Managerial and Professional Development ('portfolio' assignment) Assignment

Managerial and Professional Development ('portfolio' ) - Assignment Example Even though organizational learning is fundamentally different from individual training, it is influenced either directly or indirectly through individual learning. Hence, it is necessary to evaluate the way in which individual learning operates in an organization. Experiential Learning In many organizations, individual learning gets influenced in a major way by the Experiential way of learning. This theory, proposed by Kolb has four different stages of learning (McGill & Beaty 1995). According to this theory, any learning occurs in four different stages – through concrete experience, through observation and reflection, through abstract conceptualization as well as through active experimentation (Kolb and Fry, 1975). This is the chosen approach because of the holistic approach to learning offered by it. It was realized that this learning process is continuous and can begin at any of the stages. On a personal level, it provided ample scope to develop experience and opportunitie s to observe as well as reflect. In most organizations, employees also come across many scenarios where they indulge in abstract conceptualization and can carry out active experimentation. ... The learners, even though are not aware of the terminology given to each of these phases, go through either some or all the stages of learning depending on numerous factors like individual aptitude, availability of opportunities, nature of organization and so on (Itin, 1999). The experiential method of learning is the selected method because the strength of this theory lies in the fact that it talks about reflection. From previous experiences, it was realized that reflection is an important aspect of learning because it helps in understanding the mistakes and avoiding it for future instances. In addition, it also fosters innovation because of the scope related to experimentation as well as conceptualization (Kolb, 1984). Hence, the chances of holistic learning become very high with this form of learning. In addition, it is not imperative that a formal environment is needed to go through the various stages. For example, observation and reflection can easily happen in a very non-formal situation, giving ample scope for learning to take place. However, there are also some key disadvantages related to this theory that it is looked at from the context of an organization that was noticed during personal observation. Very often, the learning cycle is not completed, even though the process is incomplete. Due to external conditions or due to the individual interest, it has been noticed that many individuals go through the same stage of learning repeatedly. Therefore, some researchers do not consider this form of learning as a holistic way of learning and development in an organization. Reflective Learning Reflective learning is another popular way of learning in an organizational or corporate environment.