LEARNING ORGANIZATION

What we will learn

• Learning Organization Definition.

• Key functions and tasks of learning

organization.

• Characteristics of Learning organization.

• Need for Learning organization.

Learning Organization
Definition : Peter Senge
■ From The Fifth Discipline , 1990:
“…Organizations where
people continually expand their
capacity to create the results they
truly desire, where new and
expansive patterns of thinking are
nurtured, where collective
aspiration is set free, and where
people are continually learning to
learn together.”
Learning Organization
Definition : David Garvin

■ From Learning in Action,

Action 2000 :
“ A learning organization is an
organization skilled at creating,
acquiring, interpreting, transferring,
and retaining knowledge, and at
purposely modifying its behavior to
reflect new knowledge and insights.”
Learning Organization is
►the one that has developed the capacity to
adopt and change.
►the one that uses new information which
challenges accepted organizational norms and
practices…..to reexamine the way in which the
organization performs its functions, and thus
helps the organization ‘unlearn’ its previously
used dysfunctional patterns.
►the one in which people at all levels, individually
and collectively, are continually increasing their
capacity to produce results they really care
about.
Key Functions Of Learning Organization
♦ Information gathering and problem solving.

♦ Experimentation.

♦ Learning from the past.

♦ Learning best practices.

♦ Transferring knowledge.
Four Tasks Of a Learning Organization

◘ Designing learning settings.

◘ Promoting a culture of learning.

◘ Leading a learning process.

◘ Demonstrating personal investment in

learning.
Characteristics of a Learning Organization

System Thinking

Shared vision Team Learning

Senge’s
5 Disciplines

Mental Models Personal Mastery

 System Thinking
• Brief Definition :
Understanding the interconnections and
interrelationships that shape the behavior of the
systems in which we exist.
System Thinking:
• Organizations are made up of interrelated
elements that functions as a whole (i.e., a
system)
• Changes in one element or part of the system
can cause changes in other elements.
• Depending upon the effect of the change,
overall organizational performance can be
either greatly enhanced or diminished.
• Therefore managers are required to view the
structural aspects of organizational
performance rather than individual
performance.
System Thinking :
• Framework for focusing on
patterns and interrelationships.
• Involves the ability to see
interconnections between
issues, events and information
as a whole or as patterns, rather
than as a series of unconnected
parts.
• Involves adopting a holistic
approach to problem solving.
• Widens people’s perspectives.
 Personal Mastery:
• Brief Definition:
Learning to expand one’s personal capacity to
create the future and results one most desires.
Personal Mastery:
• It is the basic human need to learn , grow,
and achieve personal mastery that fuels and
provides substance to all learning
organizations.

• No organization can truly be a learning

organization without its individual members
begin free to learn.

• Employee must be taught, encouraged, and

granted permission to become creative
architects of their own work lives.

• Organizations need to encourage their

employees to continually learn and improve
their skills and abilities.
 Mental Models :
• Brief Definition:
Surfacing, clarifying, testing, and improving
one’s internal representation of the world and
understanding how these representations, along with
their accompanying implicit assumptions, shape one’s
decisions and actions.
Mental Models:
• Mental models are images, assumptions, and
beliefs that everyone carries around in their
heads.
• They include strongly held beliefs about self,
family members, employing organizations,
and the world at large which exist in the
subconscious.
• Mental models can influence employee’s
behavior in organizations substantially.
• Mental models can serve as powerful
constraints in an organization’s ability to
gain new insight and innovations.
 Shared Vision:
• Brief Definition:
Building a common sense of purpose and
commitment by developing shared images of the future
that we seek to create.
Shared vision:
• It is a critical component to organizational
success.

• Learning organization and high performing

teams can not excel or even exist without
shared vision.

• In a learning organization all workers,

regardless of their position, are invited
and provided with opportunities to create,
test, communicate. and promote the
organization’s mission.
Shared vision:
• Employees are asked to play a strategic part in
setting the goals and quality standards that
will turn their organization’s shared vision into
reality.

• Workers are also encouraged and given

assistance in setting and aligning their own
personal visions and goals with those of
organization.

• In this way, learning organizations have a

definite advantage over their competitors.
Team Learning:
• Brief Definition:
Reflecting on action as a team and transforming
collective thinking skills so that the team can develop
intelligence and ability greater than the sum of individual
member’s talents.
Team Learning:
• Team learning is the building block for
organizational learning.

• Working and sharing information among

team members is a vital element of the
learning organization.

• Team members can learn and think of

more things collectively than they can
individually.

• It is the ability of a group of individuals to

suspend personal assumptions about
each other and engage in ‘dialogue’ rather
than ‘discussion’.
Need For Learning Organization
Learning organizations are essential as ►
● Only it can survive tomorrow’s knowledge-
based economy.
● Only it can manage tomorrow’s intense global
competition.
● Only it can cope with tomorrow’s rapid fire
technological changes.
● Only it can handle tomorrow’s demanding
and fragmented market.
● Only it can build a people based work system
in a company.
Conclusion: