7

LEARNING

 

Definition

The initiating case, Tomkin Pharmaceuticals, is a story of learning to change, adapt, and compete in a business context. When we are born, we are able to display biological behaviour such as breathing, yawning, or suddenly shifting our head in response to a loud noise. However, even biological behaviour can be modified by learning; for example, learning to take a deep breath while doing yoga, covering our mouth while yawning, or holding our head steady when there is a loud noise can be learned. Human beings can learn to play chess, make agile movements with their body as in dancing or yoga, write a book, or think critically. It is this learning that has made human progression possible. Hence, it is only natural that learning should be of prime interest to us.

The Webster’s dictionary defines learning as the activity or process of gaining knowledge or skills by studying, practising, being taught, or experiencing something.¹ This is a layman’s understanding of the term. Chris Argryis, professor of Harvard Business School, prefers to call learning as ‘detection and correction of error’, where the term ‘error’ means a deviation from the intentions and what actually happens.² This is perhaps a pure management variant of the definition. A more formal definition is that learning is the measurable and relatively permanent change in behaviour through experience. Here, the term ‘experience’ is used in its broadest sense and includes study, teaching, reading, experiments, and so on.

 

Learning is the measurable and relatively permanent change in behaviour through experience.

 

The formal definition of learning has four key qualifiers, namely change in behaviour, relative permanency, measurability, and experiences as the route for learning.

• We start with ‘change in behaviour’. Learning should change the behaviour that enhances the effectiveness of an individual, a group, or an organisation. Sometimes, people change and learn undesirable behaviours. This is also called learning.
• To call it learning, the change should be relatively permanent. This excludes one-time behaviour, temporary changes such as changes in eating or sleeping when travelling abroad, and involuntary responses such as crying when in pain, shouting for help in case of danger or even getting angry in response to some stimuli³ from the ambit of learning.
• Though many consider that learning itself is not measurable, most agree that the outcome of learning can be measured. Measurability makes it possible to quantify the relative permanency of change.
• The fourth condition is that learning should be due to experience in its broadest sense, which excludes change in behaviour due to maturation, diseases, etc. The term ‘experience’ also indicates that learning should have a stimulus and a response. The stimulus may be through sight, sound, or touch. The stimulus can be created through films, demonstrations, and lectures, or observing/doing something. When response becomes relatively permanent, it becomes learning.

Literature on learning differentiates it from habituation. If you go to a place infested with mosquitoes, initially, you might be disturbed by their humming, but those who have been living there would go about their work without reacting. This is because of habituation. Although habituation is learning, it is considered primitive, and has not generated as much interest in the study of learning.

Importance of Learning

Human progress is the result of learning. It enables us to perform the following:

• Survive by taking appropriate action to avoid danger and to respond to danger; for example, creating a new vision and embracing change in our opening case.
• Refine our actions and responses so that they are more efficient and effective; for example, the new performance management leading to refined performance.
• Anticipate and respond appropriately to various situations that make life smooth; for example, anticipate the changes in the branded drugs market or computing technology and learn new things so that we do not become redundant.

   

  Eight competencies to adapt to modern workplace

  • Personal responsibility
  • Act in principled and ethical fashion
  • Oral and written communication
  • nterpersonal and team skills
  • Skills in critical thinking and problem solving
  • Respect for diversity
  • Ability to change
  • Ability and desire for lifelong learning.

   

• Optimise by allocating resources to do things in a new and better way; for example, allot more resources to training in the new software a company has purchased so that a smooth shift is possible.
• Adapt to environmental changes effectively by learning new competencies. This can be considered the most importance learning. In 1994, Gardner consulted leaders in business, industry, and government and compiled a list of eight competencies that a person should learn, to adapt to the modern workplace.⁴
• Create work conditions that best fit us and enable us to work most effectively; for example, provide flexible working hours and work from home options.
• Provide ourselves and the colleagues in the workplace satisfaction and find meaning from our work; for example, learning to listen to the staff and modify plans keeping their views in mind.
• Fulfil human aspiration, for example, learning to aspire to land on mars.
• Determine the course of our life and fulfil the purpose of our existence, for example, take a break in one’s career for reflection.

From the aforementioned features, it is evident that learning is the root of human survival, progress, and happiness. Recognising the need for change and adaption in the modern world, the 1996 National Science Foundation report urged the faculty to find new ways of learning in communication, teamwork, and lifelong learning.⁵ We live in the 21st century and it looks as if we are just beginning to learn.

Concept of Learning

As learning touches every moment of our lives, there has been considerable effort to build concepts and theories to explain learning. There are three schools of thoughts in learning, namely behaviourism, humanism, and connectivism.

Behaviourists consider learning as passive, rather than active. Learning is done by trial and error method. Being passive, the role of the instructor facilitating learning, external reinforcement, and outcome are considered important by the behaviourists; the process is considered less significant.⁶

 

3 Schools of thought in learning are behaviourism, humanism and connectivism

 

Humanists consider that learning is active in nature and is an individual act. They believe that the individual moves on a path to discover by drawing from the outside world. Here, the learner is central and the speed of learning is adjusted by the learner. Frequent feedback helps the learner to adjust the act of learning. All instructional activity is driven by the learner’s need to learn. The instructor is a facilitator than driver of learning.

Connectivists perceive learning as a lifelong and continuous act that takes place in the work group and communities. It is perceived as response to new events in the environment. It is considered a collective, rather than an individual, act. In other words, it is a way of connecting to the real world by responding to stimuli. Learning is, therefore, active in nature.

These concepts are not mutually exclusive. They collectively explain learning. For instance, the behaviourist approach helps in learning when the learner is not aware of the need to learn something; such as, learning habits in the young age or learning about safety measures and compliances in an organisation. The humanist view explains how we learn to discover and be creative. The connectivist view explains how we progress as a social or work group. It is particularly useful to explain self-directed teams, kaizen, and learning in the digital era.

Behavioural Theories

Behavioural theories look at learning through conditioning. This is vital for human survival. We know the theory of natural selection by Charles Darwin, which states that species have characteristics that help them survive. Eating, drinking, breathing, imitating successful behaviour of others, exploring one’s environment, and procreation, including protecting young ones has survival value, and we learn these through conditioning. For instance, shivering is a way to adapt to the cold. Migration, use of appropriate clothing, and creating heating systems are also methods to adapt to cold weather. These are learnt through conditioning. Hence, we say that learning through conditioning leads to selection by consequence. This underscores the importance of conditioning. Under behavioural theories, we will look at classical conditioning and operant conditioning in detail, as they are often applied in the organisational context.

Classical Conditioning

Pavlov, a Russian physiologist, is credited with finding out this oft discussed psychological concept. He was studying the relationship between salivation and digestion in dogs. In his experiment, he used to feed food powder or meat to the dogs and assumed that salivation would start once the food is placed on the tongue. During the experiment, he observed that dogs salivated even before the food was placed on their tongues. In fact, they salivated when they saw the spoon, the food powder, and even when they saw the laboratory attendant entering the room with the food. His curiosity led him to use a bell when the attendant feeding the dogs would enter for feeding them to find out whether the bell, something completely unrelated to feeding, would also result in salivation. After a while, the dogs began to salivate once the bell was heard. In other words, the dogs began to associate the bell with the meat and created the response of salivation exactly as they would respond to meat. The conclusion from this experiment was that by presenting neutral stimuli along with appropriate unconditioned stimuli, people will learn to respond to the neutral stimuli. This phenomenon of learning is called classical conditioning. It has three key components as follows:

 

Research has shown that,

• Every neutral stimulus does not lead to classical conditioning.
• If the unconditioned stimuli accompanies the conditioned stimuli only intermittently and not every time, then conditioning usually does not take place.

• An unconditioned stimulus (such as the meat).
• An unconditioned response (such as the salivation).
• A conditioned (or neutral) stimulus such as the bell.

To summarise, the theory states that when a conditioned (neutral) stimuli and unconditioned stimuli are presented together and associated with the subject, the neutral stimuli create responses exactly as the unconditional stimuli.

Classical conditioning received major impetus with the ‘Little Albert’ experiment by J. B. Watson. Albert was not afraid of laboratory rats and even played with them. However, he was afraid of the sound created by hitting a steel bar with a rod. Watson placed Albert, a little boy, on a table and placed the rat in front of him and simultaneously created the sound he was afraid of (by hitting the steel bar with a rod). After a while, Albert began to get scared of the rats even if the sound was not made, and crawled away rapidly from the table. In fact, Watson achieved this in seven attempts of presenting the sound and the rat together.⁷ This produced substantial evidence of classical conditioning and emotional development. The experiment was terminated because the mother intervened to take little Albert away. It was also criticised on ethical grounds. However, classical conditioning explains many things in life.

