The Notion of a Learning Organization - Essay Example

INTRODUCTION: Learning Organization is one of the boldest theory that has been promoted by Peter Senge. He is considered one of the voices of Management. The essay below shows why he is a genius on this topic. LEARNING ORGANIZATION: According to Peter Senge, a learning organization is described as a group of people who continue to enhance their capabilities to create the things the want to create. This is very influential. There are five disciplines, according to Peter Senge, that are the main issues in a learning organizations(Senge,1990). According to Peter Senge (1990) Learning organizations are organizations where the persons inside continue to expand their capacity to create the results that we aspire to have. This is where the members engage in widening patterns of thinking. This is how they are nurtured. The group aspires to be set free. The members study how to see the entire setup together. The main thrust of the members of the learning organization is to prepare themselves for situations where there is rapid change in the work and business environment. For people in the learning organization are trained to harness their inner desire to try to survive by enticing them to give their biggest commitment and capacity to learn how to survive at all levels. According to Charles Darwin, Animals follow one general rule and that is “only the fittest will survive”. This is also what happens to in the human “rat” race. The people have their inborn capacity to learn but the environmental factors are preventing him or her from exercising the full power of learning. Examples are when people cannot afford to pay for formal education even though their intelligence quotient is very high. Due to the dynamic organizational movements, there must be a fundamental shift of mind of the organization members. The dimensions that differentiates learning organization from the traditional and even old fashioned organizations is the mastering of certain basic disciplines or component technologies. According to Peter Senge, there are only five component technologies that are converging to innovate learning .The five are Systems thinking, SYSTEMS THINKING : The fifth discipline gives a good introduction to the basic information and uses of the Fifth Discipline theory. Therefore , systems theory and the other theoretical devices are brought together to make sense of the organizational questions. In short The Fifth Discipline integrates the other sectors of the learning organizations into a coherent body of theory and practice. Therefore, systems theory has the ability to comprehend and address the whole, and to examine the interrelationship between the parts provides, for Peter Senge, both the incentive and the means to integrate the disciplines.(Senge,1990) Senge says that people tend to look at the parts when they should be looking at the whole. People thereby fail to see the entire organization as a dynamic process. Therefore a better appreciation of systems will result to a better overall effective action. Usually, when a problem arises, people tend to look at the nearest or short run solution to the problem. People learn best from experience. The better way to solve a crisis situation is the give a long range solution to the problem. A very good example is when the company spends on research and development costs, the temporary expense on research and development will succeed further than your imagination because the newly discovered products will offset the amount paid for research and development costs. PERSONAL MASTERY. According to Senge “ Topic: Personal mastery. ‘Organizations learn only through individuals who learn. Individual learning does not guarantee organizational learning. But without it no organizational learning occurs’ (Senge 1990: 139). Personal mastery is the discipline of ‘continually clarifying and deepening our personal vision, of focusing our energies, of developing patience, and of seeing reality objectively’ (ibid.: 7). It goes beyond competence and skills, although it involves them. It goes beyond spiritual opening, although it involves spiritual growth (ibid.: 141). Mastery is seen as a special kind of proficiency. It is not about dominance, but rather about calling. Vision is vocation rather than simply just a good idea.”(Senge, 1990) It is very clear from the above that the individuals form the organization and it is not the organization that forms the individual. Therefore learning organization can only survive if the people involved in the learning organization must personally master and continue to master topics that the persons within the learning organization need to use in their everyday expenses. Mastery is therefore also proficiency. There mastery is likened to a calling.