The Banrock Wine and Wetland Centre Case Study Analysis

The Banrock Wine and Wetland Centre demonstrates how BRL Hardy was able to create a novel approach to marketing by integrating their environmental and social projects, which became fully realized and globally successful due to their learning culture. It was these two factors in combination which allowed the organisation to develop both their own commercial health and that of their local environment in tandem. The seemingly inevitable outcome of this ecological and marketing mixture was the development of the Banrock Wine and Wetland centre which was made in partnership with Wetland Care Australia, a non profit concerned with environmental protection and restoration. The new interpretation and marketing centre was designed to demonstrate the company’s active investment in the local environment. The centre also celebrates environmental care, sustainability, and Banrock wine products. Due to the success of this centre, the company went on to sponsor similar wetland operations in Finland, The Netherlands, and Canada with local environmental groups looking preserve wetlands in their own nations.

In this case study of the Banrock Wine and Wetland Centre, the key issues which relate to organisational behaviour are that of developing a productive learning culture as well as placing unique core values and organizational goals to give products a competitive edge in the industry to gain a competitive advantage. As far as BRL Hardy was concerned, they had to work to benefit the environment alongside their own company. This idea was especially prominent in the Banrock Wine and Wetland Centre as the catchphrase of the company became ‘good earth, fine wine’. This approach was innovative at the time as it took a perception approach to its marketing. For example, the halo effect of perceived specific characteristics in making an overall judgement of people (Thorndike, 1920). The halo effect can also be applied to organizations, as their customers can make quick judgements based on just a few characteristics of a company. In order to combat this form of prejudice, BRL Hardy allowed no room for error. They put their environmental and social corporate responsibility at the forefront of their marketing campaign. The Banrock Wine and Wetland Centre itself has more than taken this issue into account and has become the embodiment of their catchphrase itself. The company could account for assumptions of personality traits and abilities associated with classifications of social groups based on similar characteristics (Lippman, 1922). This would further help the company gain a better prospectus amongst its stakeholders.

The more multifaceted of these issues has to do with communication, human behaviour, and how upper management was able to foster the transformation of BRL Hardy into a learning organization. Although The Banrock Wine and Wetland Centre as well as BRL Hardy uses a more vertical power structure within the employee body, each employee has a direct input into the companies marketing program. Communication is key and insuring this within and between the hierarchies determines the further behaviour of the various groups of stakeholders which are tied to the company. It also is good for marketing and to keep in contact with the stakeholders intentions. Communication helps build relationships within the organisation (Argenti and Forman, 2000) it also encourages leadership (CIPD 2012), which fits in well with the organisations employee structure which focuses on self learning. The communication issues have been dealt with well, however the company could take into consideration the way in which the company asks the stakeholders to communicate.

This image shows when managers feel uncomfortable giving feedback the company should take these aspects into consideration as it may affect the efficacy of the employees when managers can give feedback in a more effective way.

Alongside the opening of the centre, BRL Hardy instituted a form of action learning to foster what they describe as a culture of adventure. Laurie J. Mullins claims that, “action learning involves a small group of learners meeting regularly to undertake a practical, organisational-based project. It is based on real work issues and designed to help develop both the manager and the organisation. Action learning involves participants working together to find solutions to actual problems and reflecting on their experiences.” (Mullins, 161)

The case study presents a ‘particular kind of learning culture’, as stated within (Willis, 56). This is whereby learning within an organisation occurs within a group; it moves its focus away from traditional teaching methods and centres itself on what an action learning based group dynamic can provide for a company. Within this case study, it is emphasised that the key aspects of an efficient working team is that they are ‘strong, open and interactive’, which then filters its way into the everyday functioning of the company. By implementing this type of learning, this means that an behaviour issues that would arise would be worked through as a group; they would be addressed and solved together, allowing for collaborative thought to take place to tackle the issue at hand. This allows for staff to have the opportunity to be able to understand the behaviour issues better as they do not have to seek constant reassurance from those in a higher position to them, allowing for employees to feel free in decision making and therefore able to better themselves.

There are two types of learning which the company fosters, as stated within the case study; adaptive and generative. The case presents the notion of adaptive learning as something which provides immense support for employees so that they are able to improve upon themselves as well as help others in the group by using the frameworks provided by the company. The other incorporated type of learning is that of generative learning; this is whereby the company envisions itself outwards of its confines and thinks along a more global scale. This type of nurturing environment as presented by the organisation would diminish any kind of behaviour issues that may be presented with staff, as it is known that jobs which allow for creative and collaborative effort between employees allow for a positive environment to thrive.