In his book, Science of Psychology, Raygor quotes the incident of his psychologist friend having dinner and seeing television news by a prominent news anchor simultaneously. Later, the mere sight of the anchor used to create salivation in his friend.⁸ This result is an out-of-the-laboratory incident.

The basic principle in classical conditioning is learning using association. Let us now consider a situation where manager ‘A’ who is knowledgeable and friendly began a series of sessions to train employees on change management. The newly employed manager, ‘B’, accompanied him for several sessions and took over the training. Manager ‘B’ is likely to elicit similar response as manager ‘A’ even though the friendliness of the new manager is yet to be proved. Let us take another example where manager ‘C’, who is knowledgeable but unfriendly, undertakes the training. Here, the response is likely to be unfavourable. Now, suppose manager ‘C’ requests manager ‘A’ to be present during the training, the response is not likely to be as unfavourable, even though manager ‘A’ did nothing related to training. The mere presence of manager ‘A’ changes the opinion of the participants.

There are four phenomena associated with classical conditioning. These are as follows:

Generalisation A stimulus similar to the conditioning stimulus, elicits similar response. An MBA student may have done badly in quantitative technique examination and may develop a fear or negative feeling for other courses such as a finance course because it has some quantitative aspects. Generalisation is a common feature in an organisation. Manager ‘A’ gives difficult tasks several times to an employee and the employee resists them. Later, even when he/she gives easy tasks, the employee tends to resist. The employee may also resist easy tasks from other similar managers and even from the subordinates of the manager whom they consider similar to manager ‘A’. This happens due to generalisation.

 

Four concepts thtat help us understand classical conditioning are Generalisation, Discrimination, Extinction and Spontaneous recovery

 

Discrimination It is the opposite of generalisation. Applied in our earlier example, the student would feel the fear during a quantitative examination, but not during finance examination. Similarly, employees would resist tasks from manager ‘A’, but not from others. This is because the student/employee is able to discriminate between the stimuli.

Extinction Suppose Pavlov had rung the bell repeatedly without presenting the food, the dog would have stopped salivating when it heard the bell. In other words, by repeatedly presenting the conditioned stimulus without the unconditioned stimulus, unlearning or extinction of the learned response can be achieved. If manager ‘A’ repeatedly gives only easy tasks, the employee’s resistance to a difficult task can come to extinction.

 

Systemic desensitisation is a process used to remove fear using the principle of extinction.

 

Spontaneous recovery Despite extinction, the resistance may sometimes come up suddenly. This is because of spontaneous recovery. It is a part of the extinction process. Applied in the aforementioned example, when the employee behaves that way, one should not think that he/she is being obstinate.

Classical conditioning has wide application in everyday life. Read Box 7.1 ‘classical conditioning in everyday life’.⁹ Systemic desensitising is one of the major applications of the extinction phenomenon of classical conditioning. Mary Cover Jones applied this theory in children to remove fear by associating what generated fear and the food which they enjoyed to remove fear.¹⁰ It is widely used in advertisement where neutral stimuli and conditioned stimuli are presented together; for instance, fear of body odour and sweat are paired in anti-perspiring products advertisements. Fear of rejection and dark skin colour are paired in advertisements related to fairness creams. Raygor gives an interesting discourse of application of classical conditioning in his book, The Science of Psychology.¹¹

Operant Conditioning

You may have observed that learning discussed under classical conditioning is largely related to involuntary actions and emotions. For instance, little Albert learning to fear the laboratory mice was an involuntary action. Classical conditioning is inadequate to teach/learn voluntary actions such as teaching a dog to sit or a child to do homework. Operant conditioning explains this type of learning.

Although operant conditioning is usually linked to the work of B. F. Skinner, its origin can be traced to the work of Thorndike who locked cats in a box that could be opened by pressing a lever or by pulling a string. The cats tried many random methods to escape until they discovered the lever. After they discovered it, every time they were locked in, they were able to quickly escape by using the lever. He called this the law of effect.¹² Thorndike termed the method as instrumental conditioning because the correct response of cats was instrumental in getting them out of the box. Later, B. F. Skinner conducted a series of experiments with rats. He locked the rats in a cage with a lever. Every time the rat pressed a lever, they got some food. The rats quickly learnt to press the lever and get food. He also observed that they began to press the lever more often. He termed it operant conditioning. Today, this term is more popular than the original term ‘instrumental conditioning’.¹³

 

Law of effect states that responses followed by desirable consequences occur more often and vice versa

 

Skinner proved the effect of operant conditioning by training pigeons to play ping pong, and to remove defective capsules from the assembly line in a drug company by using this method. He demonstrated its effectiveness in several school training programmes as well. This concept is widely used in organisations. Some examples include giving incentives for sales, bonus points for use of credit cards, giving gifts when you shop in a specified outlet, and granting air miles when you travel.

Reward, Punishment, and Reinforcement

A reward is a something pleasant given for desired behaviour, and a punishment is something unpleasant given for undesired behaviour. We can call the former positive reinforcement and the latter negative reinforcement. The real intent of reward and punishment is to increase a desired behaviour and decrease an undesired one. In our opening case, the company had introduced a series of rewards for appropriate behaviour and also punishment of termination for those who did not improve. Therefore, we can say that a reward/punishment is a reinforcer. A reinforcer that increases the desired behaviour is called a positive reinforcer and one that decreases the undesired behaviour is called a negative reinforcer (see Box 7.2).

 

A reward is something that increases the frequency of the desired behaviour and a punishment is something that decreases the frequency of undesired behaviour

 

Some reinforcers may be effective and some ineffective. What if the rats of Skinner did not consider food as something desirable? Then, would food have been a reinforcer? Now, let us reconsider the case of the ‘distraught mother’ given in the Box 7.2. Perhaps Tom liked the physical contact with his mother. Both kiss and spank resulted in physical contact and so, getting angry more often followed by apologising got him more physical contact through kisses. Later, getting angry more often got him more physical contact through spanks. Therefore, neither the reward nor the punishment decided by the mother was a reinforcer.

What if Laila had told Tom that she would kiss him five times if he did not get angry the whole day but would not kiss him at all if he got angry? Tom would have made efforts to decrease his anger to get more physical contact, which is the reinforcer he had been seeking. This means that finding the effective reinforcer can be tricky. The key issue in making something a reinforcer is not what the giver thinks, but the perception of the receiver about the reinforcer. This also suggests that we often fail to make other people learn because we are not able to identify the appropriate
reinforcers.

How do we find out what is a good reinforcer? Biological rewards such as food, shelter, and sexual gratification are considered effective generic reinforcers (applicable in most cases; but not all). Money, which can purchase what a person wants, is also considered a good generic reinforcer. However, there are many reinforcers such as praise, challenging job, meaningful work, independence, freedom, competitiveness, ethical behaviour of the colleagues, attention of the seniors, and participation, which are less generic. Understanding the need of the receiver is the key in knowing the ‘reinforcer’ and what would work to make a person learn.

 

Positive reinforcer increases the desired response by increasing the pleasant stimuli, and a negative reinforcer achieves the same by declining the pleasant stimuli.

 

From the aforementioned discussion, we know that a reinforcer/stimulus can be attractive or unattractive; for example, in the initiating case of Tomkin Pharmaceutical, incentives are attractive and termination causes aversion. We also know that we can present/give a stimulus or remove it; for example, give five kisses or deny a kiss as in the case of Laila and Tom. From these examples, we can create a matrix to understand the application of reinforcers (see Table 7.1).

Finally, it is important to understand that a punishment can be positive or negative. Presenting something aversive such as working additional hours for coming late for work is a positive punishment and removing something pleasant such as cutting pay for coming late is a negative punishment.
We should also be aware that a reinforcer should normally be substantive to create an impact.

Some Truths about Punishment

Although the idea of punishment exists in operant conditioning, punishing people is often not worth the effort. Look at how to make punishment effective and some of the side effects of punishment (see Boxes 7.3 and 7.4).

