Describes the five main characteristics of a learning organization.

Assignment Content

1. Competency
   Evaluate organizational reactions to environmental changes.

   Student Success Criteria
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   Scenario
   You are the HR Manager for a group of car dealerships. The owner has ten dealerships that sell four different brands of cars. Last year the owner wanted to move from a low base pay plus high commission pay structure for the car salespeople to a pay-for-performance model. This pay-for-performance model based the incentive pay on more than just the sale of a car and its price point, but also customer satisfaction. He believed this would help the organization compete with the new ways in which people purchase cars, such as online-only car purchasing. Unfortunately, many of the salespeople were very unhappy with this change and sales declined dramatically. The owner was forced to reinstate the old pay plan and directed you to determine why the change initiative failed.

   Based on your review of the organization, how the change plan was implemented, and employee reactions, you have determined that there was not any sustained encouragement for employees to learn and adapt to new market realities. Most of the employees saw no reason to change how “things were always done” in this organization. You conclude that the organization overall is not prepared to continually evolve and adapt to changes in the industry and market. Therefore, you decide to prepare a presentation for the CEO that argues for transforming his company into a learning organization.

   Instructions
   Prepare a presentation, with speaker’s notes, that:

   • Explains the concept of a learning organization and its importance in responding to environmental changes.
   • Provides examples of the benefits of becoming agile as a learning organization.
   • Describes the five main characteristics of a learning organization.
   • Discusses how a learning organization supports an organization’s reaction to triggers of change.
   • Details the three stages an organization must go through (cognitive, behavioral, performance improvement) to become a learning organization.
   • Describes immediate actions that can be taken to begin the transformation process to a learning organization.
   • Provides attribution for credible sources used in the presentation with speaker’s notes.