Learning has been considered to be the life blood of IBM, fundamental to its heritage and the success key to the future.
Individual learning is the traditional domain of human resources as it includes training, work experience and formal education. Learning by individual in an organization is a prerequisite of the organizational learning.
But, an organization with organizational learning should actively create, capture, transfer and mobilize knowledge in order to enable it to adapt it to a changing environment.
The need for organizations to continuously learn and adapt to a changing market has been central concern to organizational learning theorists. According to Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), organizational learning refers to the ways firms acquire, create, supplement and organize knowledge and routines around their competencies and adapt and develop organizational efficiency through improving the use of their core capabilities (Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, p.302)
IBM management has well promoted productive learning by instituting organizational learning mechanisms buy fostering structural, cultural, and psychological, leadership and policy facets of the multi facet norms of the learning structure. The management has enhanced organizational commitment and psychological safety among the subordinates.
IBM has transformed individual learning in to organizational learning looking at its advantages over the business performance and effectiveness. The IBM executives have high expectations and confidence on how the learning strategy should be done within the organization so as to enable IBM to develop the workforce and organizational capabilities that would produce innovative solutions for its customers.