The Fifth Discipline Summary

1. System Thinking: System thinking is nothing but instead of focusing on only one particular issue, we have to analyze and try to understand the entire system on the whole. With this kind of analyzation, we can easily find a solution to the problem as the problems are not confined to only a particular area or time. We might find a solution for a particular issue, somewhere in the whole system by analyzing the entire system completely. We should try to relate the actions and the consequences on the whole as the issues occur at different time levels, not confined to only one particular time level. We have to have knowledge of the relation between different departments of an organization and the relation between them and the functionality between the departments as to how they are related in an organization. We generally focus on only one particular issue rather than seeing the bug picture and that shouldn’t be done. In system thinking we analyze the big picture.

Management of Personnel is crucial to work environment because one must possess the power to motivate, develop, and direct others as they work. Also, retain the ability to identify the best individual for the job.

As companies continue to try to come up with a plan for remaining profitable, some are overlooking one of their best opportunities due to their short sightedness and obsession for short term gain. It is the very asset which most firms claim is their most important and the one which provides them their competitive advantage. It is also, in some companies, the asset which is most mistreated and neglected as it is the most costly. It is the company’s employees. I don’t know of any company which would not state that employees and their knowledge of the company, its products and services, processes,

Complex organizations can offer different challenges while trying to move toward the same collective goal. In terms of the education industry we will consider all the stakeholders involved to be our organization at hand. Lee G. Bolman and Terrence E. Deal in their book, Reframing Organizations (2008) point out that, “complex organizations [have] made most human activities

Effective systems thinking can help improve complex organizations and meet the three above challenges. According to the Laws of the Fifth Discipline, systems thinking can help speed up decision making by giving insight on problems (Cathon, 2000). Specifically, personal mastery is honest reflection and evaluation that identifies needs that contribute to the achievement of organizational goals. This can also help with conflicts by being honest with ourselves and having a shared vision with the organization. Next, conflicts can be resolved better because systems thinking allows a network of groups and individuals to work as a family (Meadows, 2008). Finally, competitive organizations know how to learn and understand all

This course covered many important topics helpful in understanding learning organizations. This paper will incorporate real-life situations from my organization, The American Red Cross. It will focus on three areas I found to be most helpful and relevant to my experience which is the understanding of systems thinking, growth, and the need to practice reflection.

1. What are the main themes of the Fifth Discipline? What are these five disciplines? How you describe and explain these disciplines.

Throughout our final semester of study at Maryville, our cohort has studied Peter Senge’s, The Fifth Discipline: The Art and Practice of the Learning Organization. Rather than set of management practices, the book describes how organizations, especially those that are sustainably competitive, know how to learn. These “learning organizations” are continuously learning how to work together, where the norm is producing their best. In the book, Senge identifies five essential elements, that when practiced together, create perfect conditions for an effective learning organization. These five practices are Personal Mastery, Mental Models, Shared Vision,

     In his book The Fifth Discipline, Peter Senge emphasizes his model of a "learning organization," which he defines as "an organization that is continually expanding its capacity to create its future." A learning organization excels at both adaptive learning and generative learning.

Personal Mastery – It begins "by getting the opportunity to be centered around enduring learning," and is the significant establishment of a learning affiliation. Singular Mastery incorporates being more viable, focusing on transforming into the best individual, and trying a sentiment obligation and enthusiasm in our jobs to support the affirmation of potential.

Organizations that strive to excel in aspects of innovation, competitiveness, and performance must have clearly defined core values that are executed by specific learning disciplines (Senge, 2010). Giesecke and McNeil (2004) stated, "A learning organization is an organization skilled at creating, acquiring, and transferring knowledge and at modifying its behavior to reflect new knowledge and insights" (p. 55). In the pursuit of defining specific practices that would produce an ideal learning organization, Senge (2008) proposes five disciplines that include, "...systems thinking, mental models, personal mastery, shared vision, and dialogue" (p. 1). In this application paper I will analyze each of the five disciplines discussed by Senge (2008) and discuss how they can be applied in an organization such as the high school where I am currently teaching to address specific areas in need of improvement.

People are the key to business success. However nowadays of business this is often neglected and people are seen to be a necessary expense. A successful business does not just rely on a person’s power instead it involves continuous effective teamwork and communication. Storey (1995) defines that human resource management is an individual approach to employment management which seeks to achieve competitive advantage through the strategic deployment of a highly committed and capable workforce, using an integrated array of cultural, structural and personnel techniques.

Human Resources constitute as one of the most imperative components of any organization, be it small scale business or a large conglomerate. Some of the key functions of the Human

Peter Senge argues that not only we humans learn, but organizations also. However, learning itself may not be enough for the organization to survive in this ever-challenging era. In his book, The Fifth Discipline, Senge introduced five ‘disciplines’, namely systems thinking, personal mastery, mental models, building shared vision, and team learning, that characterizes an organization as a learning organization.

Human Resource Management (HRM) can be described as “the comprehensive set of managerial activities and tasks concerned with developing and maintaining qualified workforce human resources in ways that contribute to organizational effectiveness” (Denisi/Griffin, 2014,p.4). Today the role of human resource management is considered to be critical because people are a valuable source for any organization competitive advantage. The human resource management operation demand enthusiastic committed, professionals, who are able to balance constitutional and humane concerns with the requirements of the organization to survive and be profitable.