The Linkages Between Learning Orientation, Knowledge Assets, and HR Practices in Professional Servic

Swart and Kinnie (2010) report findings of a study conducted on a diverse range of sixteen professional service firms from the UK and US that included law firms, management consultants, software development companies, and advertising agencies. Conceptually their paper focuses on the links between a firms’ learning orientation, the types of knowledge assets needed to sustain it, and the type of HR practices which help facilitate the links. In the paper they define organizational learning as involving both the refinement and the renewal of organizational knowledge.

In doing this they develop a conceptual framework which distinguishes between four separate learning orientations. The learning orientation framework they develop is based on two key dimensions, the mode of learning undertaken by an organization and the temporal frame in which learning and knowledge creation required, occurs. With respect to the mode of learning they differentiate between exploration-based learning and exploitation-based learning (see Chapter 6). While exploitation-based learning concerns incremental innovation related to the development of an organization’s existing knowledge, services, and products, exploration-based learning concerns development of new knowledge, products, and services. With respect to the temporal frame they differentiate between accelerated timescales, where learning has to be undertaken quickly in short timescales, and planned timescales, which are more long-term. When these two dimensions are linked, four different learning orientations are created.

For each learning orientation Swart and Kinnie examine the type of knowledge assets necessary to sustain them and the type of HR practices that facilitate them. Constraints of space mean that it is impossible to examine all the links between these variables for all four learning orientations. Thus, only two are examined here.

First, the creative combination learning orientation combines an accelerated timescale with exploration-based learning. This type of learning thus involves and underpins the creation of new products or services in short timescales. A specific example of the need for this learning orientation was created within one advertising agency where a client gave the company a week to develop a brief to highlight the music-playing potential of a mobile phone. In terms of knowledge assets, Swart and Kinnie found this learning orientation required a combination of creativity, experimentation, and quick adaptability of ideas. Further, they found that these knowledge assets were facilitated by a range of different HR practices. First, to facilitate creativity and experimentation, recruitment and selection processes need to emphasize these skills. Second, to facilitate quick adaptability they argued that people need to work with a range of different clients who have their own unique specific demands, which can be facilitated by regularly rotating people between different projects, or getting people to work on different projects simultaneously. Finally, to facilitate and support people’s efforts to be creative and experimental, organizations need to have cultures which encourage risk-taking and which don’t automatically punish failure

Second, another learning orientation examined by Swart and Kinnie is labelled expert solutions. In contrast to creative combination, this learning orientation links exploitation-based learning with planned timescales. This type of learning is quite different from creative combination, and concerns the incremental development of existing products and services for established clients over long-term timescales. An example of this mode of learning was found in law firms where well-established procedures were utilized for personal injury or employment law cases. For this learning orientation Swart and Kinnie found that people needed good client capital (knowledge of and relationships with clients and their needs), procedure-based organizational capital, where people had a good knowledge of established procedures, and project-based knowledge, where people have experience working on long-term projects. Swart and Kinnie found a range of HR practices that facilitated these knowledge assets. For example, one way of developing good client capital was through the recruitment of staff from clients, which not only gave firms good knowledge of their clients’ needs and expectations, but also gave them people with good social capital within client firms. Second, procedure-based knowledge was found to be facilitated by a combination of on-the-job training and one-to-one coaching.

While Swart and Kinnie identified four specific learning orientations they do not argue that companies typically only utilize one. Instead they argue that all companies examined were required to utilize a range of learning orientations, and had to be flexible and adaptable in utilizing the appropriate learning orientation at the appropriate time.

Reflect on the following question to formulate your paper: Given that each learning orientation is linked to a particular timescale and that different modes of learning require the use of different knowledge assets, which are facilitated by different HR practices, how challenging is it likely to be for any organization to utilize more than one learning orientation and to flexibly switch between them when appropriate?