Designing a Holistic Performance Learning System

Abstract

To remain competitive, business organisations have the need to constantly enhance their business activities. Many improvement programs such as the total quality management, restructuring, Six Sigma, cultural change, reengineering, right sizing, and turnaround have failed than succeeded. This occurs because many organisational leaders do not realise that sustainable improvement entails a commitment to learning. To address this the current paper through literature review and critical analysis has identified seven elements that all organisations must embrace to sustain the benefits of company-wide change, supporting repeated adaptability and learning. Companies that do pass the definitional test will become proficient at transforming new knowledge into new ways of acting. These organisations actively manage the learning process to ensure that it occurs by purpose rather than by accident. Unique policies and practices are responsible for high performance and success; they constitute the fundamental building blocks of the performance learning organisation. The paper is significant to both scholars and practitioners, as it sheds light on the existing body of knowledge and provides direction for future research.