Lyndsay Rashman

Organizational learning and knowledge in public service organizations: A systematic review of the literature

This paper is a systematic review of the literature on organizational learning and knowledge with relevance to public service organizations. Organizational learning and knowledge are important to public sector organizations, which share complex external challenges with private organizations, but have different drivers and goals for knowledge. The evidence shows that the concepts of organizational learning and knowledge are under-researched in relation to the public sector and, importantly, this raises wider questions about the extent to which context is taken into consideration in terms of learning and knowledge more generally across all sectors. A dynamic model of organizational learning within and across organizational boundaries is developed that depends on four sets of factors: features of the source organization; features of the recipient organization; the characteristics of the relationship between organizations; and the environmental context. The review concludes, first, that defining ‘organization’ is an important element of understanding organizational learning and knowledge. Second, public organizations constitute an important, distinctive context for the study of organizational learning and knowledge. Third, there continues to be an over-reliance on the private sector as the principal source of theoretical understanding and empirical research and this is conceptually limiting for the understanding of organizational learning and knowledge. Fourth, differences as well as similarities between organizational sectors require conceptualization and research that acknowledge sector-specific aims, values and structures. Finally, it is concluded that frameworks for explaining processes of organizational learning at different levels need to be sufficiently dynamic and complex to accommodate public organizations.

Leading and learning? Knowledge transfer in the Beacon Council Scheme

This paper examines the Beacon Council Scheme as a distinct policy element within the UK government’s wide-ranging local government modernization agenda. The aim of the Beacon scheme is two-fold. First, reward for high performing councils and second, the achievement of substantial change by sharing ‘best practice’ from identified centres of excellence. The scheme presupposes an implicit theory of organizational change through learning. The Beacon Council Scheme is based on the assumption that the organizational preconditions exist which will facilitate learning, and through its application to practice, improve service delivery. The paper analyses the presumed and possible conditions which facilitate or impede interorganizational learning and service improvement through the scheme. The paper then examines empirical data from 59 local authority elected members and officers about their attitudes towards and motivation to take part in the Beacon scheme during the first year of its existence. The data indicate that there are differing motivations for participation in the scheme and that these reflect different learning needs. The experiences of local authority participants suggest that the formulators of the dissemination strategy at the heart of the scheme have not yet given sufficient consideration to the processes of interorganizational learning, the conditions that support such learning between authorities and the embedding of new understandings, practices and organizational cultures in the receiving authority. This suggests that the underlying theories of organizational learning and cultural change may be insufficiently developed to create and sustain the kind of transformational change that is intended by central government.

Evaluating the extent of inter-organizational learning and change in local authorities through the english beacon council scheme

This article examines the English Beacon Council Scheme, established by central government to reward excellence in service delivery and to disseminate good practice across local government. Using data from a national survey (N = 314) and seventy-two interviews from twelve case studies, this article examines three research questions. First, how much learning takes place at or through Beacon Council events? Second, to what extent has this learning led to implementation of service and corporate changes in local authorities? Third, what are the enablers and barriers of inter-organizational learning and change from the Beacon Council Scheme? The article demonstrates that the Beacon Council Scheme is relatively successful in sharing good practice but there is uncertainty over where the Scheme fits into the local government modernization agenda. Lessons learnt from sharing good practice in the Beacon Council Scheme may be applicable to other areas of the public sector, in the UK and beyond.

Knowledge creation and transfer in the Beacon Scheme: Improving services through sharing good practice

Abstract This article examines the extent to which processes of knowledge creation, transfer and application through sharing learning are effective in improving local public services. We examine the impact of the Beacon Scheme as a means of achieving service and corporate improvement. The research findings suggest that the acquisition of knowledge by learning network members and the transfer of learning leading to change in working practices and corporate culture is effective where the local authority culture is receptive to the impact of knowledge and where key political and managerial actors operate collaboratively. Quantitative and qualitative indicators of learning leading to service and corporate improvement are analysed. Learning through Beacons is shown to be effective but is more modest than its potential and might be enhanced in three policy areas. These are: improvement of learning links between central and local government; greater consideration of processes of knowledge acquisition and application by receivers of learning as much as disseminators of learning; greater emphasis on learning from the innovation element within the scheme.

The role of leadership in knowledge creation and transfer for organisational learning and improvement

In understanding how leadership has an impact on improvement, this chapter examines how leadership fosters and sustains knowledge creation and transfer through organisational and inter-organisational learning. The value of organisational knowledge for creating strategic advantage in firms is well established (Nahapiet and Ghoshal 1998; Nonaka 1994), but its importance for public organisations has been underemphasised in both the policy and academic literature until recently. since then, research has been undertaken in healthcare (Bate and Robert 2002; Nicolini et al. 2008) and in local government (Rashman and Hartley 2002; Hartley and Benington 2006). However, across all sectors, there has been realtively little research on the role of leadership in the creation and transfer of organisational knowledge (Lakshman 2008; Rashman et al. 2009). In this chapter, we unpack and examine the concept of knowledge and the role of leadership in organisational elarning, both conceptually and empirically.

Innovation and inter-organizational learning in the context of public service reform:

This article examines links between innovation and inter-organizational learning in the context of public service reform. The theory-building and empirical research draws on longitudinal analysis using mixed methods and multiple stakeholder respondents, set in the context of the Beacon Scheme, an instrument of UK public service reform. The research examines two questions: first, how does inter-organizational learning contribute to innovation? Second, how do changes in the approach to inter-organizational learning shape changes in the approach to innovation over time? The research on the whole of English local government (N = 388) used temporal bracketing to examine developments in three phases over nine years. The article builds theory about the inter-organizational learning underpinning innovation, and shows that the approach to innovation changed over time, shifting from learning to imitate, to learning to innovate. Points for practitioners • Innovation is underpinned by inter-organizational learning. • Organizations improved over time in their ability to acquire and use learning. • Innovation involves the sharing of tacit as well as explicit knowledge. • Over time, organizations learnt to shift from learning to imitate, to learning to innovate. • Improvement through inter-organizational learning was not uniform. Initially, differences between organizations widened as those able to acquire learning used it to improve more rapidly. • Adaptation to local context, not adoption of a single approach, is apparent but is underemphasized in public service reform. • Learning pull, not dissemination push, aids learning and improvement.