BRL Hardy’s interpretation of action learning includes promoting direct action by the staff to achieve the goals of the company without necessarily gaining the approval of their superiors. Throughout their many international offices, they trust the local staff to deal with issues which require an immediate response or decision to be made. This form of enterprise action learning which BRL Hardy has implemented does mean that mistakes can be made, but at the same time this issue has already been taken into account by those working in upper management. However, the organisation chooses not to see this as a negative and more so focuses on how this can be an integral part of bringing employees together to help solve the mistakes. This extra level of responsibility given to employees that work in countries outside of where their home office is located allows them to feel a stronger sense of connection to BRL Hardy, making them ‘vigilant on its behalf’ (Willis, 59).

The case study outlines a company which thrives on innovation and interaction amongst others, as well as placing a high value on their members of staff. Therefore, the successes that have been so evident within the company have the potential to be parallelled in other like minded organisations that place the satisfaction of their employees at the top of their list. The case shows how successful a company can be in allowing their staff to work with one another in order to solve any problems and collaborate together. Behaviour issues that are presented within these types of environments have a higher chance at being solved and worked through with the mechanisms that the case organisation has in place, providing a strong example to others in how these alternative types of learning environments can allow for the best to occur within a company.

Creativity and the ability to learn are important not just for leaders but for organizations as a whole. Action learning is a proven method for handling complicated unprecedented difficulties that may be faced in a workplace by developing the capabilities of all involved and solving the problem at hand.

Action learning unlocks creativity with the simplest tool; ‘The Question’. Whether the question was generated by curiosity or creativity, powerful questions have changed the world over the years by generating ‘How’ moments. Learning to ask the right question shifts assumptions and creates new and endless possibilities to constructive action. Therefore, questions promote creativity. Questions trigger the brain’s imagination and creative thinking skills by encouraging you to take a more exploratory approach, which tends to foster a whole new set of insights; and this is where action learning coaching/teaching is essential.

Action learning can be seen as an alternative model of the ‘learning organisation’ (Morris, 1991). Action learning groups however, is based on Reg Revans life-long work, where he states that the groups should comprise of about five to eight people, more often than not, this would be an already existing team in the workplace. The team leader, who would be the assigned action learning coach, helps the team be disciplined by digging in with powerful questions and learn to work as a high performing, results driven team. Action learning improves the business by empowering people (colleagues at said organisation), to unearth creative actionable solutions to complex problems as well as improves team performance through shared responsibility and accountability.

A case study was carried out in a private hospital with the capacity of 250 beds and about 400 full time staff. The study was not to measure ‘broad or balanced performance indicators’ of the hospital’s organisational performance but it was an effective way to measure behavioural changes. In the hospital, there were 27 different ways to measure performance; nurses had their performance measurement instrument, managers had theirs and so on. No general policy had been implemented in relation to performance management, these in turn had nearly no connection to the strategic plans or goals of the hospital as an organization.

Garvin (1994), shed some light on the steps to take when wanting to implement action learning into the workplace. The first step is cognitive; the second stage is behavioral changes; the third stage is effective improvement in organisational performance.

It is important for all levels of staff to participate, managers especially as they play a very vital role in the creation of knowledge as they are viewed as being responsible for the introduction and implementation of change in the organisation (Carlopio, Andrewartha, and Armstrong, 2001). When managers are not involved in the learning process, “it leads to organizational and business problems that are difficult to resolve” (Hale and Bowerman, 2016).

Workplace learning can be implemented in stages that will slowly increase in number of staff in the organisation with each cycle of change. The method that was used for implementation was one that sought to establish a connection between the managers and the direction of the company as well as maximum learning. Upon completion of the skill building sessions, the managers were then introduced to the concept of action learning and then moved into workshops that would help them implement action learning in their day-to-day activities.

Managers would then go ahead to pick one of three learning plans, and were only allowed to implement the action learning plan when they were completely comfortable with it. The cycle of implementing it into the workplace then followed in small teams, once that team was comfortable, the next cycle would involve a larger group of people undertaking the new implementation. After 12 months, there was a review of the new learning plans and performance management system that was implemented, the results were both qualitative and quantitative as well as highly positive in favor of action learning’s beneficial outcomes.

The Banrock Wine and Wetland Centre is an outstanding example of how action learning and innovative marketing can benefit an organisation's commercial gains as well as its view within the public eye. We can see from the empirical evidence above that not only does action learning benefit this particular business but it can also work in other contexts given that it is done correctly. If one were to learn from this example, it would be best that they keep in mind that each step BRL Hardy took was intricately planned and customized in order to best fit their company’s values and goals.