Zero Learning: Case explorations of barriers to organizational learning

There has recently been much focus on organizational learning and on how a learning environment can be created to facilitate improved business practices, such as Continuous Improvement (CI) and TPM. Problems with establishing such an environment in practice have led to the identification of a number of barriers to organizational learning; however, it is not always certain that the elimination of these barriers is sufficient to (re)establish learning and improvement processes. The two cases from manufacturing organizations undergoing change processes presented in this paper suggest that the existence of learning barriers may not only inhibit on-going learning process, but also lead to a negative cycle of non-learning in the organization. The implications of a "zero learning" cycle caused by learning barriers are discussed and insights are provided as to how barriers may be resolved so as to eliminate this destructive cycle and provide renewed opportunity for learning and improvement activities.