and contextual realities of their learners. It turns out that these factors are just as important for learners in the workplace as they are for learners in any other setting.
Meyer (2009) suggests that these sorts of approaches to education (and, particularly, the absence of a focus on meaning-making) are prevalent throughout organizational environments. She asks the central question of how transformative learning can take root there, arguing that few organizations envision themselves as primary learning environments, and that the various goals of corporations often mean they’re accountable to many stakeholders, negotiating competing interests (p. 43).
Many researchers questions the role of transformative learning, and why researchers would even attempt to overlay this framework in such a historically inhospitable environment. For her part, Meyer (2009) concludes that organizations may greatly benefit from the emancipatory benefits of transformative learning. In doing so, she writes that certain factors are important for paving the way for transformative learning, but that actualizing these concepts may be more difficult (p. 50):
Trust, safety, democracy, and mediation of power and authority are some of the most often cited characteristics of learning space that create room for transformation. These are supported by my own research and are based on my findings; I add relational learning and time to these dimensions. Although practitioners cannot ensure the realization of
Transformative learning is basically changing the way one thinks, feels, acts, and sees life now, as opposed to the past. It can have a small or huge impact on the way they see different aspects of their life. The four stages of the transformative learning process are: Recognizing a specific problem – this is when one would decide if there is a need for change. They would recognize that there is a problem and specifically what it is. Confronting the problem intensely – They would then avoid apprehension and immediately confront the problem, while remembering to consider all possible solutions.
There are many models of leadership that exist across a range of fields (e.g. social work, education, psychology, business, etc.). The ability to transform an organization successfully requires a different set of attitudes and skills. Transformational leadership is an approach where a leader utilizes inspiration, charisma, individualized attention, and intellectual stimulation with their employees (Iachini, Cross, & Freedman, 2015, p. 651). Transformational leadership helps to clarify organizational vision, inspires employees to attain objectives, empowers employees, encourages employees to take risks, and advocates the seeking of alternative solutions to challenges in the workplace (Transformational Leadership, 2015). It allows the leader to engage and motivate each follower identify with the organization’s values and goals.
Cummings, T. G.; and Worley, C. G. (2015). Organization Development and Change, (10th Ed). Mason, OH. Cengage Learning.
Caldwell, C., Dixon, R., Floyd, L., Chaudoin, J., Post, J., & Cheokas, G. (2012). Transformative Leadership: Achieving Unparalleled Excellence. Journal Of Business Ethics, 109(2), 175-187. Retrieved from:
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
Many companies are very keen and ready to clinch Work Base Learning in an organization, not mainly because it provide you with lifelong learning, but also it is an important ingredient of what Senge (1990) has termed as the ‘learning organization’. A learning organization is a place in which the learning and flair of persons is backed and promoted so that the organization itself be able to form its future and it also very important to gain competitive advantage.
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 transformative leader is a leader who can bring about influential change in others. These leaders not only transform essential change, they change the way we think and act. Transformative leaders create practices and processes in organizations proactively. In addition, transformative leaders can be found at different levels in an organization. They can hold the title ranging from supervisor to executive director. This essay primarily focuses on the challenges faced by the Training & Development (T&D) Specialist, who is capable of
The purpose of this paper is to analyze a sustained change my organization had after a significant change we encountered when Pearson acquired Embanet Compass Knowledge Group. I work as a Program Coordinator and in this paper we will review the resistance encountered during the change process, analyze the response to this resistance and the sustained change. In this analysis, I will incorporate the view of Jaclyn Kleinaitis, a Lead Instructional Designer within the organization and the person I interview to provide insight of the organization.
Batool, H., & Riaz, S. (2011). Factors for making an organization ‘a learning organization’. Retrieved on August 26, 2011, from http://www.trikal.org/ictbm11/pdf/OB/D1132-done.pdf
The landscaping of today’s organization require leaders to leverage change inititatives and workers creativity as their most valuable asset. Wokers are more opt to embrace open-communication, innovative ideas, empowerment, and even risk tolorant. As society continue to advanced, businesses will continue to create an environment where workers are allowed to increase their individual outputs, to strive for initiatives that increases the organization competitive advantage. Singh (2016) defines learning organizations as those organizations that encourages collaborative atmospheres, They involve teams in the daily operations of the business, and they believe in doing the right thing for people and the community in hoping of increasing satisfaction
Primarily, the research attempted to approach the subject of differentiating the position and stages of the organizational learning based on the discourse and the current paradigm shift in discourse: pre-modern, modern, and postmodern. The authors associated learning organization with economic growth and evolution while explaining how the learning activity was implemented based on obligated behaviors. These artificially imposed values inhibited personal growth and identity as they related to workplace learning and identity. The purpose of this study was to understand the relationship between organizational frame and workplace learning. The issue identified was the presence of conflict that enveloped the two different yet equally important areas of an organization: human resource and management. In essence, the problem was based on the theory that change to the type of work required in forward moving organizational environments necessitated professional development and engaged learning from a mirrored styled discourse or training activities.
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,
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.
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.