The Learning Organization
The notion of a learning organization has been familiar to business organizations for decades.
Some evidence shows that organizations that apply the LO concept can keep moving ahead of
change.
Therefore, it has been proposed that becoming an LO is an opportunity for organizations not
only to gain a competitive advantage in an unstable business environment, but also to keep
ahead of the dramatic rapidity of change (Stata 1989; Senge 1990a; Hedgetts et al. 1994; Hitt
1995).
What is the Learning Organization ?
Senge
Organizations where people continually expand their capacity to
create 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 how to learn together.
Pedlar
An organization which facilitates the learning of all its members
and continuously transforms itself.
Jamali, Khoury, &
Shayoun (2006)
A type of organization that promotes continual organizational
renewal by weaving/embedding a set of core processes that
nurture a positive propensity to learn, adapt, and change.
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What is the Organizational Learning ?
Argrys and Schon
is under Organizational Theory which focuses and studies on the
manners and ways organizations adapt and learns. This is a facet of
Organizational Development because Organizational Learning is the
interaction that takes place within the individual members of the
company.
Finger and Brand
(1999)
is the activity and process by which the organization eventually
reaches the ideal Learning Organization. You can view how an
organization learns cognitively as a whole, or community based
within specific networks within the system.
DIMENSIONS OF THE LEARNING ORGANIZATION
 Individual Level:
The learning organization is a place of continuous learning & Learning
becomes a conditioned reflex, a habit.
 Group Level:
Teams are encouraged to reflect on how they work, not only so that
accomplishments can be celebrated but so that needed improvements
can be introduced.
 Organizational Level:
At the level of the organization, learning organizations connect
learning to organizational transformation; that is to say, learning is
about developing the organization itself.
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Types of Learning in organization:
The literature on the learning organization often distinguishes two types of
learning:
Corrective Learning
Transformational Learning
Single-loop learning
Double-loop learning
Focuses on identifying and
correcting errors of one kind or
another, with the intent
naturally of correcting these
errors and introducing
improvements
A form of learning that
questions the norms,
procedures, practices, processes,
systems, and structures that
corrective learning takes for
granted.
This form of learning does not
aim at questioning
organizational processes,
structures, procedures, or
practices. Rather, it takes them
for granted; it works within
them.
Organizations find
transformational learning
difficult and uncomfortable
precisely because it involves
questioning deeply held
opinions and beliefs.
Traditionally, productive organizations have been viewed as centers of work. However, The
Learning Organization sees the productive organization as not only a center of work, but also
a center of learning.
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Why is the learning organization important?
 Stability is yielding to change
 Change is constant
 Rate of change is increasing geometrically:
* Technology
* Science
* Standard of living
Process of Learning Organization:
1. Obtaining knowledge from external and internal environment of organization.
2. Distribution of information, means that organization can share the obtained
information with its departments and members.
3. Information interpretation, in order to make the distributed information find
collective understandable meanings.
4. Organizational memory, it means that it’s a store in which knowledge is storing for use
in the future.
Learning Organization Leader
Peter Senge

An American scientist born in 1947.

Strategist of the Century

Director of center for Organizational Learning at MIT school of Management.

Author of “The Fifth Discipline” in 1990.

In his book he explain about the concept of learning organization.
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According to Peter Senge:
Why should organizations become Learning organization ?

For companies to be able to adapt to changing environments and stay ahead of their
competition

To improve the workforce skill-set

To improve communication among employees

To improve productivity and make the employees feel like they are an important
entity of the company.

To overcome companies weaknesses and to utilize their strength more efficiently
Peter Senge’s Five Disciplines:
Senge (1990) visualizes the learning organization to continually expand it capacity to
create its future. His five disciplines constituting a learning organization, namely,
personal mastery, mental models, shared vision, team learning and systems thinking,
have received much attention.
Systems
Thinking
Personal
Mastery
Team
Learning
Mental
Models
Shared
Vision
Peter Senge’s Five Disciplines
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(1) Personal Mastery
Organizations can’t learn unless their members begin to Learn
and develop their personal abilities to achieve desired results.
Personal abilities and competences means to be active able to, to
have a creative attitude toward life, to live actively and not to be
passive.
It is the discipline of continually clarifying and deepening our personal vision, of focusing our
energies, of developing patience, and seeing reality objectively. (Senge 1990: 139)
(2) Mental Model
Mental models determine how a person thinks and acts. Even
though people always don't act according to their mental models,
their behaviors are based on a mental image (Senge 1990).
In the learning organization, mental models are the discipline of
consideration, discussion, dialogue and study. With this discipline
people try to reach some agreement about suitable and realistic
mental models.
The deeply ingrained assumptions, generalizations, and even pictures or images that influence
how we understand the world.
(3) Shared Vision
Consists of the capacity to create a shared image and view of a future
which we pursue it. A collective experience which is the total of each
participant’s personal vision.
Senge (1990) believes that action and reaction with people
shape a shared vision which created only via the awareness of
organization goals and compatibility between individual
visions and developing these visions, towards general
purpose.
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(4) Team Learning
As Senge says, the world is full talented people, but it is
important that they should know how to work and act
together.
Senge (1990) suggests two important components in team
learning, the first, conversation and the second Practice.
Team learning, is seen to be crucial because team, not individuals, are the fundamental
teaching unit in modern organization. (Senge 1990).
(5) System Thinking
Systems thinking is a way holistic. It is a framework that
emphasize on understanding of internal relations of
phenomena, not on identifying them one by one.
Senge sees systems thinking at the heart of his "learning
organization" models, where all of organization members
develop an understanding of the whole rather than just fractional parts of organization in
terms of structures, processes, thinking and behavior.
Benefits of Adopting the 5 Disciplines
 Less use of defensive routines in work and more proactivity
 Greater trust
 Faster change
 More effective communication flows
 Group self-awareness
 Collective learning & creativity
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In conclusion, The learning organization is a self‐reflective organization. It not only seeks to achieve
results, but also seeks to understand how it achieves results. It actively seeks to learn from its
successes and failures. It asks itself difficult questions, can discuss its weaknesses openly, and has the
courage to correct itself. It regularly challenges its basic assumptions about how things are done. In
sum, it seeks to overcome routine excuses.
Eng. Humoud Al-Muhareb
 References
1. A Primer on the Learning Organization. (2007).
2. Canada School of Public Service, Progress Report 2002-2003.
Retrieved from : www.myschool-monecole.gc.ca/ldc/2003/progress_rpt/prog_rep_02_e.html
3. Najafbagy, R., & Doroudi, H. (2010). MODEL OF LEARNING ORGANIZATION IN BROADCASTING
ORGANIZATION OF ISLAMIC REPUBLIC OF IRAN. Serbian Journal of Management, 5(2), 213225.
4. Senge, P. (1990). The fifth discipline: The art and practice of the learning organization. New
York: Doubleday/Currency.
5. Senge, P. (1990). The leader's new work: Building learning organizations. Cambridge, Mass.:
Sloan Management Review.
6. Sudharatna, Y., & Li, L. (2004). Learning Organization Characteristics Contributed to its
Readiness-to-Change: A Study of the Thai Mobile Phone Service Industry. Managing Global
Transitions, 2(2), 163-178.
7. Suveatwatanakul, C. (2013). EFFECT OF KNOWLEDGE SHARING FACTORS ON THE LEARNING
ORGANISATION IN TOURISM AND HOSPITALITY. ISS & MLB.
Eng. Humoud Al-Muhareb