training programs, employee engagement activities would have been scrutinized and the logical demonstration would be to cut the costs related to them. In this scenario, existence of a corporate university might come under investigation with respect to the extreme costs being incurred on it.Huczynski and Buchanan (2001135) describe LO practices as A composite plant difficult set of practices, difficult to implement systematically. This criticism is relevant toAnglian Waterin legion(predicate) ways. Firstly, with regards to the University of Water, in the long run, those employees involved may struggle with coping with learning and their day job at Anglian Water and also the need to encourage employee attrition and encoura ge new blood at Anglian Water. Secondly later on the initiation of the cost-reduction strategy the practices of a Learning Organization would be stock-still harder to implement for reasons which were discussed previously.It is imperative to mention here that a lot of scholars in the field of Learning Organizations consider downsizing as a part of the Learning and restructuring process. Labbas 1999, states that employment downsizing has been regarded as the preferred route to amend organizational performance. Success or failure of a downsized organization depends on the workforce remaining after the downsizing (Best Practices in Downsizing 1997). The organizational trends in late 1990s and then at the advent of 21st century was moving towards downsizing , restructuring and outsourcing.Managers continue to use downsizing and other forms of restructuring to improve productivity ( Ellis, 1998 ). Downsizing has been termed as a reorganization strategy by Mckinley, Sanchez and Schic k. Few other companies which downsized in 1998 and are still going strong are Kodak, Levis and Citicorp. Freeman and Cameron mention downsizing as an knowing reduction in personnel intended to improve the efficiency of the firm. destruction but not the least, the chaos theory related to learning organization deserves to be given its due importance while discussing the probability of success of Anglian Water after downsizing. This theory talks about a situation when an organizational equilibrium becomes structurally unstable at critical bifurcation points.in the systems evolution where a fork suddenly appears and the system branches run into in a new direction (Capra 1996). As a result of occurrence of chaos, a new form of organization would evolve.Since it is important for an organization to always be in the learning category to be able to survive environmental changes, downsizing at Anglian water could be looked as a phase in the learning process. It can be assumed that Anglian W ater emerges successful after the process of downsizing and continues in its process of learning through as innovative techniques as Transformational Journey traveller and University of Water.BibliographyPeter Sange, Fifth DisciplineChris Argyris On organisational LearningWatkins and Marsick Sculpting the Learning OrganizationBeardwell, J and Claydon, T (2007) Human Resource Management A contemporary approach Fifth Edition Pearson Education LtdOrganizational Behavior Tata Mcgraw HillBurnes, B (2004) Managing Change Pearson Education LtdEasterby-Smith, M, Burgoyne, J and Araujo, L (2006) Organizational Learning and The Learning Organisation Sage PublicationsHuczynski, A and Buchanan D (2001) Organisational Behaviour (4th Edition ) FT/Prentice HallPaton, R, Peters, G, Storey, J and Taylor, S (2005) Handbook of Corporate University Development Gower PublishingPedlar, M., Boydell, T. and Burgoyne, J. 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