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According to experts, learning
organizations are 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 see the whole together.
The basic rationale for such organizations is that in situations
of rapid change only those that are flexible, adaptive and
productive will excel. For this to happen, it is argued,
organizations need to ‘discover how to tap people’s commitment
and capacity to learn at all levels’
There has been much debate about what it really means to be a
learning organization. According to several management guru-s in
a learning organization at least the following conditions must
be present.
Management balance the interests of all
stakeholders---customers, employees, suppliers, the community,
and stockholders. In a learning organization, "No one group
dominates the thinking of management because it is recognized
that any one of these groups can slow down and destroy the
organization."
Management believe that their people can and will learn, and
value learning and change. It takes a certain amount of idealism
about human nature to create a learning culture.
People hold the shared belief that they have the capacity to
change their environment and that ultimately they make their own
fate. This is may be a necessary assumption for learning. After
all, if we believe that the world around us cannot be changed
anyway, what is the point of learning to learn.
The organization makes time for learning. Some "slack" time is
not only allowed but desired so that it can be used for
learning. Schein says, Lean and mean is not a good prescription
for organizational learning.
People in the organization have a shared belief that economic,
political and socio-cultural events are inter-connected and that
this is true inside the organization as well as in the
environment. There is a shared commitment to learning and
thinking systemically and to understand how things work and
especially the consequences of actions over time.
Managers and employees have a shared commitment to open and
extensive communication. The organization has spent some time
helping people develop a common vocabulary so that communication
can occur. People have a shared commitment to tell the truth.
People share the belief that trust, teamwork, coordination and
cooperation are critical for success. Individualistic
competition is not viewed as the answer to all problems.
Individual competition is perceived as the natural state and the
proper route to power and status. There is a cultural bias
toward "rugged individualism." The lone problem solver is seen
as a hero. Teamwork is view as a practical necessity but not
something that is intrinsically desirable.
Leaders acknowledge their own vulnerability and uncertainty. The
leader acts as a teacher and steward of change rather than a
charismatic decision maker. |
