Learning Organizations (Peter Senge)

The Learning organization concept was coined through the work and research of Peter Senge and his colleagues (Senge, 1994). It encourages organizations to shift to a more interconnected way of thinking. Organizations should become more like communities that employees can feel a commitment to. They will work harder for an organization they are committed to.^{[citation needed]} The environment should allow for a community of

The Fifth Discipline

Peter Senge once stated in an interview, that a learning organization is a group of people working together to collectively enhance their capacities to create results they really care about. Peter Senge popularized the concept of the learning organization through his book The Fifth Discipline. In the book, he proposed the following five disciplines :

1. Systems thinking: Organizations are a system of interrelationships. To become more successful we need to analyze these relationships and find the problems in them. This will allow an organization to eliminate the obstacles to learning
2. Personal mastery: An individual holds great importance in a learning organization. Personal development holds as much importance as commitment and work for the organization. Employees need to grow and work on their own goals.
3. Mental Models: This is the company culture and the diverse theories and mindsets that serve as a framework for the functioning of the organization. Learning organizations look for how these affect organizational development.
4. Shared Vision: A learning organization's employees all share a common vision. Personal goals must be in sync with the goals and vision of the organization.
5. Team Learning: The importance of dialogue and group discussion. For a team to learn, they must be in sync and reach agreement.

Challenges in the transformation to a Learning Organization

The book The Dance of Change states there are many reasons why an organization may have trouble transforming themselves into a learning organization. The first is that an organization does not have enough time. Employees and management may have other issues that take priority over trying to change the culture of their organization. The team may not be able to commit the time it takes.

Another problem is that an institution does not have the appropriate help or training. For an organization to be able to change, it needs to know the steps necessary and the problems that it needs to solve. As a solution, a mentor or coach who is well versed in the learning organization concept may be necessary.

Also, the change may not be relevant to the organizations needs. Time should be spent on the actual issues of the organization and its daily issues. To combat this challenge, a strategy must be built. The organization should determine what its problems are before entering into the transformation. Training should be kept linked to business results so that it is easier for employees to link it to everyday issues.

Problems Organizational Learning addresses

Some of the issues that Learning Organizations wanted to address within Institutions is fragmentation, competition and reactiveness . Fragmentation is described as breaking a problem into pieces. For example each organization has an accounting department, finance, operations, IT and marketing. Competition occurs when employees are trying to do better or "beat" others in an assignment instead of collaborating. Reactiveness occurs when an organization changes only in reaction to outside forces. Only doing an assignment because it is assigned and not continually creating. These are deeply rooted in many of today's organizations as a product of capitalism and the drive to generate more profit.

The change becoming a community and a learning organization is called a "Galilean Shift" . The organization is compared to the Galileo Galilei heliocentric revolution that changed the view that earth was the center of the universe.

Sources

• (2005). Learning Organization. A to Z of Management Concepts & Models., pp. 190–191.
• Argyris, Chris. (1999). On Organizational Learning. Massachusetts: Blackwell Publishers Inc.
• Barker, Randolph T. & Camarata, Martin R. *(1998). The role of Communication in Creating and Maintaining a Learning Organization: Preconditions, Indicators, and Disciplines, The Journal of Business Communication, 35 (4), 443-467.
• Chawla, Sarah & Renesch, John.(1995). Learning Organizations
• Fulmer, Robert M., Keys, J. Bernard. (1998). A Conversation with Peter Senge: New Developments in Organizational Learning Organizational Dynamics, 27 (2), 33-42.
• Papa, M. J., Daniels, T. D., & Spiker, B. K. (2008). Organizational Communication: Perspectives and Trends. Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications.
• Schwandt, David R., Marquardt, Michael J. (2000). Organizational Learning. Boca Raton: St.Lucie Press.
• Senge, Peter., Kleiner, Art., Ross, Richard., Roth, George., Smith, Bryan. (1999). "The Dance of Change" New York: Currency Doubleday.
• Senge, Peter M., Kleiner, Art., Roberts, Charlotte., Ross Richard B., Smith, Bryan J. (1994). The Fifth Discipline Fieldbook New York: Currency Doubleday.