Learning Organization & Knowledge Management

A learning organization is an organization that can change quickly, adapting to the new rules that the market environment has created. Businesses that know how to learn and develop quickly and effectively will thrive; those that don’t will not survive. It is easy to think of newer companies like Apple and Google as being the best learning organizations. Yet, some of the best examples of organizational learning practices are found in more mature organizations, such as the U.S. military. Throughout our lives we collect tidbits of information, knowledge through what we experience, we try to apply the lesson from these experience as we grow, we are curious by nature, adventurous we are learners and for many of us the process of learning never stops.

Learning organizations today must be adequately able to readily adapt to change the mind-sets and behaviors of the people within. Although this sounds like a unified joint statement for each and every organization however, there are so many organizations that yet do not acknowledge the actual truths and current trends that illustrate particular dysfunctional behaviors that exist and occur each day. Learning organization aid and enable companies and business to run, operate, and function with efficiently. As organizations learn together, they attain knowledge, acquire skills and information and evolve at a faster rate. Culture begins to be created after learning organization are established and they are placed

There have four characteristics in the supportive learning environment: Psychological safety, appreciation of differences, openness to new ideas, and time for reflection. The four steps of learning processes: First, generation. Company need to develop and test new products or services. Second, collection. Company need to collect customers, technological and information about competitors. Third, interpretation. Through rigorous analysis to identify and solve problems. At last, dissemination of information. Company should move information into customers' hand and heads quickly and efficiently. Leadership reinforcing learning means leaders should get some feedback from employees in order to motivating employees ask and discuss problems. The authors use learning organization survey to determine the organizations. After survey, authors conclude four principles about learning organization: "Leadership alone is insufficient" - Leaders need open their minded for questioning, cogitative listening, consider a

Learning organizations also promote teamwork and cooperation and an organizational culture that encourages experimentation. The fact that the paper suggests that these five strategic building blocks and the supporting foundations are the key factors in this new organizational archetype called a learning organization. These building blocks and supporting foundations need to be present or to be implemented to have a learning capability. However, if this idea of a learning organization is to take hold in organizations and gain credence and support by practicing managers, it must also have an impact on organizational performance.

The concept of a learning organization knows its roots back to Garratt in 1987, which later on in the late 90’s was revived by Peter Senge. Senge (1990) focuses on the organization acting as a unit where innovative ideas are generated and common goals are reached. Collective commitment of the team is fundamental. Furthermore, according to Senge (1990), the organization must go through 5 domains in order to reach the productivity of a learning organization: systems thinking, personal mastery, mental models, building shared vision and team learning.

In the recent past, many organizations and consultants have continued to recognize the commercial importance of organizational learning, which has contributed to the more consideration of the concept of learning organization. Since learning organization has become a central orienting point to organizational learning, several writers have attempted to identify templates, or ideal forms for real organizations to emulate. Actually, organizational learning is basically considered as the process or activity in which organizations ultimately reach the model of a learning organization (Smith, 2001). Consequently, learning organization is a model with which organizations have to evolve to respond to the several pressures they experience. This model enables organizations to respond to pressures because it's characterized by recognition of the importance of individual and collective learning.

The organizations that will truly excel in the future will be those that discover how to tap people’s commitment and develop the capacity to learn at all levels in an organization. Deep down, people are learners. No one has to teach an infant to learn. In fact, no one has to teach infants anything. They are intrinsically inquisitive, masterful learners. Learning organizations are possible because at heart we all love to learn. Through learning we re-create ourselves and are able to do something we were never able to do earlier. Through learning we reperceive the world and our relationship to it. Through learning we extend our capacity to create, to be

According to Peter Sange, the pioneer of the fifth discipline, learning organizations are organisation in which people continually expand their capacity to learn in order to produce result which they truly desire; where innovation and new ways of thinking is encouraged; where collaborative aspiration is set free and people learn to see the big picture. (Senge, 1990)

The article provides ways to build a learning organization, and they all lead back to the organizations management, building a culture giving individuals the time to develop, reflect, share expertise and experiences, and learning from mistakes can help the organization surpass the competition, and thrive and survive the current changing environment.

In today's dynamic and unstable operating conditions of enterprises the ability to innovate is a key factor of survival and success of the organization. Innovations in this case are understood in a broad sense – it means not only to create and offer a new product, but rather the ability of the organization continually develop creative solutions to problems and challenges. In this regard, the role of intangible assets of the organization, especially the knowledge and experience, should be possessed by members of the organization. The concept of "learning organization” forms the approach to management, allowing the most efficient use of data

As the world becomes more interconnected and organization becomes more complex and dynamic, learning becomes more vital. It’s just not possible any longer to figure it out from the top and have everyone else following the orders of the grand strategist. The organizations that will truly excel in the future will be the organizations that discover how to tap people’s commitment and capacity to learn at all levels in an organization. Learning organizations are possible because, deep down, we are all learners. Learning organizations are possible because not only is it our nature to learn, but we love to learn.

“…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”.

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.

During these years, there has been an increased trend toward emphasizing on the importance of learning in organizational management, due to the managers were told that the economy has turned into a knowledge economy (Drucker, 1993 cited in Berends et. al, 2003), and that knowledge and learning “are of prime importance for creating and sustaining competitive advantage”(Nonaka, 1994 cited in Berends et. al, 2003). This great change has encouraged organization to not only adapt and acquire knowledge but also to learn how to apply what they learned into practice. Therefore, to develop organizational learning and to be learning organizations become

It focuses mainly on improving the quality of principal ideas. It relies on scientific methods, facts and figures instead of just beating around the bush to solve the problems. It uses simple statistics tools to represent data. For the control and continuous improvement, it uses a Deming management method of plan-do-check-act. This can be elaborated as establishing the objective, implementing the plan, analyzes and compare the actual result. Thus, if the plan makes sense to the organization, then final act upon it and make that plan as a new standard.