The Learning Organization

Characteristics of an Ideal Learning Organization1

1.Systems Thinking1

2.Personal Mastery2

3.Mental Models2

4.Shared Vision3

5.Team Learning3

Identifiable Behaviors4

1.The learning environment is supportive4

2.The learning practices and processes are concrete4

3.Leadership is such that it encourages learning4

Result of Behaviors5

Barriers to achievement5

1.Cultural barriers5

2.Managerial barriers5

3.Structural barriers6

Signals of Progress6

Characteristics compelling to me and the organization7

How the organization would develop these characteristics7

Barriers to development of these characteristics8

Strategies for overcoming barriers8

References10

The Learning Organization

A learning organization is one which has a growth oriented approach through continuous learning, development, transformation and improvement of its processes, operations, and people. This enhances the competitiveness of the organization in the long run, as this approach has proven to be an effective one. The concept of the Learning Organization was presented by Peter Senge in his book “The Fifth Discipline” in 1990. The focus was given on motivating people to commit to the organization in order to improve productivity and quality and lead the organization towards continuous growth.

Characteristics of an Ideal Learning Organization

A number of characteristics have been identified and highlighted for an ideal learning organization. These include the following five characteristics as outlined by (Senge, 1990) in his book:

Systems Thinking

The systems thinking model studies businesses as if they were bounded objects. This method is applied in cases where companies are being assessed and organizational performance is measured via information systems on an overall level as well as each component's individual performance. This model stresses that the presence of all the characteristics is necessary in an organization for it to be labeled as a learning organization, and absence of any of these characteristics would disqualify it from the same. But (O' Keeffe, 2002) is of the idea that these characteristics do not come all at once, rather develop over a gradual period of time.

Personal Mastery

This characteristic refers to an employee's personal commitment towards learning. An organization which has employees with quick learning and adaptability-to-change skills gains a distinct competitive advantage over an organization which does not have such employees. Development and training of staff enhances an individual's learning in an organizational context, but it should be kept in mind that learning is never imposed, and works only when the learner responds to the taught material/methods. Organizational research reveals that people get to learn new things through day-to-day incidents more than they learn from systematic and organized training and development sessions, hence the importance of inculcating a 'skill mastery' approach in routine work life. Descriptions of a learning organization portray it as the sum of all its' individuals' learning's, but a connection needs to be established for the purpose of transferring the learning so that it contributes for the betterment of the organization.

Mental Models

Mental models refer to the image of the organization that is embedded within its employees' and stakeholders' minds. It reflects how the individual perceives the organization to be and how he or she thinks the organization works and operates. For an organization to become learning one, these perceptions and structures need to be challenged to seek better-fit models that would contribute towards improvement and ...