The Expectation of Conformity Implied in Organizational Learning Is A Threat To The Free Will of Individuals? Should Managers Favor Organizational Learning or Individual Learning for Their Employees?

 The Expectation of Conformity Implied in Organizational Learning Is A Threat To The Free Will of Individuals?

To answer this question, we have to understand what is "free will" first. Based on my research, there are two views of free will, libertarians and determinism. According to libertarians, free will is based on the principle of alternate possibilities which means that an action is free only if a person doing a thing could have done otherwise. In brief, truly free actions require options. However, determinism doesn't allow options. It holds that every event is caused by previous events which means that a person can never have done anything other than what they did, and therefore the person is never free. In my opinion, free will is the capacity of agents to choose between different possible courses of action unimpeded. It is somewhat closer to libertarianism, even though it runs counter to what we know about the world with one thing causing another.

So, the expectation of conformity implied in organizational learning is a threat to the free will of individuals? Back to the moment when a person decided to join a company, are they forced or threatened? Most of them "choose" to apply for a job depending on their skills or interests, although they can be either for the paycheck or a better career. So, this is quite a libertarianism since they have options to join other companies. However, at some level, joining a company can mean you are not free because you need a job to feed yourself and your family if you don't have other income sources. 

To summarize, I reckon that the expectation of conformity implied in organizational learning can be both a threat to free will and also a benefit to free will. Before or after we join an organization, we always have options. We can either be in conformity with organizational learning or quit. However, when people think of the results of conformity or resistance, they act differently. Depending on their mental strength, the environment, or many other factors, they can feel free or stressed. Therefore, it can be either free or not free, from case to case.

Should Managers Favor Organizational Learning or Individual Learning for Their Employees? 

For effective organizational learning in the long term, both the processes and the environment are required. However, the processes and environment are constructed by each employee or individual piece by piece. If managers only favor one of them(organizational or individual), it would be like a powerful machine without fuel in its tank. I believe the key factors between the two are spread and keep. Spread the experience and information for members in an organization to learn. Keep the results for the long-term growth and its new blood. 

Reference

Libertarianism.org. (n.d.). Retrieved October 7, 2022, from https://www.libertarianism.org/what-is-a-libertarian