CorpU Weekly Digest: Social Learning (2012-May-28)

Topics: Social Learning

Here are this past week's headlines in social learning: 

• Risk aversion, reluctance to ask for help, and social learning: breaking down psychological barriers to produce better results ; 
• Books: Managing Corporate Values in Diverse National Cultures: The Challenge of Differences and Systems of Innovation: Technologies, Institutions and Organization ;  
• Webinars ; 
• Conferences

 Risk aversion, reluctance to ask for help, and social learning: breaking down psychological barriers to produce better results.
In a series of experiments, MIT Professor Tom Allen found that people are more likely to look outside their own organization for ideas, while at the same time these ideas sourced from outside are less useful than those sourced from inside the organization. The paradox is described succinctly by Allen, "Those information sources that reward the user by contributing more to his performance are used less than those that do not." Individuals reaching out to their network, reading the literature, attending conferences to seek information and ideas, while in the organization there exist a rich, untapped resource of people and ideas. It is essential to take new knowledge and information into an organization. Most of the time, however, we should also look to our colleagues if we want to achieve superior results. The paradox can be explained when the decision process of the information seeker is examined in more detail. Gerstberger and Allen examined the cost, as well as the benefits, to be expected from an information source. Asking a colleague was perceived as high cost, as it was an admission that you needed help, didn’t understand something you may have been expected to know and the risk of losing face was perceived to be high. By contrast, seeking information from outside was perceived as low cost. This risk aversion is a common finding in the psychology of decision making and helps explain the apparent paradox described by Allen. His advice to management is to increase the number of acquaintanceships within the organization. He recommends an active program of transfers of personnel between different parts of the organization and also support for cross functional projects where acquaintances can form. There is a lot of discussion at the moment in learning and development circles about social learning and it means different things to different people.  Company social networks can contribute to social learning by building acquaintances and lowering the perceived cost of consulting colleagues on important work related tasks, leading to better outcomes and higher performance. Read HRZONE review "Blog: Does social learning really work?"

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 The Business of Learning: New Major Products, Mergers, Acquisitions, and Partnerships

No major news in mergers, acquisitions, or product releases.

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 Books To Read

How should a Western company manage cross-culturally corporate values in its foreign subsidiaries? Do these values make sense everywhere and can they assumed to be universal or, on the contrary, are they culturally Western specific? In the book Managing Corporate Values in Diverse National Cultures: The Challenge of Differences (to be released on July 10, 2012), Philippe d'Iribarne provides answers to these timely and urgent questions, based on research carried out in the subsidiaries of a leading global company, Lafarge, in the contrasting cultural environments of China, the United States, France and Jordan. It appears that, in a large part of the world, people's expectations are similar: they expect from a good employer, clear and decisive leadership, and fair and compassionate treatment, helping them lead a good life. But treating these expectations as the 'same' could be misleading. Western companies with a humanistic orientation are well positioned to fulfill them, provided they are willing, in each and every geography, to take into account the local vision of the right way to achieve a good life. Buy now

The systems-of-innovation approach is considered by many to be a useful analytical approach for better understanding innovation processes as well as the production and distribution of knowledge in the economy. It is an appropriate framework for the empirical study of innovations in their contexts and is relevant for policy makers. This text, now available in paperback, is the result of the work within an international inter-disciplinary network or "working seminar" with the task of building a more solid and sophisticated conceptual and theoretical foundation for the continued study of innovations in a systemic context. The book Systems of Innovation: Technologies, Institutions and Organizations has three parts. The first presents an overview and tries to work out some conceptual problems. In the second, the system of innovation approach is related to innovation theory. Part three is devoted to increasing understanding of the functioning and dynamics of systems of innovation. There is also an introduction where the genesis and anatomy of different systems of innovation approaches are discussed and where the systems of innovation approach is characterized in nine dimensions. Written by well-respected Charles Edquist, professor at Lund university, Sweden, the book offers a solid grounding in this approach to systematizing innovation in organizations. Buy Now

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 Webinars 

Techtonic Shift in HR technology (Online Conference)
Date: Tuesday - Wednesday, June 5 and 6, 2012
Presenter: Jason Averbook (Knowledge Infusion) and Naomi Bloom (Bloom and Wallace) Register now

Social Learning: Develop Your Strategy
Date: Jun 19, 2012 - 10:00am PST / 1:00pm EST
Presenter: Taleo Register now

Gamify Your Training: Use Gamification to Increase Employee Engagement and Improve Feedback
Date: Thursday, August 2, 2012, 1pm ET
Presenter: Greg Greunke, President, Tuzooni & Greunke Register now

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 Conferences

National Institute on the Assessment of Adult Learning
Date: June 6-8, 2012
Location: Atlantic City, NJ, USA Register now

2012 International Conference on Knowledge and Education Technology
Date: June 7-8, 2012
Location: Paris, France Register now

Leading Across Generations: Workforce Challenges and Opportunities
Date: June 13-15, 2012
Location: Berlin, Germany Register now

The Talent Management Summit
Date: June 14, 2012
Location: London, UK Register now

Gamification Summit
Date: June 19-21, 2012
Location: San Francisco, CA, USA Register now

2012 ICOI The International Conference of Organizational Innovation
Date: July 10-12, 2012
Location: Indonesia Register now

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