Shaping Behaviour

Despite having all this knowledge, we come across problems. An employee may not achieve 100 per cent goals, and Tom may not be able to spend a whole day without getting angry. In this case, there is no scope for reinforcing the behaviour. We face this challenge every day. This situation is addressed through shaping. In shaping, we convert a larger goal into smaller objectives and reinforce in proportionately lesser quantum. Therefore, Laila can agree to one kiss if Tom did not get angry more than one or two times a day, and then encourage him to achieve the goal of not getting angry the entire day to receive five kisses. In his famous book, Leading Change, John Kotter advocates generating ‘short wins’ as one of the eight steps for leading change.²⁰ Kotter’s recommendation is based on the concept of shaping.

 

For successful shaping, the goal should be divided into smaller parts. For instance, the goal of exercising for 20 minutes can be divided into exercising for 5, 10 and 15 minutes, and each of them should be reinforced. Often people feel that this is tantamount to reinforcing poor performance. In reality, acceptable performance never comes in one shot. Therefore, partial reinforcement of small achievements is necessary, and is not detrimental to change. Despite the immense power of shaping, very few organisations and individuals are able to apply it effectively.

Reinforcers

It is extremely important to have good knowledge about reinforcers, if we want to ensure learning. Therefore, let us delve into it a little more.

Identifying a Reinforcer Only the right reinforcer has an impact. So, it is important to identify the right reinforcer. To do this, observe the behaviour after applying the reinforcer. If the behaviour changes, it is a good reinforcer. For example, what does Tom do after he gets angry? Does he go to his room and sulk? Then, perhaps ‘attention’ is the right reinforcer. You praise an employee in public and then see if the performance improves immediately. If yes, praising in pubic is a reinforcer, if not, it is not a reinforcer for that employee. Let us not assume that praising in public is a reinforcer for every employee. This is the way to identify the reinforcer.

Types of Reinforcers There are five types of reinforcers, namely primary, sensory, social, secondary, and generalised reinforcers.

• Primary reinforcers include food, water, and opportunity to have sexual relationship. In other words, a primary reinforcer has a linkage to what human nature demands. However, they are conditional; they work only if a person is hungry or thirsty.
• Sensory reinforcers are related to our senses. Our senses always look for information. Satisfying the senses becomes a reinforcer. For example, freedom or opportunity to escape from captivity, holding something and having physical contact, or gaining opportunity to explore the environment belongs to this category.²¹
• Social reinforcers are reinforcers that meet our social needs; for example, opportunity to participate in discussions or be a part of a team.²²
• Secondary reinforcers are those which are paired with primary reinforcers. They are learned reinforcers, and have little use without primary reinforcers. For example, in Skinner’s experiment with rats explained earlier, if a tone rises along with the food falling into the cage when the rat presses the lever, the tone will soon become a secondary reinforcer. However, it will work only if the rat is hungry and presses the lever. Laila, for example, can give a candy along with the kisses, but the candy would be a reinforcer for controlling the anger only if it is accompanied by the kisses (the natural demand for attention).

   

  5 types of reinforces are Primary, Sensory, Social, Secondary, and Generalised

   

• Generalised reinforcers include some learned reinforcers which are applicable in all conditions. For example, money is a generalised reinforcer because we can get primary reinforcers such as food, water, prestige, and other things, using money.

Premack Principle Some activities occur more often than others. For example, a manager may spend more time planning and less time executing. Now, if we want the manager to learn spending more time on execution, we can tell the person that he/she would be given 30 minutes to plan for every hour he/she spends on execution. Similarly, to make a child learn to read more than play games on computers, one has two basic choices. One is to reward the child for reading, and another is to punish it for playing computer games. Yet another option is to permit it to play computer games for one hour if it reads for one hour, or some such combination. In other words, in Premack Principle, we pair the desired and undesired behaviour, and allow a person to use the undesirable action as a reinforcer to achieve the desired learning.

Disequilibrium Principle Every person has a range in which a reinforcer works. Let us take the example of a person interested in money and social service. Once he/she satisfies his/her need for money, it no more becomes a reinforcer. Then opportunity to head the social responsibility project of the company may be a better reinforcer than money.

Non-contingent Reinforcement Non-contingent reinforcement is given without any specific intent to cause learning.²³ It is also called accidental reinforcement. Suppose a lady comes home tired after work, and finds that her spouse has cooked dinner. The lady might hug the husband, and show more love. The love she shows is not contingent upon the dinner the husband has cooked. It is just accidental or incidental that he did so. We indulge in non-contingent reinforcement very often. We send congratulatory e-mails to our friends and peers, wish them on their birthdays and call them for a send-off party. Do these actions act as reinforcers? Surely yes; but they are not based on any conditionality.

Schedule of Reinforcement Reinforcements can be made in different ways as outlined in Table 7.2.

 

Cognitive Learning Theories

We have learnt about conditioning. However, if you look at small children, you can see how quickly they tend to learn to imitate adults with no conditioning involved. You might also have observed that children tend to play with guns, especially after seeing films in which guns are used. This tendency can be seen among adults too. We tend to imitate leaders, famous actors, and our seniors and colleagues in the workplace. In fact, society encourages this behaviour and that is why in interviews, you are often asked about your role model.

 

Learning by reading, observing, listening, and other mental methods without any stimulus or reinforcers is called cognitive learning

 

Learning by reading, listening to others, and observing others are common ways to learn things. In these cases, there is no conditioning and no reinforcers, yet the learning takes place. So, there is more to learning than conditioning; indeed a lot more.

Cognitive learning is a term that broadly covers all types of learning other than what takes place through conditioning. Let us look at a few types of cognitive learning.

Vicarious Conditioning Have a look at the world-famous photo of ‘vulture stalking the child’ (it is a photograph of an emaciated African child crawling with a vulture following it and can be viewed on the Internet site quoted in the reference).²⁴ You will perhaps instantly feel its emotional impact. You also feel emotional when you see a film and cry/laugh along with the hero or heroine depending on the emotions displayed by them. Violence or acts of compassion affect us even though these may not have happened to us; we may not have even witnessed it, but merely heard of it. Human beings learn many things by simply seeing or hearing things. This is called vicarious learning or vicarious conditioning. It can be defined as conditioning that occurs when a person or animal observes another being conditioned.

 

The conditioning that occurs when a person or animal observes another being conditioned is called vicarious conditioning

 

Learning through Cognitive Map Imagine you have been living in a new city for a month. One day, on your way back home, you find the road blocked by some agitating people. You automatically find another way to reach home. As you live longer in that city, your ability to find shops, roads, and other details of the environment improves. What is true for the city is also true if you go and live in the Amazon rain forest. This learning happens through cognitive mapping. It can be defined as a mental image of the environment an animal/human being creates to behave or act appropriately in its/his environment.

 

Cognitive mapping is a mental image of the environment an animal/human being creates to behave or act appropriately in its/his environment.

 

Latent Learning You must have performed many tasks that you would have never done before. How do we do that without conditioning or vicarious learning? When we do any activity, whether in an organisation or elsewhere, we make mental maps of what others do. These maps result in some learning though there are no reinforcers. They remain latent in our brains. When a reinforcer appears, the latent maps get triggered and we are able to do a new job. The reinforcer may be a new task, additional compensation, opportunity, promotion, job content, or job satisfaction. Latent learning can be defined as unconscious creation of mental maps of our direct and indirect experiences, which create the potential to learn to do something new when triggered by a reinforcer. Evidence of latent learning was first discovered by Toman and Honzik in 1930.²⁵

 

Latent learning occurs in the absence of obvious reinforcers and only appears after some reinforcement is introduced.

 

Modelling Albert Bandura conducted a number of experiments in which children watched adults being violent with Bobo dolls (air-filled dolls with a heavy weight at the base such that when pushed or punched down, they return to their original position). The adults punched, kicked, and showed violent language. The children who watched tended to show similar violence to the Bobo dolls. However, the children in the control group who did not watch the adults being violent did not show the same behaviour. Modelling can be defined as ‘the ability to learn by imitating the behaviour of others’.²⁶ The Bobo doll experiment is a case in point. Children quickly pick up modelling behaviour from films.²⁷ Adults too show modelling behaviour in many cases.

Social Learning Theory

We discussed learning from ‘behaviourism’ and ‘cognitive’ perspectives. However, these perspectives do not fully explain how an employee learns when someone demonstrates how to do a job or, by merely listening to a trainer. Albert Bandura developed the concept of social learning by integrating behavioural and cognitive concepts of learning.²⁸ The key tenets of this theory is given in Table 7.3.²⁹

Modelling We discussed under cognitive learning theories has special significance in social learning, and has wide applications in organisations. Modelling can be of the following types:

• Actual: Physically sets an example; for instance, a leader in Tomkin Pharmaceutical (initiating case) behaves in the desired way or sets an example and the employees follow it.
• Verbal: Explains the desired behaviour; for instance, a leader explains how the change is to be done during the vision workshop in Tomkin Pharmaceutical, and the employees follow it.
• Symbolic: Follows a symbolic, rather than the actual example. For instance, the employees of Tomkin Pharmaceutical see the actor taking initiative in the film ‘12 Angry Men’. The employees use this as a symbol and start taking initiative in the organisation.