(Senga) Persons who have the personal mastery have reached the stage in their lives where they translate mastery is the ability to continue in their journey of endless learning even after they have already graduated from high school or college. Personal mastery is described as something you DO NOT possess. Personal mastery therefore is a lifelong study program. These persons who are still in the unending process of personal mastery truly accept, that at the moment they are IGNORANT and INCOMPETENT in their growth areas. These “mastery” persons are very happy because Enjoy traveling on the “journey is the reward” (Senge, 1990) MENTAL MODELS. According to Senge, “These are ‘deeply ingrained assumptions, generalizations, or even pictures and images that influence how we understand the world and how we take action’ (Senge 1990: 8). As such they resemble what Donald A Schön talked about as a professional’s ‘repertoire’. We are often not that aware of the impact of such assumptions etc. on our behaviour – and, thus, a fundamental part of our task (as Schön would put it) is to develop the ability to reflect-in- and –on-action…” (Senge, 1990) How we picture the world is affected by how we were brought up. If our parents were strict to us, then there is a high probability that we will be strict to our children. When we see in the television news of drugs and violence, we picture the world as a place of violence and drugs. In fact, horror stories during our childhood days are carried over to the next generation. The question now lies, it the horror story true or not? We do not know because we have not yet seen the horror person so depicted as a villain in the movies. The Johari window is very related to this topic. There are some things a person does not know but the other person knows and so on… . (Senge 1990: 9) BUILDING SHARED VISION. Senge believes that the members of the organization must help each other in order to accomplish company goals. This makes the organization happy due to the extra and combines efforts of members of the organization. By accomplishing company goals, they will receive increases in salary. This increases in salary will make their spouses and children happy. TEAM LEARNING. The learning organization members shall be trained to be creative. In a time pressure job, each member of the organization will combine efforts so the sum of the efforts of each member will always be greater than the sum of the parts. The learning organization also creates a conducive atmosphere so that the creative learning process is hastened. The learning object is to harness every members abilities and talents to accomplish company goals. STRENGHTS: Moving the organization in the right direction entails working to transcend the sorts of internal politics and game playing that dominate traditional organizations. In other words it means fostering openness (Senge 1990: 273-286). It also involves seeking to distribute business responsibly far more widely while retaining coordination and control. Learning organizations are localized organizations (ibid.: 287-301). Learning in organization trains the members to be more open and accepting to the other members of the organization. Happiness fills the air as one single member of the entire organization helps and is helped by the other members of the learning organization. People are so excited when they are part of a team, they feel that they belong and are needed. People are so proud that they had contributed much to the success of the team thereby increasing their self esteem. They feel happy and fulfilled because they are needed. After leaving the organization many years after, they feel that once there was that UNFORGETFUL period in their life when their services had been “badly” needed a bigger group called the organization. This is when they feel they have lived life to the fullest. Some even try to recapture what had happened to them in the past and relive that “ecstatic” feeling of belongingness.(Senge, 1990) Acording to Peter Senge, “real learning gets to the heart of what it is to be human. We become able to re-create ourselves. This applies to both individuals and organizations. Thus, for a ‘learning organization it is not enough to survive. ‘”Survival learning” or what is more often termed “adaptive learning” is important – indeed it is necessary. But for a learning organization, “adaptive learning” must be joined by “generative learning”, learning that enhances our capacity to create’ ” (Senge, 1990) Being human, we are not like animals because animals only think of what to eat and to survive everyday. Whereas, humans have their “Maslow” needs. Man is not only craving for the basic needs of food, clothing and shelter, but man also strives to achieve the higher self esteem needs and other higher needs. In the learning organization man must thrive to learn not only to survive but also to create since we are belong to the higher form of animals “Homo Sapiens”. Peter Senge even goes further to say that people represent others, they will perform on the structures and systems where they are a part. The new discipline then in learning organization is for a person to shift his mindset to so that he or she will stop seeing himself or herself not only as a PART but seeing himself or herself as A WHOLE. In basketball, Michael Jordan is generally looked upon as Michael Jordan but He is known as the Chicago Bulls. People will be trained in learning organization that they are not only here in the group of other human beings to react to a given situation or predicament but