The Fifth Discipline: The Art and Practice of the Learning - Book Report/Review Example

 The Fifth Discipline: The Art and Practice of the Learning The Fifth Discipline: The Art and Practice of the Learning consists of three principal ideas as illustrated by Senge. First, the book challenges us to think of various organizations and specific missions as a multifaceted system rather than as accumulation of isolated problems. The book is a climax for the expansion of a holistic view, the way everything interacts, and the factors that act upon other factors. It is an analytical device that can identify what should be done, splitting mental habits of concentrating on the bottom line of sales incomes. Secondly, employees are powered to make up their minds locally, requiring openness, and honesty throughout the institution as standard practice, enabling them to learn and question as an individual or as a whole team, thus a subtitle of a learning organization. Finally, the work of a leader is to create an organizational system where all these can be achieved. Rather than managing all decisions centrally according to a rigid plan, a leader should develop a vision regarding where the organization should focus and then motivate employees to pursue the vision as a group with much autonomy. In his book, Senge outlines five disciplines to be mastered at every level of an organization. This includes personal mastery, mental models, shared vision, systems thinking, and team learning. The author argues that mental models are vital because they determine the way people perceive reality. As an employee of page design studio, I realize that what I observe is not reality at an ideal quality, but my view of reality, which is consistently shaped by my world perception (Senge, 1990). On Senge’s understanding, organizational perception is socially built, which he believes gives untold chance for renewal if built in an incorrect system-like fashion. To improve communication relationships with people in a particular organization, the writer recommends combining critical inquiry, dialogue, and discussion, where he means advocacy. A sensitive application of the three processes will promote greater learning and assist in reducing the prevalent learning disabilities, which the author feels are persistent within an organization. Senge’s specific slant is the significance of “systems” thoughts that he perceives as indispensable for the particular qualities that strengthen long-term institutional change. He looks at different components, then at his ultimate organization as systematically grounded partly in a holographic truth where each one represents the image as a whole from a distinct point of analysis (Senge, 1990). By use of organic integration, supporters who are able to inquire into other people’s visions give way to the likelihood of the vision to change, and to enlarge than individual visions. To him, this is the principle of the hologram, which I believe is the apogeal view underneath Senge’s prominence on systems thinking. A system view permits a reader to look beyond the surface of events to the fundamental structures of attitudes and behavior in order to obtain an advantage for constructive change that was not accessible via a concentration on specific occasions. From his reading, I am encouraged to consider archetypes by which structural predicaments are spotted at their root that consequently can beckon a suitable, though often hurting response by other members. This belief in archetypes being the real basis of organizational life is the centre of the author’s thesis (Hickman, 2009). According to Senge, the effective management concept is to avoid pushing growth and instead remove the factors hindering growth. He demonstrates this by drawing on an invasive aim of reaching the desired objective by using food consumption as a metaphor. By doing this, he helps readers evaluate the dilemmas and challenges of growth in the life of an organization arbitrated through the interaction of a broad range of external and internal forces widely related to the relations between consumption (profits) and productivity (output). Basing on the organizational theory, an organization has the ability to understand and gain insight from experiences by observation, analysis, experimentation, and a willing heart to examine failures and success. In this concept, an organization learn through individuals acting as mediators for them and also the individuals learn from organizations or are controlled by the organization’s learning system. Peter Senge clearly illustrates this notion by labeling organizations with the best opportunities to succeed and prosper are learning organizations that communicate, generate, and control their intellectual assets as organizations where people frequently expand their capacity to initiate the results they really desire (Ramage, 2009). Moreover, such organizations nurture expansive and new thinking patterns, where collective aspiration is free and people continually learn to see it wholly. This is when he catalogues their traits as shared vision, team learning, mental models, personal mastery, and systems thinking. The fifth discipline is an important book as part of a developing genre of organizational growth literature that centeres on the continous improvement theme through letting loose of a socially built, self-realization culture as the driving force of institutional life. Therefore, most of the topics, which Senge illustrate, are pervasive in the work. They provide a sufficient summary of prevailing “progressive” thoughts on various topics, which is a useful idea (Hughes, 2005). Apart from the positive side of the book, Senge fails in delivering some concepts. He does not explore the most essential structural, social, and economic limitations to the growth of an organization. Additionally, the author offers mostly the view of evolution but ignores the constraining limiting conditions and realities out of which many organizations actually function. For example, he maintains that currently, the discipline of group learning is poised for a breakthrough since people are learning how to practice (Jaworski & Senge, 2011). Maybe the reading will teach readers some concepts on team learning. In my experience, I do not see anything that leads to a break through. According to the experimental theory, knowledge is created through transforming experiences. The combination of transforming experience and grasping results to accumulation of knowledge and thus defines knowledge. Concrete experiences construct a basis for reflections and observations, which are distilled and assimilated into abstract ideas from which new applications for action can be retrieved. The author argues that one of the key functions of top leadership is to design the learning process of an organization. Working in a real work place, I had no idea of how the studio I work with was growing at such a low pace. From the work of Senge, I have experienced some noticeable change in my organizational life since I learn how to communicate with people and a course towards at a teleology of ongoing improvement remains in my thoughts. My work place will experience spectacular cultural shifts that focus towards a new culture of stewardship, collaboration, excellence, service, and self-realization from which the book points. It is more likely that many organizations will emulate the values highlighted in the fifth discipline that requires to be looked into when estimating the feasibility of Senge’s model as a practical engine of change for economic institutions. References Hickman, G. (2009). Leading Organizations: Perspectives for a New Era. New York, NY: SAGE. Hughes, J. (2005). E-learning in the workplace. London: Emerald Group Publishing. Jaworski, J., & Senge, P. (2011). Synchronicity: The inner path of leadership. Chicago: Berrett- Koehler Publishers. Ramage, M., & Shipp K. (2009). Systems Thinkers. New York: Springer. Senge, P. (1990). The fifth discipline: The art and practice of the learning organization. New York: Currency Doubleday. Read More