 

Social Learning Process The social learning process consists of attention, retention, reproduction, and motivation. For instance, in the initiating case, the employees take note that the CEO often leads the selling effort in the field. They retain this memory and reproduce the initiative by taking risks and initiatives to surpass the goals. The process becomes effective if the action is profound enough to capture attention (in this case, the CEO’s action is profound). The company’s policy on goal and rewards acts as reinforcers, which motivate repetition of the behaviour and makes it relatively permanent.

Reciprocal Determination Model This model postulates that social behaviour has three components (see Figure 7.1).

1. The person: The variables related to the person are his/her personality, values and beliefs, attitude, expectations, intelligence, emotions, self-efficacy, strategic knowledge, and so on. This is the reason why processes and criteria related to selection, onboarding, and training were revised by Tomkin Pharmaceutical. Engagement surveys helped to measure attitudes and assess expectations.
2. Behaviour: These are represented by the employee’s actions, choices, and statements. A vision workshop helps to align the employees’ values and expectations, while goal setting and performance management influences choices and actions. Inclusion of ‘potential’ in the performance management system of Tomkin Pharmaceutical and rewarding it ensures learning the behaviour.
3. Environment: These are represented by physical setting, resources, and actions of other people. Tomkin Pharmaceutical expects to achieve this by aligning people through the vision workshops, goal setting, performance management, and definition of its values such as collaboration.

 

Principles of Learning

There are several authors who have created a list of principles of learning, and it varies depending on the discipline they come from. A collation of key principles supported by research is described here.

Prior Knowledge Prior knowledge creates cognitive maps. This makes it easier to learn new things. However, if the prior map is incorrect, time would be required to make it extinct before the new map is created.³⁰ For example, if people have been exposed to IT earlier and have been using programs, it is easier to learn a new one. If people have undertaken change management, it is easier to undertake a new
change initiative.

 

Principles of Learning

• Prior Knowledge
• Clarity of Goals, Standards and Reinforcement
• Process Adherence
• Organising
• Mastery of Components
• Practice and Feedback
• Diversity
• Learning Environment

Clarity of Goals and Standards and Reinforcement Learning is effective if there are clear goals and standards. For instance, in the case of Tomkin Pharmaceutical (initiating case), the goals and standards of performance were clearly laid down. Where a goal was not quantifiable, behaviours that indicate a specified standard such as ‘very good’, ‘good’, ‘adequate,’ and ‘improve’ were laid down. These helped in the learning process. Feedback is a reinforcer and should be administered using the ratio or interval scales.³¹

Process Adherence Earlier, we saw that attention, retention, reproduction, and motivation are the key steps in learning. For instance, in the initiating case, organisation-wide efforts were made to capture the imagination of employees, followed by vision workshops. These were efforts directed towards attention and retention. Reproduction was facilitated by policy changes in performance management, and motivation was achieved through a new policy on rewards.

Organising When knowledge is organised with context and connections in terms of domain, sequence, or other parameters, learning is better facilitated because it is easy to find association among different components. This makes it easier to create the cognitive map.³² For example, a trainer converts the entire learning into three progressive modules, and links each module to others.

Mastery of Components Where knowledge is complex, that is, synthesis or amalgamation of different parts is involved, mastery of components is a pre-condition to effective synthesis.³³ For example, in critical analysis report writing, proficiency in language, analytical thinking, ability to segregate ideas, and generating options are essential parts. Therefore, ensuring mastery in each of these is a pre-condition to ensuring mastery in critical analysis report writing.

Practice and Feedback Clear goals/expectations and timely feedback ensure smooth and rapid learning because they act as excellent reinforcers. Feedback may be derived in the form of a test, quiz, oral feedback by the faculty, or a formal feedback as in an examination or in performance management.³⁴ For example, a student uses a self-administered test and gets the score. Based on the score, s/he practises and tries the test again. This is a popular method for coaching in GMAT, CAT, IIT (JEE), and so on. Quarterly feedback mentioned in Tomkin Pharmaceutical is also a case in point.

Diversity Of late, diversity has been a favourite topic in organisational circles. Diversity of learners enables to bring multiple cognitive maps together. These are exchanged during discussions (formal or informal), and each person is able to create more cognitive maps. Hence, learning becomes more effective.³⁵ Diversity is also useful in latent learning. For example, Indian School of Business (ISB) creates diversity of students by carefully selecting them from different walks of life. Organisations such as Microsoft select people keeping diversity in mind. If there is a student with cerebral palsy in the class, latent learning of empathy is likely to take place better than a lecture or a workshop on empathy.

Learning Environment A learner is usually perceived only from his/her intellectual perspective. However, he/she is also a social being with emotions.³⁶ Hence, the learning environment is important (refer to reciprocal determination model discussed earlier). For example, I teach a course on HR using only cases. Class participation is evaluated based on the number and quality of contribution made by a student. There are recorders who keep the score in each session. Hence, participation is intense and very competitive. This actually threatens those who are shy to participate. Therefore, after six sessions, I identify the shy ones and mail them that I would give them opportunity to participate by proactively questioning them or calling them to participate. They are requested to support this effort. Experience shows that the shy ones pick up quickly, but also indicates that without the feedback and supporting them by proactive questioning, their learning would regress.

Learning Strategies

Learning strategies is a well-discussed topic in organisational and academic circles. Each discipline/area has its own variations. We have a strategy for reading, learning medicine, adult learning, and so on. Let us now look at some simple generic learning strategies.

General to the Specific Start the learning from general information. You may start with dictionaries, encyclopedias, general talk, or a TV programme on the subject by an expert and then go to text books, articles, and later to research work. In this way, you create a broad cognitive map, and then fill more details in that map.

Dividing or Creating Modules Divide the goals into objectives or smaller units. For example, this chapter is divided into sections so that the task of learning becomes manageable. Depending on your attention span, you can divide the goals by the amount of content or the time you spend on learning something to match your learning capacity and motivation.

Create Variety Rather than applying one mode of learning, apply multiple methods such as reading, writing, practising, and taking notes. Never forget to include thinking and reflecting as part of creating variety. Intersperse this with recreation, exercise, and some hobbies.

Revise This is an important strategy to transfer the learning from short-term to long-term memory. You can do it in various ways such as using notes, using schemas, or listening to a talk or watching a video related to the topic.

Engage This is perhaps the most important learning strategy. Major
methods to engage are highlighting, underlining, seeing videos, employing simulations, practising, and using life experiences.

Learning Styles

Every person has a learning style. Noted researcher Kolb identified four learning styles, namely diverging, assimilating, converging, and accommodating. There are five key factors that influence the learning style, namely personality, educational specialisation, career choice, current job role, and adaptive competencies or the way a person adapts to his/her current job.³⁷ Table 7.4 examines how people with different learning styles learn and what impacts learning styles.

 

Application of Learning in Organisations

Learning commences from the day we are born. In fact, current research suggests that we learn some emotional aspects even while in the mother’s womb. Therefore, a discourse on application of learning can be limitless. Here, we confine ourselves to some key applications of learning theories and principles in organisational learning context.

Filling Skill/Knowledge Gap Even if you use a very effective method for selection of employees, once they commence work, some skill deficiency is likely to emerge. Hence, a learning programme is essential.
‘Shaping’, as mentioned in Section II, is one of the most effective ways of training for skill gap. Conditional reinforcers such as promotion and incentives can be effectively used to achieve motivation for learning. On returning from a training programme, the employee should be given an assignment where he/she can practise what was learnt. Only then, he/she can convert what was taught into true learning.

Optimisation Optimisation is an important organisational need. Learning facilitates this technique. Modelling is perhaps one of the best ways to achieve optimisation. Learners can be asked to follow high achievers as models to achieve optimisation. If the action is complex; for example, writing a complex computer programme, then, shaping discussed in Section II, would be a good method to adopt.

