REFLECTIVE REPORT ON APPLICATIONS, Essays (university) of Business Administration

Download REFLECTIVE REPORT ON APPLICATIONS and more Essays (university) Business Administration in PDF only on Docsity! Assumptions Double-loop learning was created in the mid-1980s by Chris Argyris, a leading organisational trainer. It is an educational concept and process that involves teaching people to think more deeply about their own assumptions and beliefs. He articulated double-loop learning in his book, co-written with Donald Schön, called ‘Organisational Learning‘. Single-loop learning involves changing methods and improving efficiency to obtain established objectives (i.e., “doing things right”). Double-loop learning is different because this involves changing the objectives themselves (i.e., “doing the right things”). As Martin (2013) notes, Single-loop learning focuses exclusively on actions and outcomes. When we find an outcome we do not like, we tend to revisit and redesign our actions to achieve a better outcome….Double-loop learning does not simply go back to action; it goes further to the theories and thinking that informed that action. It challenges and redesigns the thinking. Argyris and Schön argued what we should be prepared to do is to challenge our deep seated set of interpretations, assumptions, values and models and search for better, more reliable assumptions and models. Argyris studied learning processes in considerable depth and said that most of us define learning too narrowly as mere problem solving, which means we focus on identifying and correcting errors in the external environment. He says that solving problems is important but really what we should be doing is also look inward and reflect critically on our own behavior. He argues that double-loop learning is necessary if practitioners and organisations are to make informed decisions in rapidly changing and often uncertain contexts (Argyris 1974; 1982; 1990). Single-loop learning is “following the rules” and double-loop learning can be thought of as “changing the rules” – there is another type of learning as well and that is triple-loop learning or “learning how to learn” by reflecting on how we learn in the first place. So, what type of organisation do you work in and what type of learning does your leadership team follow? Kolb's Learning Cycle Kolb's Learning Cycle is a well-known theory which argues we learn from our experiences of life, even on an everyday basis. It also treats reflection as an integral part of such learning. According to Kolb (1984), the process of learning follows a pattern or cycle consisting of four stages, one of which involves what Kolb refers to as 'reflective observation'. The stages are illustrated and summarised below: Stage 1: Experience (Kolb's "Concrete experiences") Life is full of experiences we can learn from. Whether at home or at work or out and about, there are countless opportunities for us to 'kick-start' the learning cycle. Stage 2: Reflect (Kolb's "Reflective observation") Reflection involves thinking about what we have done and experienced. Some people are naturally good at this. Others train themselves to be more deliberate about reviewing their experiences and recording them. Stage 3: Conceptualise (Kolb's "Abstract conceptualization") When we pass from thinking about our experiences to interpreting them we enter into the realm of what Kolb termed 'conceptualization'. To conceptualize is to generate a hypothesis about the meaning of our experiences. Stage 4: Plan (Kolb's "Active experimentation") In the active experimentation stage of the learning cycle we effectively 'test' the hypotheses we have adopted. Our new experiences will either support or challenge these hypotheses. To learn from our experiences it is not sufficient just to have them. This will only take us into stage 1 of the cycle. Rather, any experience has the potential to yield learning, but only if we pass