Session 5 by Makino

Review group workplace case: compare similarities and differences and develop a table evidencing this.

According to the questionnaire that have done about our organizations, we get 12 items of learning organization scores summary, supportive learning environment and concrete learning process and practice. Then we put the different item scores into the tables of each person. From the tables we can analysis the similarities and differences of our group workplace more easily.

Concrete Learning Process and practice

	Experimentation	Information Collection	Analysis	Education and training	Information Transfer
HKUGA	50	61	66	45	57
University	50	59	77	79	63
Power Supply	54	64	60	95	70

  For the first table, we can see that Vanice's organization does well in the "Concrete learning process and practice". Her organization is the company in HK and contains not only in library level but also in company level. I think "Concrete learning process and practice" may almost depends on the scale and properties of the organization. My organization is the university in mainland China and pay less attention to the "information collection" and "Experimentation". Jack's organization is a community in HKU organized by students. So Vanice's organization may have more resources and funds supportive than Jack's and mine. 

Supportive Learning Environment

	Psychological safety	Appreciation of difference	Openness to new ideas	Time For reflection
HKUGA	86	57	71	51
University	69	50	68	51
Power Supply	60	39	54	29

The second table is about the leadership of the organization. Good leaders coach every member to achieve self-mastery, to actively look for ways to improve the organization, to take accountability for making changes, to help other members learn. Good leaders encourage experimentation, open discussion of directions needed, ideas and possibilities. The data of Jack shows that his organization has a good leadership. He told the leaders not only can always make the good decision to lead the organization but also can become learners and giving up the traditional view of driving from top. In my organization ( the university in mainland), leaders can make good decision in many times and is willing to improve the learning organization. But the leadership is lack of learning from the members such  teachers and students. Besides other factors may also have influence that my organization cannot get a that good supportive learning environment. I'm not so sure about the reasons that cause the scores of Vanice's organization's supportive learning environment. As it is near mine, I think her organization may meet the same problem as mine.

Learning Organization Scores Summary

	Leadership that reinforces learning	Learning process	Learning environment
HKUGA	83	55	66
University	65	65	59
Power Supply	80	68	45

From the last table, we can see that the scores of Jack's and Vanice's organization are almost higher than mine. I think the macro environment that we learned from class can help to explain the differences. The macro environment is the major external and uncontrollable factors that influence an organization's decision making , and affect its performance and strategies. These factors include the economic factors;demographics;legal, political, and social conditions; technological changes; and natural forces. It include competitors, changes in interest rates, changes in cultural tastes, disastrous weather,or government regulations. I think my organization pay more attention to "utilitarian' point such as the students exam results. While Jack's and Vanice's organizations can keep the good balance in learning organization.

  This is a video from youtube about Macro and Micro environment. I think it can help us to get more information about the Macro environment that I mentioned before.


References

http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/macro-environment.html

http://www.parexcellencemagazine.com/resources-and-advice/leaders-role-in-a-learning-organization.html