Attitude Creation Creating the right attitude towards the job, organisation, co-workers, change, new technology, giving suggestions, optimisation, and competitiveness is indispensable in today’s world. If supervisors become role models, it is easy to create the right attitude. Reinforcement is an equally effective method to create the required attitude. Sometimes, it becomes necessary that an employee stops an undesirable habit. Making such an employee work along with a likable employee with appropriate work habits can often help in reducing the undesirable habit, when this is applied along with other measures.

Value Alignment Organisations often find it difficult to align the values of the employees and the organisation. Films/street plays/role plays and value workshops are very useful to align the values. The principle involved here is vicarious learning. One can also shape the values of the employees to achieve alignment.

Learning to Change Acceptance of change is primarily driven by social learning. Latent learning plays an important role in learning to change. Hence, people must be exposed to stories of change, expert talks, and visits to organisations that have changed successfully, even if a change is not imminent in the organisation. This creates latent learning. In addition, people tend to make cognitive maps of how to go about a change. When the need for change comes, this will go a long way to undertake the change quickly. This can be made more effective if modelling by leaders, well-designed programmes that introduce the change, and reinforcers such as incentives are co-opted. We had a look at how these were applied effectively in Tomkin pharmaceutical.

Designing a Learning Program in an Organisation

In organisations, it is common to find that the employees lack the competencies to deliver the task for which they are employed. This may be because the recruitment was not done properly, the competencies of the employees and the job requirement were not mapped correctly or because of external or internal changes such as mergers and acquisition has necessitated having new competencies. The last reason is a major challenge in most modern organisations. When learning to attain the required competencies is not done, productivity and performance falls. Often this leads to layoffs, which affect the motivation and morale of not only the laid off employees but also of those who are remaining in the organisation. All managers, whether from HR function or otherwise, will be required to design learning programs to overcome the above challenges. While you should keep in mind various theories and principles of learning, it is also important that a learning program is made systematically.

A learning program forms the basis for integrated learning process. It should be cohesive and intentionally created to meet the deficiencies in competencies. In organisational context, it must be invariably experiential and the supervisors/managers should prepare and encourage an employee to undertake the learning. A learning programs may be a structured course, a workshop, or a program for learning the job with the help of a mentor or coach.

Learning/Training Process Learning is a process. The key steps in this process are assessing needs, setting objectives, designing, implementation, and evaluation of learning.

The design of a learning program should specify the following:

• The purpose of the learning programme.
• The target group and the prerequisites. For example, a person should have Level 1 certification in safety before attending Level 2.
• Training specifications. A training specification lays down the details of the training such as the number of students in a class, the qualifications of the instructor, duration and timings of the program, and such other details.
• Outcomes to be achieved. This must be specific, and motivational tools should be linked to the outcome. In some complex learning processes such as learning to do research, it may be necessary to link motivation to the process.
• How the learners will be motivated. Revisit the learning theories to spell out how the learners can be motivated.
• The content for learning. This must be created carefully to meet the experiential need of an adult learner, since most learners in an organisation would be adults.
• Structure and sequence of learning including the time frame. Usually this is done through a training plan or session plan.
• How the assessment will be done. This must be clear and specific with little scope for ambiguity. If not, it might demotivate the learners especially when the assessment/outcome is linked to promotion and retention in a job.
• What resources will be required for the training?

Experiential Learning

The experiential learning (EL) movement began sometime in the middle of the nineteenth century in the US. Use of laboratories for creating experience, applied studies, and clinical experiences were the forerunners of this movement. The influential book Experience and Education by John Dewey paved the way for formalisations of EL.³⁸ Later, Kurt Lewin and others created well-founded steps of experiential learning. Kolb popularised the four steps of EL³⁹ as follows (see Figure 7.2).

• Immersing in a concrete experience implies that a learner’s own experience is often insufficient or not relevant enough for the learning to take place. Use of cases, simulation, role plays, films, activities (indoor/outdoor), and on-the-job training help in creating the experience.
• The learner has to, then, reflect on the experience. This is a difficult task, but can be done by asking five basic questions to oneself.⁴⁰ These questions can be raised by a facilitator as well. The questions are as follows:
  • What did the learner notice in the experience?
  • Why did it (what the person noticed) happen?
  • Does it happen in life?
  • Why does/did it happen?
  • How can one use these inputs in real life?

Let us now apply these questions. You might have seen the popular film Sholay. You or the facilitator can ask what the learner noticed in the film. Some might have observed that the police officer’s hands were cut off by the dacoit and some others might have noticed the sacrifices made by Amitabh Bachchan for his colleague. Let us take the first incident—the police officer’s hands being cut off. If you now ask why it happened, you might get many answers, but one of them is that he went after the dacoit alone. If you ask whether similar things happen in real life, the answer would be affirmative. We often go after our boss, subordinates, or colleagues in workplace, alone. If you ask why it happened, one of the answers would be that the police officer was in a state of high emotion, which resulted in his chasing the dacoit alone. We can now use this input to learn that one should not react when in a high emotional state.

 

• Forming abstract concepts and generalisation is the next key step. If the learner has an earlier repository of concepts, this step is easier to handle. For example, if the incident being used is related to performance management, then concepts related to equity, transparency, and justice, which are the key tenets of performance management can help a lot. If the learner does not have such knowledge, the learning facilitator must elicit these ideas from the learner. The learner may do this in layman’s language, but the facilitator can help the learner with appropriate terminologies. In the example of Sholay quoted, the abstract concepts that emerge could be patience, deliberation, information collection, and systematic planning before making a decision.
• Testing the implications in a new situation can be done best in a new context. For example, the next time you are in a high state of emotion, you can practise patience or delay, collect information, and systematically plan before taking a decision. The decision may be to manage the conflict in a collaborative way, rather than going after someone. The interaction between the learner, learner’s behaviour, and the environment (reciprocal determination discussed under social learning theory) actually decides whether this can/would be done. If the work environment is open to experimentation, this can be easily done.

Adult Learning (Andragogy)

In a rapidly changing world with life-long learning needs, adult learning is an important body of knowledge. Andragogy or adult learning was formally conceptualised by Knowles.⁴¹ He called it the ‘art and science’ of adult learning. It has five assumptions as follows (see Box 7.5 also):

1. Self-concept: Adults are more self-directed and independent.
2. Experience: Adults are likely to possess a wealth of experience, which makes it possible to use experiential learning methods.
3. Readiness: An adult is usually more ready to learn; but the learning is directed towards his/her social roles and development.
4. Orientation: An adult has immediacy of application of knowledge. Therefore, an adult wants what can be applied immediately, rather than what can be applied in future.
5. Motivation: Adults would have more internal motivation to learn.

Principles of Andragogy

Although various authors have listed various principles, here, we stick to the four key principles suggested by Knowles. These are as follows:

• Involvement in planning and evaluation of the learning.
• Reliance on experiential learning including mistakes as experiences.
• Immediacy and relevance to the job at hand.
• Problem centred than content-centred in approach.

Self-Learning or Self-Directed Learning/Self-Regulated Learning

The term ‘self-learning’ (or its other variants) is used in different contexts. The first is independent learning context where the learner decides learning goals, content, time, and effort he/she wants to deploy, and evaluation methods. The second is distance learning context where the learner’s self-choice is limited to flexibility in time of learning, but not to curriculum, content, and evaluation. However, with the use of information technology, greater flexibility is possible in these areas. The third context refers to psychological control where nothing is really in his/her control, except the way he/she receives and processes the learning. For instance, a person can take a reinforcer in a positive or negative way or exercise control over the behaviour related to the learning. This, of course, is a more abstract way of thinking about self-learning. In this chapter, we define self-learning as the process that assists students in managing their thoughts, behaviours, and emotions in order to successfully navigate their learning experiences.⁴² It has three phases as follows:

 

Self-learning is the process of managing own thoughts, behaviours and emotions to learn something.

 

Phases of self-learning are planning, learning, and performing,

 

Qualities of a good self-learner

• Self-awareness
• Self-monitoring
• Self-confidence
• Intrinsic motivation
• Achievement orientation

Planning Phase This involves analysing the tasks and setting learning goals. This is a major challenge. Suppose we have a learning programme for change management, it is imperative that the goals are clearly defined by all individuals who are undertaking the learning. Within this structure, a person can identify goals for himself/herself in terms of the depth of learning and duration in which the learning is to be achieved. The person may even be able to decide for himself/herself the areas of change management that he/she wants to learn.

 

Skills of a good self-learner

• Setting specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and time-bound goals.
• Observation skills such as seeing and understanding, seeing and translating, and converting concepts into schemas, charts, and graphs.
• Listening skills.
• Collating inputs from multiple sensory inputs.
• Transferring information to long-term memory
• Elaboration (converting working memory input into images, deductions, and generalisations).
• Problem-defining and solving.
• Some pre-existing domain knowledge.

