Behavioral+and+Cognitive+Change

//Behavioral and Cognitive Change//
 * Organizational learning at its best involves both //behavioral and cognitive change,// (double-loop learning).**
 * Double loop learning particularly appropriate in organizations with complex and unpredictable environments and in those that perform intensive non-routine work, (Rait, 1995).

Video
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So you can probably get an idea of the type of movies I am a fan of. The above clip is from 1994 movie //Renaissance Man// starring Danny DeVito and Gregory Hines. The story is about a business man, (DeVito), who takes a job teaching Shakesperean literature to a small group of misfit soldiers during basic training. The drill sergeant, (Hines), is convinced that this unintelligent bunch of soldiers is unteachable, and their deficiencies in learning will prevent them from being good soldiers. Through teaching them literature DeVito manages to inspire the misfits to negotiate meaning in their training as soldiers with understanding historical literature. According to Wenger (1998), //Organization, Learning and Practice (p.249):// Building learning communities and trainning newcomers are twin goals- not merely compatible, but complimentary...This approach suggests the following set of guidelines. Wenger's theories on negotiated meaning support Collinson and Cook's assertions about behavioral and cognitive change.
 * 1) Construe learning as a process of participation, whether for new comers or old-timers.
 * 2) Place the emphasis on learning, rather than teaching, by finding leverage points to build on learning opportunities offered by practice.
 * 3) Engage communities in the design of their practiceas a place of learning.
 * 4) Give communities access to the resources they need to negotiate their connections with other practices and their relation within the organization.

The soldiers in the video clip are certainly in "complex and unpredictable environments" (Collinson and Cook, 2007), and are struggling with creating cognitive and behavioral change to how their struggles as learners before enlisting have carried over to their careers in the military. By immersing themselves into the military culture and its strict adherence to routines, they are able to negotiate meaning in the literature they are studying. Accepting this duel role as academic students and soldiers the group is able to create an identity for themselves in this new environment. The beginning of the movie sets the misfits as having a peripheral trajectory but as the new learning takes place they soon become full participants with a greater understanding of what it means to be soldiers through the study of literature.

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