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Organization and learning

NAV is a large and complex organization with a complicated and partially opposed work assignment. At the same time, NAV is an open system that must deal with challenging environments and a large and complex user group, where the needs are constantly changing.

Important developments are demographic changes. There will be fewer young people compared to the elderly, while the elderly live longer. An increasing proportion of NAV's users have different ethnic and cultural origins, and many immigrants have a weak attachment to the labour market. This also includes poor finances and a lack of inclusion in society.

Technological and economic development means that the thresholds for entering the labour market will be higher, with greater demands on competence and performance. This means that more people need help to qualify for work. Developments in the labour market are also one of the reasons for the increasing number of disability benefits. Social dumping and work-life crime pose new challenges for NAV.

When tasks and working conditions change, NAV must also be changed. New challenges and new solutions require new ways of working and new competence, both at the individual, group and system level. This means that organisational learning must be facilitated.

A learning organization can be defined as follows: ".. an organisation that facilitates the learning of all its members and continuously transforms itself" (Pedler et al 1991:1). Based on this, one can formulate two objectives for NAV's work on learning:

• To facilitate continuous further development of the employees' competence – knowledge, skills and attitudes – both as individuals and as team players, so that they are equipped to do the best possible job.
• Developing NAV as a knowledge system, where experience harvesting, analysis, new knowledge and conscious efforts contribute to the organization's development.

The objective of the programme area is to contribute to the development of NAV as a learning organisation. The collaboration will particularly include two key topics:

• Analyses and condition mapping: How is the situation in NAV with regard to learning needs, learning culture and learning practice, at the individual, group and system level?

• Experimental activities and evaluation: Particularly important is how knowledge about organizational learning can be translated into practical action. NAV also implements several development measures where it is relevant for NTNU to assist with evaluation.   

For NTNU, it will be crucial to achieve research collaboration that includes several disciplines, particularly in the areas of organizational research, organizational development and pedagogy.