The Basic Components Of Launching Learning Organization

The management of continuous improvement and process thinking can make a difference in how organisations achieve goals, improvement and

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

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.

The pace of learning should be accelerated and training and development objectives should focus on keeping employees update with advanced and latest technology so that their knowledge doesn’t run obsolete and reduce their productivity. Learning should also focus on providing employees with knowledge of the entire system as this would help them integrate the vast business. The learning portfolio should be diversified and make use of internet to trainemployees across the globe.Training should also focus on improving customer service as the customersare the focus of every business. If customers are not satisfied with the products or the personnel of the company, the company faces the risk of losing market share.

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.

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.

Many companies emphasize a culture of continuous improvement. While never being satisfied with the status quo can drive

Building blocks learning organizations should be skilled in are 1) Systematic problem-solving: A wide range of organizations used this method worldwide since it depends on the scientific method. It starts with making an observation, gathering data/information regarding that observation to form a hypothesis. A hypothesis is a proposed description of the observation made on the available evidence (in the form of data). One of the pioneers of the quality control, W Edward Deming calls it “Plan, Do, Check, Act” cycle while others refer as “hypothesis-generating, hypothesis testing” techniques. This method outlaw’s focus on guess work or intuitive mode of problem-solving considering self-made assumptions. Although the scientific method is time taking than intuitive approach. The former leads to a high-quality solution and support effective problem-solving. One can also derive this as the fact-based management since it first collects data, analyze it, draws conclusions, and decides whether to proceed to the succeeding level or reject the hypothesis or modify to further continue. Various simple statistical tools, for instance, histogram, Pareto charts, correlations, cause and effect diagram assist in data analysis to draw results. The problem-solving method is a beneficial method when it comes to solving a complex problem. Training programs concentrate on problem-solving techniques using exercise and practical examples. Xerox has mastered this approach below. Step 1. Problem

We live in a dynamic world with constantly varying conditions and aspects that influence how we make business operations and manage resources. The varying conditions in different circumstances require a level of understanding that is made possible through learning. This essentially means that learning consistent with the varying condition is in order to stay in touch and articulate matters appropriately. Business operations cannot be expected to carry on in the similar ways as in the past with no considerations of what is happening in the modern world (Pless, 2007).

Nonaka believes that cultural knowledge, implicit knowledge and the role of an enterprise fosters the learning process of an organization. While Gavin suggests measurable indices and standard processes are indispensable to measure the learning processes to build a learning organization. He criticizes the approach of Nonaka and suggests that without a track and audit it is difficult to introduce and manage the learning culture in a corporation. Learning needs a concrete change in the behavior among people. Garvin suggests that a learning philosophy is quite ideal and lacks an operational plan to execute it. He suggests a model and presents his thought on how to advance standard operating procedure guidelines to build a learning organization. But before explaining his view, he emphasis on the need of defining a proper framework at a place to develop new ideas such that disparate idea strategies can be commensurate at a particular scale. First, he suggests a framework of the 3M’s: Meaning, Management, and Measurement. The visualization being that since ‘learning’ is an equivocal philosophy which has no quantifiable and unified approach to measuring any learning strategy. And, it also deficits a best practice to regulate a learning organization. Therefore, the preeminent issue is not to bring up these ideas, but to develop a framework to test the issues and build a new learning organization. Garvin suggests that an organization should first set up the definition what ‘learning’

Learning organization is an organization that is continually expanding its capacity to create its future. For such an organization,

Using acquired knowledge we found that redirecting the focus of the leader to address certain factors hindering his performance was critical in achieving both personal and organisational success. The A-O-R Model reflected in the spiral of experience is then introduced as the structure to provide the basis for continuous 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.