Learning Phase In this phase, the person decides the learning strategies, styles, and indicators to monitor effectiveness of the learning strategies and self-motivation tools. For example, a person may realise that he/she has a ‘diverging style’ of learning and is comfortable in learning using discussions. The person should also decide how to remain motivated to learn; whether through extrinsic or intrinsic reinforcers, frequency of reinforcement, and so on.

Performing Phase In this phase, the self-learner should evaluate his/her performance as also manage the emotional response resulting from the learning. It is best to seek feedback from experts who will not only give significant feedback, but will also usually highlight the strong points, which a person may not be able to realise on his/her own.

Learning about Self or Self-Awareness in the Learning Context

Learning about self in the learning context is important for effective learning. One should be aware of one’s basic drives such as need for power, achievement or affiliation, personality traits, emotional quotient, self-efficacy, locus of control, goals in life, and career. This self-awareness is crucial in defining what one should learn. A person should also develop self-awareness of the learning styles, and then decide on the learning strategies.

There are many ways to learn about the self. Talking to people (friends, relatives, and experts) to create self-awareness, 360-degree feedback conducted in the organisation, psychometric tests, and critical evaluation of one’s actions and emotions are some of the effective methods to gain self-awareness. One can also maintain a ‘journal’ where a person records the critical incidents (important events that create an impact) of their life, which can be followed by reflecting on those incidents using the five questions we discussed under ‘experiential learning’.

Transformative Learning

Though transformational learning is usually discussed within the framework of adult education literature rather than organisational behaviour, it is beginning to have its own impact in organisations because learning in organisations is essentially adult learning. An individual usually holds a limited and often distorted view about various things. When that person critically examines the view and opens himself/herself to alternatives, changes take place in the way he/she sees the world. Then he/she is likely to respond differently.⁴³ In a nutshell, this is what transformative learning is all about. Transformative learning is especially useful when there is rapid change. Hence, it should be of great interest to business students. Let us now look at the steps of transformative learning (see Table 7.5).

 

Transformative learning is the key to change

 

 

There is growing evidence that the brain undergoes structural changes during learning through transformative method.⁴⁴ Such evidences suggest the following:

• Creating discomfort is necessary for discovery.
• Transformative learning should be rooted in the learner’s experiences, needs, and interests.
• Emotive, sensory, and kinaesthetic experiences are important.
• Gender differences exist in learning.
• Learning facilitators need specialised knowledge to support transformative learning.⁴⁵

Language and Learning

With advancement in cognitive and social learning theories, the role of language in learning is receiving special emphasis. With forays into self-learning, understanding this relationship has become indispensable. Language is used to communicate goals and intent, muster support, challenge premises, initiate reflective thinking, persuade people, and motivate. Even in operant conditioning, let alone cognitive and social learning, language is a powerful reinforcer; for example, ‘well done’ and ‘your work is amazing’ are two language constructs that we can use in reinforcing. The latter usually has greater impact. Hence, language matters in learning.

Each domain has its unique words and taxonomy and without having a fair knowledge of it, self-learning is impossible. For example, if you do not know terms such as effectiveness or optimisation in the organisational context, learning about organisations becomes difficult. Language is also a tool to narrate experiences and convert them into generalisations, which are crucial in experiential learning. In self-learning, instructions, guidelines, and self-help are driven by language. It is the most used and effective medium to evaluate learning and to transfer learning.

Though the purpose of this chapter is not an elaboration on language and its application in learning, it is important to highlight its role, because language deficiency could be an impediment to learning, and hence this short discourse.

Learning from Different Domains

Whenever we learn something, our knowledge, attitude, and actions change. Based on this, learning can be divided into three domains, namely cognitive, affective, and psychomotor; each with several sub-domains. Understanding these helps us to create learning objectives systematically. Let us now have a look at these domains as given in Tables 7.6, 7.7, and 7.8.

 

 

 

Learning to Learn

We live in a knowledge society and are confronted with frequent changes. These changes demand that we should be life-long learners. This is possible only if we learn to learn. The term metacognition is often considered a synonym of the term ‘learning to learn’. Although they are linked, metacognition means awareness and understanding of one’s thought process. It is not the same as learning to learn, although it is a component of ‘learning to learn’.

Several research papers have been published on the subject of learning to learn. The European Union and the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) have spent considerable effort to define and develop a measure for learning to learn.

Learning to learn is essentially the ability of a person to deploy the cognitive and affective domain of learning. When a person becomes adept in doing so, he/she will be able to learn new things easily. Hence, there is a new focus on ‘learning to learn’ at all levels of education, particularly at the graduate level.

 

Learning to learn has 3 dimensions – Cognitive, Metacognitive and affective

 

To enable this, a framework for learning to learn has been developed. It consists of three dimensions. Universities are beginning to focus on training their students on these dimensions, so that people will become life-long learners. These dimensions are as follows:⁴⁹

Cognitive Dimension This dimension consists of the abilities to identify a proposition, use rules, test rules and propositions, and use mental tools such as listen rather than argue, or express your feeling rather than defend it.

Metacognitive Dimension This dimension consists of the abilities related to metacognitive monitoring or monitoring one’s thought process and existing state of knowledge, metacognitive accuracy, and metacognitive confidence.

Affective Dimension This consists of ability to create the following: learning motivation, learning strategies and orientation towards change, academic self-concept and self-esteem, and the learning environment.

Learning in the Mobile Age

In the age of mobile technology, learning is undergoing a lot of change, as mobile devices are used as learning tools. Digital technology makes it possible to present content in the form of text, videos, animations, and sound. Different forms of content can be integrated to make learning real-time and interactive. We must not confuse a smartphone with learning in the mobile age though the smartphone may be a vital equipment to achieve the learning. Some of the key challenges of learning in a mobile age are as follows:

Mobility of the Learner One should realise that it is the learner, rather than the equipment, which is mobile. The learner uses technology that is suitable to fulfil his/her need for mobility. Computers, notepads, and e-books are only the manifestation of this need for mobility. Imagine a situation when there is digital connectivity at all places such as schools, colleges, railway stations, trains, airplanes, and so on. The learner may not be bothered to carry a mobile device at all. Though this utopian situation may not be realised in the near future, the example highlights the importance of mobility of the learner versus mobility of the equipment. A learner tends to use mobile phone, fixed phone, own computer, rented computers/other’s computers, and other interactive systems at will and at different places, from classrooms to food kiosks, and beer bars, to shopping malls. Learning should be adapted to this reality.

Integration Learning is integrated and interwoven with other activities. It cannot be separated easily from other activities as was the case in the traditional learning environment. Mobile age makes learning and non-learning environment indistinguishable. Hence, content and delivery must adapt to the new reality.⁵⁰ For example, a short video may make a good learning tool when we travel, an audio when we exercise, and text when we are in the study room. When they are appropriately integrated, one can support learning better, in the mobile age.

Goals In the mobile age of learning, there is a tendency to skip goals. While a person is in the process of achieving the goal of learning something,
he/she may ask an entirely new question or develop a new interest and decide to pursue the new goal, while skipping the original goal altogether. This is easily possible in the digital age. For instance, in the process of buying a book at amazon.com, you might find that selling some of your books might help or selling some old fashioned jewellery online can get you the money to buy books. The new goal can be achieved without having to go to a new place, by using digital medium. Therefore, the mobile age is known for creating new goals and skipping the original one. One should adapt the learning modules and content to facilitate the same.

Distributed Control Learning in the mobile age is highly distributed. Unlike in the earlier days when the control was largely with the teacher, in the mobile age, it is with the learner, network of learners, teachers, and technologies.

Context Creation Context in the conventional learning is almost like a shell that surrounds the learner. In the mobile age, it is dynamic. For example, you can walk in a botanical garden and listen to the commentary based on where you are standing through the help of a GPS-enabled device. An interactive phone in an art gallery is perhaps another version of it, though technologically less sophisticated.

