By Shirley J. Caruso, M.A., Human Resource Development
A learning organization is an institution or company that facilitates the learning of its members and also keeps on transforming itself. The main objective of a learning institution is to create a knowledgeable workforce by encouraging employees to share and exchange information. Modern organizations develop learning organizations in order to survive and prosper in today’s competitive business environment.
Advantages of Learning Organizations
There are a variety of advantages that are associated with learning organizations. Learning organizations create a culture that supports continual employee and help employees learn from experiment and experience. Learning organizations allow every employee to contribute to learning. An organization benefits through learning organizations because it has the potential to remain competitive through maintaining high levels of innovation, flexibility and agility. Involvement of employees helps them to gain personal satisfaction and better knowledge of customer needs. Employees are better equipped to respond to external pressure and the organization’s business image is enhanced because employees are more customer-oriented.
Challenges of Learning Organizations
Although there are many benefits gained by learning organizations, they are not without challenges. Employees need to adopt a learning culture and teamwork which can be hard to instill in an employee who does not find learning beneficial to him or does not share the same vision. Management should encourage learning that would not only be beneficial to the company but to individuals as well. Learning is also hard for large organizations because of the complex organizational structures that make communication, internal knowledge sharing and inter-employee relationships weak.
Learning Organization Theories
Peter Senge illustrates that modern learning organizations should exhibit five characteristics. These are shared vision (leaders cultivate a shared vision among people throughout the organization, as well as with stakeholders), mental models (leaders surface and challenge mental models which hinder open communication and learning in themselves and others), systems thinking (leaders foster practices, processes, and relationships that make systems thinking a normal approach to innovation and problem solving), personal mastery (leaders promote the intrinsic and extrinsic benefits of personal mastery, recognizing areas of needed growth, and being disciplined about those improvements), and team learning (leaders ensure an atmosphere where people feel safe to express their ideas and feedback across functions and levels, to harness and deeper synergy from team leaning) (Senge, 1990). Senge argues that many management problems encountered in organizations are a result of leaders who fail to see the organization as a dynamic process, and instead of focusing on it as a whole they tend to breakdown systems into individual units. Senge says that cause and effect are the best practices in organizations such that when faced with a problem the first approach involves looking for solutions.
Team learning theory is another important characteristic that suggests that learning organizations can only create and develop a team with a common goal. Senge believes that there is a noticeable growth and better results when members learn together. Team learning produces transformational leaders who believe that a higher level of thinking cannot be achieved individually. Team learning allows member to notice in advance the patterns of interaction that would undermine learning (Senge, 1990).
Learning organizations are significant in the modern world where technology and competition call for better service delivery. Learning organizations have the potential to offer better services and have better employees who are knowledgeable and skilled and can respond well to change.
Senge, P.M. 1990. The Fifth Discipline Field book: Strategies and Tools for Building a Learning Organization. London: Century Business.