the most important thing he or she will learn in the learning organization is that he or she should also create something for a better future (Senge 1990) The learning organization emphasizes on building the sharing of visions, teamwork, personal master and the development of more sophisticated mental models. Senge’s also states that he will run the theory that there must be continues dialogue in the work place. This workplace dialogue method is makes a person better and happier because in dialogue your will learn from your conversations with other people. The workplace in the organization is very lively and creative. When the fifth discipline of systematic thinking is generated, allows the members of the organization to approach a more holistic or complete understanding of the organization life. As the saying goes, “two heads is better than one”. WEAKNESSES: In the systems analysis, When the connect the dots strategy of system maps is used, Some people may be too slow to understand and do the part that they are supposed do as a necessary contributing factor to the accomplished of the whole organization’s objectives and plans. Failing also to understand systems dynamics due to one reason or another, there will be cycles of blaming others and self defense for not doing their part so that the overall performance of the organization will suffer. Some people blame others for their own fault of the given a helping hand to the group in order to survive.(Bolam & Deal, 1997) (Senge, 1990) Since members of an organizations are required to develop a capacity for work, especially overtime work, then the people in the organization have to force themselves to study new skills and develop new orientations on a different approach to tackle each business situation. There will always be resistance on some members. When one member is resistant to generate the interest needed to study the lessons then the overall goal of the company may not be accomplished in a worst case scenario or just be delayed. The internal politics and the game playing roles that some members use to cover up their hate for change will cause the non completion of company goals and regulations. Senge has been sad because many organizations have not implemented his Systems Theory or Learning Organization. The organizations today still cling to the old method of making a quick fix. This means they prefer to give thrifty solutions on a short term basis when a longer and more expensive treatment was called fore. Some companies may focus more on the brand recognition and status (klein, 2001) These companies will also try to develop intellectual capital and knowledge (Leadbeater,2000) This shows that some British companies are money or income oriented and have no time or money to spend for learning organization. The learning organization here then is not conducive to learning. CONCLUSION: Peter Senge was very bold in giving in his ideas on learning organization. The organizations today still adhere to the quick fix or short term solutions to major problems. When the emphasis is on team building, sharing of visions, personal mastery and the development of more sophisticated mental models, the workplace will be a happier place to be with. This is because each member is accepted by the other members of the organization. Each member is required to contribute his or her best talent to the organization. This contribution of personal talents and abilities for the same purpose of accomplishing the organization goals in the shortest and best possible time at the least cost to the company is the result of the systems theory of Senge. Senge states that it is more important to think of the entire organization as the priority and to stop the thought that an individual works because of individual needs alone. For example a person works in the company so he or she can receive money to buy hamburgers is a selfish motive. BIBLIOGRAPHY: O’Neill, J. (1995) ‘On schools as learning organizations. An interview with Peter Senge’ Educational Leadership, 52(7) http://www.ascd.org/readingroom/edlead/9504/oneil.html Peck, M. S. (1990) The Road Less Travelled, London: Arrow. Schultz, J. R. (1999) ‘Peter Senge: Master of change’ Executive Update Online, http://www.gwsae.org/ExecutiveUpdate/1999/June_July/CoverStory2.htm Senge, P. (1998) ‘The Practice of Innovation’, Leader to Leader 9 http://pfdf.org/leaderbooks/l2l/summer98/senge.html Senge, P. et. al. (1994) The Fifth Discipline Fieldbook: Strategies and Tools for Building a Learning Organization Senge, P., Kleiner, A., Roberts, C., Ross, R., Roth, G. and Smith, B. (1999) The Dance of Change: The Challenges of Sustaining Momentum in Learning Organizations, New York: Doubleday/Currency). Senge, P., Cambron-McCabe, N. Lucas, T., Smith, B., Dutton, J. and Kleiner, A. (2000) Schools That Learn. A Fifth Discipline Fieldbook for Educators, Parents, and Everyone Who Cares About Education, New York: Doubleday/Currency Klein, N. (2001) No Logo, London: Flamingo. Leadbeater, C. (2000) Living on Thin Air. The new economy, London: Penguin. Klein, N. (2001) No Logo, London: Flamingo. Leadbeater, C. (2000) Living on Thin Air. The new economy, London: Penguin. Read More