Complimenting and Disrupting While bringing laptops and multimedia sets into the classroom often disrupts the carefully caricatured learning ambience in the classroom, these devices also permit extending learning beyond classrooms to homes, buses, or metros, and even to parks or theatres. This can actually compliment learning.⁵¹

Ethical Issues There are wearable systems that can record our everyday lives and enable us to recall what we did. These are excellent learning tools. However, they also bring up ethical and privacy issues. For example, if you fear that every word of yours will be recorded, would you be forthright always? Nevertheless, this also creates the possibility of using these as mechanisms to capture life events based on which we can enhance our experiential learning.⁵²

The effectiveness of application of mobile technology in learning is still being debated. The framework created by the National Research Council, in 1999 can be a helpful tool to assess the effectiveness (see Table 7.9).⁵³

 

Knowledge Management

The current era is known as the knowledge era. Therefore, ‘knowledge management’ is a popular topic that is discussed at different levels. Here, let us have a brief look at the link between learning and knowledge management.

Knowledge is defined as understanding patterns and principles from a collection of contextually relevant data. Data is any piece of input without a context. For example, Rs 1,000 is a piece of data. Five per cent, twenty per cent, one year, and five years are also data. There is no link between these terms. However, if you talk of these data in the context of business or banking, it is information. For example, ‘at 20 per cent simple interest for five years, Rs 1,000 will double’ becomes a piece of information. Therefore, data with context is called information.

If we are now able to find a pattern in the context, it becomes knowledge. For example, if we know that by investing Rupees 1000 in business you are likely to get a non-guaranteed return of Rupees 1200 at the end of one year and that you can get a guaranteed return of Rupees 1050 at the end of the same period if we invest in a bank, then there is a pattern and this is called knowledge.

We can now compare these two pieces of knowledge and find that investing in business is beneficial and risky compared to investing in banks. Then, knowledge becomes wisdom. Therefore, wisdom can be defined as the ability to see a principle in the knowledge. In other words, wisdom is extracted from knowledge. This is a simple illustration of data, information, knowledge, and wisdom, but it gives an insight into how learning and knowledge management can be linked (see Figure 7.3).⁵⁴

Learning is related to creating information, knowledge, and wisdom. The cognitive domain will enable us to convert the data into knowledge by understanding it. The affective domain also comes to play and helps us to identify the impact of the knowledge. For example, we might be a little unhappy if we lose money, but we might be very happy if we gain a lot. If our affect indicates the latter, then, we may invest in business and not in the bank. Taking risk often would eventually make us learn ‘risk-taking’. You can now perceive the link between learning and knowledge management better.

There are two types of knowledge. The first one is tacit knowledge that resides in a person. It is difficult to convert it into written or other forms.
The second is codified knowledge that can be included in books, articles, videos, and so on. Converting tacit knowledge into codified knowledge is one of the principal aims of knowledge management. By doing so, it is possible to make the valuable tacit knowledge learnable by others. For example, a person may have information about an incident. This is not knowledge. By asking reflective questions, which we discussed earlier under the head ‘experimental learning’, we can convert the information into tacit knowledge. Only that person has access to tacit knowledge. However, by encouraging the person to answer those questions orally/in writing, we can convert the tacit knowledge into codified knowledge. Once knowledge is codified, it can be managed.

 

Learning Organisations

Though the concept of the ‘learning organisation’ is usually discussed under organisational science, a brief discussion is relevant here as the learning tools are indispensable to create a learning organisation.

 

Learning organisation can be defined as an organisation that facilitates the learning of its members continuously to transform itself.

 

The term ‘learning organisation’ was coined by Peter Senge.⁵⁵ It can be defined as an organisation that facilitates the learning of its members continuously to transform itself. Such organisations have five important features such as systems thinking, personal mastery, mental models, shared vision, and team learning. Learning organisations are able to rapidly change by maintaining and enhancing their level of innovation. They are better placed than other organisations to respond to external environment, can link better with other related systems, improve quality of output, and be more people-, (employee, and customer) oriented. However, to do this, the members of the organisation should be adept in transformative learning. This requires proficiency in learning to learn, knowledge management, self-learning, and mobile learning, all of which we have addressed in some detail earlier in this section.

E-Learning

In today’s world, e-learning is an important component. Most organisations and individuals have taken up e-learning in some form or the others. It is used to develop:

• Cognitive skills that involve knowledge and comprehension. An example of this is learning some scientific concepts or applying a concept to a situation. It can also be a procedural skill that involve following some instructions. For example, if you look up the internet to learn how to use or correct a formula in Excel, you will get step-by-step procedure on how to do it.
• Interpersonal skills such as active listening, presenting, and negotiating.
• Psychomotor skills such as using a tool, driving a car, repairing something, or learning to type without looking at the key board.

Principles of E-learning

Use of Multimedia. Multimedia means use of more than one type of media. When graphics or pictures are combined with text or sound, learning becomes more effective. However, using both sound and text along with pictures actually reduces the effectiveness of learning. Hence, we should use either sound or text.

Graphic audio combination. A graphic with an audio rather than text is one of the most effective ways to deliver e-learning. The use of this is more flexible. For example, you can use this with ease while travelling.

Contiguity between text and pictures. It is important that we keep the text and the picture side by side to enhance learning. If they are not contiguous, a learner will find it difficult to correlate.

There should be coherence between the graphics and text. Sometimes, the e-learning designers tend to spice up the text by including multiple clicks and complex graphics. This creates confusion in the learner’s mind and reduces the effectiveness of learning.

Use of first and second person language leads to greater learning than using more formal language. This has greater relevance for e-learning because the learning facilitator is not physically present. So, use of first and second person creates more connect.

Types of E-learning

Individualised self-paced e-learning online. The advantage is that the learner is in full control of the learning. However, this requires high learning motivation.

Individualised self-paced e-learning offline. This helps a person to download the content and learn at one’s own pace. The advantage of offline mode is that you need not be connected to the internet to use the learning content.

Synchronous Group e-learning. If you sign for an online MBA program of IIM Kozhikode, you will be having some online sessions. You will be connected by video conferencing facilitates and you may be sitting in a city anywhere in India along with some other students who have signed up for the programme. In this case, the learning is synchronous because the entire group is connected by the internet. It has many properties of a physical class room. For example, you can see other students and the faculty online and interact in real-time. Because of this, it is easy to motivate the learners just like it is done in a class. Peer learning is also possible in this mode.

Asynchronous Group-e-learning. In this mode, the link between the members of a group is not real time. For example, if your professor has a learning board in the Moodle and initiate a discussion, the member of the class are not connected to each other simultaneously. However, they visit the electronic board when it is convenient to them and add their ideas to the discussion. This enables a student to learn at his/her own pace. However, it is often seen that the effectiveness of this method of learning depends on the motivation of the members of the group.

To sum up, let us recongnise that e-learning is an effective method of learning and is a useful tool to overcome the barriers of distance, time, and simultaneous availability of the learner and the facilitator.

Summary

Learning is defined as a measurable and relatively permanent change in behaviour through experience. Leaning is very essential in organisations because it helps us to refine our actions, anticipate challenges and take proactive actions and optimise productivity. It is vital in adapting ourselves and the organisation to change. There are three perspectives/approaches to study learning—behaviourism, humanism, and connectivism. These approaches are helpful to understand learning that takes place at different stages of our lives, and in different contexts.

Influential theories related to learning are behavioural, cognitive and social learning theories.

Behavioural theory explains classical conditioning and operant conditioning. Classical conditioning theory states that a person can be taught to respond favourably to something merely by associating it with something that he/she likes. For example, a person can be taught to respond favourably to a product by creating an association between the product and a well-known person whom he/she likes. This is widely used in advertisements. Operant conditioning suggests that when our behaviour is reinforced appropriately through a reward, we tend to show that behaviour more often; equally when that behaviour is punished, we tend to show the behaviour less frequently. The term ‘reinforcer’ is a common term used to refer to both reward and punishment. Reinforcement is an important concept related to learning because a number of concepts have emerged based on the term. For example, concepts such as what creates effective reinforcement, what is the frequency in which we should provide the reinforcement, and how do we shape behaviour slowly by using reinforcement, have emerged from this concept. A manager must learn the application of these thoroughly as it has wide applications in managing employees of an organisation.

Cognitive learning theories explain how we learn by observing other people and model our actions based on actions of others. Latent and cognitive mapping are two important concepts of cognitive learning, which makes it possible for us to do new things without any training.

Social learning theories explain how we learn in a social context by linking our basic inputs such as values, personality, and intelligence with our behaviour and the environment.

