Running head: LEARNING CULTURES AND 21ST CENTURY ORGANIZATIONS
Learning Cultures and 21st Century Organizations
Diana D. Williams
National American University
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LEARNING CULTURES AND 21ST CENTURY ORGANIZATIONS
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Learning Cultures and 21st Century Organizations
Prior to the 21st Century, organizations focused primarily on efficiency, which was
achieved to some degree through tools of organizational stability, established procedures and
standards, and environmental predictability. Today’s globalization and technological advances
have resulted in rapidly changing environments and uncertainty, creating a necessary paradigm
shift from efficiency to problem-solving. Creativity, innovation, and experimentation are the
new tools that must be employed to ensure survival and success for the new 21st- Century
organizations, introduced and called “learning organizations,” by author Peter Senge, in his book
entitled, “The Fifth Discipline: The Art and Practice of Learning Organizations” (Daft, Marcic,
2011).
The internal environment, also called the corporate culture, has served as an invisible but
stabilizing force for organizations, dating back to the classical management perspective of the
19th and early 20th Centuries, where manufacturing and employee management problems were
solved based upon certain assumptions held by managers. As those organizations grew,
developed, and became more complex, new problems arose, necessitating managers to rethink
their previously-held assumptions in order to effectively address challenges, which were slow
and gradual at that time (Daft, Marcic, 2011).
The assumptions upon which managers make decisions are the bases of corporate culture.
The concept of culture as described by Schein (2010) is abstract but observable through artifacts
and behaviors that merely reflect the shared assumptions and experiences of the organization.
Culture itself, however, is characterized by four elements: “structural stability, depth, breadth,
and patterning or integration” (Schein, 2010, p. 16). To understand the concept of culture itself,
requires understanding the implications contained within these four characteristics.
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Structural stability implies that the organizational culture is both shared by members of
the group, and a settled issue that defines the group in some way. This means that while
employees will perhaps come and go, cultural identification and assumptions remain in place
unless they are specifically targeted for change by leadership. The depth of culture refers to the
level that cultural assumptions and identifications exist. When we observe the manifestations of
cultural beliefs of an organization through artifacts and behaviors, such as slogans, annual
celebrations, and traditions, these items are not the culture itself, but only reflections of cultural
assumptions and beliefs. The assumptions and beliefs those manifestations represent are deeply
embedded within the unconscious level of the organization.
Cultural breadth is indicative of the fact that organizational culture influences every
aspect of the organization: how it accomplishes its primary tasks, how it responds and reacts to
its various environments, and its internal operations. Cultural patterning or integration refers to
the consolidation of all the various cultural elements that comprise the whole of the culture,
which resides at the deepest level of the organization. This patterning provides a sense of
organizational order that alleviates anxiety caused by uncertainty. It is this cultural order that
provides a stable foundation upon which members rely, in order to effectively cope with the dayto-day struggles of organizational life.
Globalization and the rapidity of exchange in the information age of the 21st Century, has
created new environmental demands that organizations must now embrace, such as rapid change,
unpredictability, and experimentation to solve its problems effectively. This is a direct challenge
to cultural stability, and a paradigm shift toward a new type of culture characterized by
adaptability and flexibility. Schein calls this new type of culture, the learning culture (Schein,
2010).
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The assumptions of the learning culture will be significantly different from the
assumptions of the stable culture. The learning culture will pursue a proactive approach to
solving problems through the learning process, as opposed to relying upon how things have
always been done. Solving problems will be the responsibility of all employees, and not just
management. This will require an understanding of the value of learning, and a total
commitment to “learning to learn” about all aspects of the organization and its reactions and
relationship to its external environments (Schein, 2010).
As turbulence becomes more the norm rather than the exception, the learning
organization must share and accept the assumption that even a turbulent environment can be
managed. In other words, we can learn to manage uncertainty and adaptation through the
learning process. This shared assumption of managing uncertainty and ambiguity, will be
achieved through the commitment to truth and pragmatic inquiry. This means being committed
to truth, regardless of the source of that truth. It means replacing our sacred cows with truth, and
realizing that answers may be held by unlikely people in unlikely places. This will require open
communication channels that are unrestricted but substantive, task-oriented, and above all,
truthful.
The climate of the learning organization will be optimistic and future-oriented. Rapid
changes will not allow the luxury of spending time looking back. Cultural analysis will be an
important aspect of the learning culture. Leaders and members will understand the importance
of analyzing how our cultural beliefs and values are affecting the successful completion of our
tasks (Schein, 2010).
Culture creation is accomplished through leaders and founders. The learning culture will
require leaders who not only possess vision, but also the ability to set forth clear and consistent
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beliefs and values, even as the organization changes from its traditional culture to the learning
culture. Leaders must understand the instability that will temporarily occur as new assumptions
fight to uproot and replace the old. They themselves will have to be the source of stability
during this period of transition, as members struggle with anxiety and uncertainty during the
transition. This transitional period that will be marked by turbulence and anxiety is also a part of
the learning process, as leaders themselves learn to assume their new role in the learning
organization.
Culture will continue to play its stabilizing role in the new 21st Century organizations. It
remains the underlying shared assumptions and values of the organization. It is the assumptions
that will change to meet the demands of changing environments. Stabilizing will take on new
definition such as managing uncertainty, and solving new problems in new ways. Those
organizations that are willing to abandon the traditional focus of efficiency and learn to be
problem solvers for their constituents, are those who will become the learning organizations,
who survive and succeed the many challenges of the 21st Century.
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References
Daft, R.L., Marcic, D. (2011). Understanding management 7th edition. South-Western Cengage
Learning. Mason, OH.
Schein, E.H. (2010). Organizational Culture and Leadership fourth edition. John Wiley &
Sons, Inc. San Francisco, CA.