Taking a Look at Learning Organization

For most companies, identifying what a learning organization should be and actually becoming one is tricky at best, impossible at worst. One way that manager's and companies can promote the concept of being a learning organization is to assess whether the company is in need of a short-term fix or whether it is more focused on long-term results. Organizational learning is a long-term activity that will build competitive advantage over time and requires sustained management attention, commitment, and effort. Learning organizations maximize their competitive positions during strong economic times and they prudently train their employees and prepare for change even in turbulent times. As a result, learning organizations and learning

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.

Just as students are learning at Post, organizations and the personnel within them need to continue to learn. Organizations need to continue to refine processes and focus on innovation. Organizational learning gives companies the ability to create, remember, and share knowledge within an organization. In order for an organization to be an effective learner they need to make it a focus on everyday work, practice it through all levels of the organization, create a focus on the creation, retention and transfer of knowledge through the organization, and solve problems where they begin, Organizational learning provides an opportunity to effect positive change throughout the organization. A company that is an organizational learner is one that is innovative, continually refining its processes and learns from its mistakes. Personal learning within an organization greatly enhances the organizations core competencies. It can be done through education and training programs. Such programs consist of schooling, training seminars, mentorships and on

I believe that Organizational learning is an area of expertise within an organizational system that studies models and philosophies about the method an organization understands and acclimates (Vasenska, 2013); Organization-wide on going logic which heightens its collective ability to accept, make sense of, and respond to internal and external change. Organizational learning is more than the totality of the intelligence understood by employees. It involves orderly

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.

Senge, P. M. (2006). The fifth discipline: The art and practice of the learning organization (Rev. ed.). New York: Currency Doubleday. ISBN:

     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.

The article selected was Managing Change Successfully by Eileen O. Brownell, President, Training Solutions. The article addresses the need to adapt to change, not only in the business world but also in one’s personal life. The world is full of change and will continue through time, requiring constant flexibility, adaptability, creativity, and optimum customer service (Brownell, 2000). Businesses need to identify with the changes and make plans for the future of the business around the change. To successfully manage change, employers must focus on the following ten steps to manage change within the organization to ensure success recommended by the author. According to Brownell, 2000.

An organization’s capability to learn and convey that learning into action quickly, is the supreme competitive advantage. The learning organization is the structure that eases the realization of such competitive advantage, it empowers employees, it deepens and enhances the customer experience and cooperation with main business partners and eventually improves business performance. Organizational learning is considered as the suitable process to develop knowledge resources and capabilities/core competencies (human capital, social capital and organizational capital) that engender ongoing values; which in turn yield persistence superior performance; which lead to sustainable competitive advantage within the context of the strategic management.

On the job education has arguably become a prime aspect of most jobs. While it’s hard to ignore the presence of organizational learning; the concept has many pros and cons which coincide with organizational initiatives. The outcomes of such changes are not guaranteed to result in a win-win situation for all parties and differ from one organization to the next. Companies need to consider an employee’s education entering the workforce, the nature of the work being performed at the time and after the organizational changes, and the current economy. External factors such as global competition, continues to affect the decisions organizations make, and the learning that occurs

‘‘Organizational learning is a concept helpful to describe some types of activity that happens in an organization while the learning organization describes a particular style of organization in and of itself and that is proficient at organizational learning.’’

Most fully the concept of learning organization can be opened with a set of characteristics possessed by the organization of this type. Since the learning organization is fundamentally different from the so-called "traditional" organizations, they are compared on a set of several parameters: the characteristics of the employee (creativity, systems thinking, expertise), organizational structure, organizational culture, leadership, empowerment of staff and authority control, communication, attitude to the conflict, group work, corporate training. It is important to give these features in details for deeper understanding of the concept “learning organization”:

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.