Management and Organisational Learning - Essay Example

Organisational leaders are designers, stewards and teachers and are responsible for building organisations where people continually expand their capabilities to understand complexity, clarify vision, and improve shared mental models (Senge 1990). Senge’s concept of learning organisation also described it as, “organisations 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 continually learn how to learn together,” (cited in Robbins et al 2003).

From the above definitions, it can be noted that there is a strong correlation between the ideas of the major proponents of this concept. Both of them talk about learning in an organisation with an aim of transforming that particular organisation in order to have positive growth. For instance, in this particular case, the different levels of Senge’s concept include the following, individual level which is characterised by mental models and personal mastery then group level which is followed by organisational level which is made up of systems thinking and shared vision.

Senge argues that learning organisations are innovations based on gradual convergence of all five disciplines. Learning to learn is about creativity and innovation, which is about creating positive change rather than adapting to change. This structure bears testimony that learning in an organisation is seen as something that is carefully designed with the aim of achieving particular goals. According to this definition, learning is no longer restricted to individual experience but has become teamwork which requires new and innovative ways of learning and managing performance improvement.

It can thus be seen that exchange of information is central to the process of learning organisation where it should be encouraged and nurtured for positive results in improving performance. In