Learning is a challenging task. Following some principles can make it effective. Having some prior knowledge, clear goals, and processes; organising the learning systematically; achieving mastery of each component before going to another component; practicing, giving feedback, and having diversity in the learning group, and the environment of learning are important principles that help in learning. It is equally important to create learning strategies. We should learn general things first, followed by the specific aspects, divide the entire learning into manageable modules, use different methods to learn, revise, and ensure that we are engaged/involved fully in the learning. There are four learning styles, namely diverging, assimilating, converging, and accommodating. We should identify our preferred style and adopt a learning strategy that is most suitable to us. The chapter discusses how to apply the principles, strategies, and styles.

Experiential learning is one of the most important methods of learning because of its application in adult learning and self-learning. It has four important steps, namely experience, reflection, abstracting, and testing. A close study of the concept discussed in the chapter would enable us to apply experiential learning in many contexts.

Since changes take place rapidly in the modern world, we have to learn all the time. Hence ‘learning to learn’ is very important in today’s world. Learning to learn has three dimensions—cognitive, metacognitive, and affective. It is important to learn to apply these dimensions. Transformative learning is of equal importance and enables individuals and organisations to create transformational changes.

Technology has made us more mobile and learning in the mobile age is a challenge we should learn to conquer. Learning in the mobile age refers to the mobility of the learner rather than the mobility of the equipment, though the latter too has its place in mobile learning. Smartphones and cloud computing, which make it possible, also throw up challenges related to goals of learning, methods, and integration of different methods to suit the mobility. Using text, videos, and applications in an integrated way, it is possible to cater to the learning need of the mobile age. Organisations should leverage this integration.

In summary, one can say that learning is perhaps the most important need of human beings today. It enables us to achieve rapid adaptation to the changing environment and ensures our success. This need ushers in the need for lifelong learning using technology as an enabler. This chapter addresses these challenges holistically, though briefly.

Test Your Understanding

1. Choose the most appropriate answer from the options given below.

   The greatest importance of learning comes from its ability to,

   1. Take precautionary actions.
   2. Anticipate things.
   3. Optimise allocations of resources.
   4. Adapt to environment change.
2. Choose the most appropriate answer from the options given below.

   You see a fair and likable lady and a bottle of fairness cream in an advertisement. The best possible explanation for creating this advertisement is,

   1. This is application of classical conditioning.
   2. The lady is a reinforcer.
   3. This is done to ensure vicarious learning.
   4. This is an example of effective learning through modelling.
3. Choose the most appropriate answer from the options given below.

   Classical conditioning has three key components which are,

   1. An unconditioned stimulus, conditioned response, and unconditioned response.
   2. An unconditioned stimulus, unconditioned response, and a conditioned stimulus.
   3. A conditioned stimulus, an unconditioned response, and a neutral response.
   4. A neutral stimulus, neutral response, and subliminal response
4. Choose the most appropriate answer from the options given below.

   Read ‘Distraught mother’ given in Box 7.1. Why do you think she could not reduce the anger of her son?

   1. She was not strict enough.
   2. She failed to use classical conditioning.
   3. She used the wrong reinforcer.
   4. She did not use the reinforcer often enough.
5. State whether the statement ‘the purpose of positive and negative reinforcers is the same’ is true or false.
6. Choose the most appropriate answer from the options given below:

   Ram comes to office late on most days, but exceeds his targets every month. In order to correct him, his manager who has a soft corner for him told him that he would be given a cash incentive every month for the next six months if he comes on time. Ram tried his best, but the best he achieved in a month was reaching late four times. According to you, the manager,

   1. Should sack Ram as he is taking advantage of the manager.
   2. Is unaware of the principle of shaping.
   3. Used the wrong reinforcer.
   4. Should send him for counselling.
7. If you were living in a place for some time and suddenly find the way to your workplace route blocked, you quickly figure out a way to reach there. This happens because of ________. (Fill the blank)
8. A manager wants to ensure that the workers adapt a new method. Which of the following learning theories would be the least effective?
   1. Modelling.
   2. Positive reinforcing.
   3. Negative reinforcing.
   4. Classical conditioning.
9. Reciprocal determination in learning explains the linkage between person, ________, and the environment. (Fill the blank)
10. There are four basic learning styles. These are ________, ________, assimilating, and accommodating. (Fill the blanks).
11. Choose the most appropriate answer from the options given below.

    Experiential learning involves the following key steps:

    1. Immersion in an experience, generalisation. and testing.
    2. Immersion in an experience, reflection, and testing.
    3. Immersion in an experience, reflection, and generalisation.
    4. Immersion in an experience, reflection, generalisation, and testing.
12. Self-learning is the process of managing own thoughts, behaviours, and ________ to learn something. (Fill in the blank)
13. Choose the most appropriate answer from the options given below:

    An individual at times holds a limited and often distorted view about various things. When that person critically examines the view and opens himself/herself to alternatives, change takes place in the view he/she holds and then the person responds differently. This type of learning is called,

    1. Self-learning.
    2. Metacognitive learning.
    3. Transformative learning.
    4. Learning to learn.
14. The major domains of learning are ________, ________, and ________(Fill the blanks).
15. Which of the following is the least appropriate description of mobile age learning?
    1. Goals create yet other goals, often sacrificing the original goal.
    2. Equipment mobility is more important than learner’s mobility.
    3. Learning and other activities are interwoven.
    4. Both (a) and (c) are the most inappropriate description.

Need some help with this? Go to Answers to Test Your Understanding given at the end of the book.

Assimilation Questions

1. Learning is defined as the measurable and relatively permanent change in behaviour through experience. Explain the idea of experience in the definition.
2. Explain classical conditioning, with an example from the world of advertisement.
3. A tea plantation in the Nilgiri hills has just brought in an automatic machine for cutting tea leaves. The workers are resisting its use. Suggest a method to change their attitude using operant conditioning.
4. How can you make punishment effective?
5. You are manager of a large retail store. What social reinforcers can you use to increase the sale of the outlet?
6. Sujatha was a keen worker and always focused on achieving her targets, and also enthusiastically participated in the corporate social responsibility work of her company. She has built her house, bought a car, and her children are settled abroad. She always relied on ‘high-performance incentives’ she received to achieve these goals. Everyone admired her. However, of late, she does not seem to be focused on her targets as much as she used to be. She still meets her targets; but she is no more the person who would easily surpass her targets three to four times. How can we change her behaviour?
7. Ramani would take the initiative to do anything. Usually, it would always be something that others have not attempted. She would attempt such tasks for the first time and was mostly successful. How could she be learning to do new jobs so well?
8. What are the different types of modelling? Give examples.
9. Explain any three principles of learning, with examples.
10. Learning methods should suit the learning style. If you were a trainer and conducting a team training programme for engineers, business graduates, a group of psychologists, and some chemistry researchers, what would be your preferred method? (Assume that the training is not combined and is independent of each other.)
11. Explain the experiential learning model.
12. Mr Jagat Singh was tasked to train 15 middle-aged supervisors on using the new production information system. He created detailed content, hand outs, time-plan, modules, and post-training test questions and presented them to his HR manager. Assume you are the HR manager and critique the training plan.
13. How will you train your employees on learning to learn?
14. Learning enables adaptation to the environment. Explain how this was applied in the initiating case of Tomkin Pharmaceutical.
15. Explain how mobile learning can be made more impactful.

Need some help with this? Go to Clues to Answer Assimilation Questions given at the end of the book.

Application Challenges

1. Jerry has a sweet tooth. He could never stop eating sweets. He became obese and the doctors warned him of grave consequences if he did not reduce from 110 kg to at least 80 kg. Jerry began to exercise, but it never lasted more than two days. Jerry’s friend created an exercise plan that would result in him exercising regularly in the next three months. You can make assumptions and if you do, state them clearly. The plan should indicate the learning theories against each major action that you propose.
2. Farmers are committing suicide in many states because of poor productivity and prices. At the same time, some farmers are prospering. Create a project to train a few farmers near your business school to adapt sustainable and profitable farming methods. The project should highlight various learning theories and principles you use in your training plan. This can be a group assignment.

Approach to Teaching/Learning

For Lecture-driven Teaching Those institutions which use lecture method can follow the standard pattern of lecture and quizzes. Thereafter, they can go to the experiential learning mode by attempting the application challenges.

For Case-driven Teaching Institutions that follow case method (participant-centred learning) may use the case mentioned below. To enhance the experiential learning, they can attempt one or both the application challenges.

Title of the case : ‘Leadership Development at Goldman Sachs’

Originator of the case : Harvard Business School

Case No: 9-406-002

Source/available through: Harvard Business School publishing

Brief description: The case is on training leaders. The case is appropriate to highlight modelling, vicarious learning, operant conditioning, and need for life-long learning.