BARRIERS TO LEARNING IN MILITARY INSTITUTIONS: A QUALITATIVE PERSPECTIVE

A rigid, traditional, hierarchical organizational structure, typical of many military organizations is no longer seen as effective in terms of anticipating and responding to fast moving changes in the external environment in the modern era. Such structures leave decision-making and directives largely in the hands of a few individuals at the top of the organizational pyramid which is not conducive to the rapid and seamless implementation of policies and strategies in response to changing circumstances. Military organizations stand to benefit if they endorse some of the organizational learning approaches adopted by learning organizations which are better equipped to deal with change. This paper limits itself to looking at the various structural and behavioral characteristics identified in a particular military organization that are deemed to act as impediments to organizational learning and which stand in the way of its potential transition to a learning organization. An examination of these obstacles forms an important part of a wider qualitative, single-case, descriptive study which set out to determine how this particular military organization could turn itself into a learning organization. The study looked at various aspects of organizational learning within the case organization in order to determine the extent to which these corresponded to the way learning is promoted and managed within learning organizations and to identify a transformational pathway towards becoming a learning organization. Data was collected from a document review, observations blended with informal conversations and via in-depth interviews. The findings outlined in this paper highlight the ways in which the case organization was not functioning as a learning organization and identified the kind of transformational policies that need to be put in place