Culture Care Technologies
  Human Resource & Organization Development Specialists in Company Culture

What is Managed Cultural Learning?

Managed cultural learning refers to the planned and facilitated learning of new shared assumptions by the existing members of an organization. The term “managed” is used to highlight the need to actively manage this type of cultural learning. The other type, the transmission of core cultural assumptions to new members, doesn’t need to be actively managed; it will occur naturally, over time, through socialization. But existing members don’t have the luxury of time when it comes to change initiatives or revised strategies. They will fail if members don’t learn the requisite new assumptions, sooner rather than later, through managed cultural learning.

Not every new strategy or change initiative requires learning at this level of culture. Many can be accommodated through learning at the behavioural level of group norms. Others require no change at either level and can be addressed exclusively through skills and knowledge training. But when new shared assumptions are required, there is no alternative to this unique learning process. Accordingly: Managed cultural learning if necessary but not necessarily managed cultural learning.