2. WHAT IS A LEARNING
ORGANIZATION?
“A learning organization is a group of
people working together to collectively
enhance their capacities to create
results they really care about.”
Peter Senge
The Fifth Discipline

3. David Garvin, C. Roland Christensen
Professor of Business Administration,
Harvard University

4. What is a learning organisation?
(1)
 An organisation able to adapt and compete at low cost
through learning
 Common definitional ground
→ multi-level concept: individual-team-organisation
→ role of learning cultures: beliefs, norms and values
supportive of employee learning
→ specific HRM policies supportive of learning culture

5. Organizational Learning -
Definition
 Process through which an organization or individual
acquires knowledge and abilities necessary to compete
in its surroundings
 Collectively create an environment of productivity,
creativity and openness
 The detection and correction of error
Argyris & Schön

6. THE WHEEL OF LEARNING
Mastering the Rhythm of a Learning Organization
 REFLECTING
 CONNECTING
 DECIDING Individual
Reflecting
 DOING More
(thinking and feeling)
concrete Doin
g
Connecting
Deciding
More
abstract
More action More
reflection

7. Five Requirements of a
Learning Organization
 SHARED VISION
 TEAM LEARNING
 SYSTEMS THINKING
 ORGANIZATIONAL LEARNING
 PERSONAL MASTERY

8. SHARED VISION
“Not an idea…. rather a force of impressive
power.
It lifts us out of our existing aspirations,
and opens the doors to new ones.”
Peter Senge
The Fifth Discipline

9. INDIVIDUAL VISION IS NOT ENOUGH
 Share your vision. See through each other’s eyes.
 Create a shared vision that everyone can support.

10. A TRUE SHARED VISION
 Draws out the commitment of people throughout
the organization…IF developed with everyone’s
input.
 Not shared unless it has staying power and
evolving life-force that lasts for years.

11. What is a learning organisation?
(2)
 Tradeoffs in organisational design
→ stimulate dynamic properties / provide stability in the
organisational structure
→ standardisation/routine versus mutual adjustement/innovation
 Scientific and technical skills
 deal with an employee participation contraint to innovation in order
to avoid conflicts between vested interest in the organisation
→ characteristics of the innovative idea
→ socio-demographic characteristics of the workforce
→ soft skills
→ group processes
→ customer focus
→ transparency and fairness

12. Systems Thinking
interdependency and change
focus on whole not individual parts
long-term goals vs. short-term benefits
better appreciation of systems leads to
more appropriate action

13. ORGANIZATIONAL LEARNING
“It is team learning, not individual
learning,
that adds to organizational learning.”
Peter Senge
The Fifth Discipline

14. HOW ORGANIZATIONS LEARN
 Organizational Learning
 Team Learning
 Individual Learning

15. ORGANIZATIONAL LEARNING IMPACTS
EFFECTIVE ORGANIZATIONAL STRATEGY
“An effective community college leader
strategically improves the quality of the
institution, protects the long-term health of the
organization, promotes the success of all
students, and sustains the community college
mission, based on knowledge of the
organization, its environment, and future
trends.”
AACC Competencies for Community College Leaders

16. Mental Models
 deeply ingrained assumptions and
generalizations
 honest and critical scrutiny of
entrenched mental models
 transcend mental models in order for
change to take place

17. Team Learning
 Team learning starts with ‘dialogue’= the capacity of members of a
team to suspend assumptions and enter genuine ‘thinking together’
 Allows the group to discover insights not attainable individually
 Shows group how to recognize the patterns of interaction that
undermine learning
(Senge 1990: 10)

18. A Learning Organization Is...
 Where people continually expand their capacity to create the results they
truly desire
 Where new patterns of thinking are nurtured
 Where collective aspiration is set free
 Where people are continually learning to see the whole together
 “When you ask people about what it is like being part of a great team, what is
most striking is the meaningfulness of the experience. People talk about
being part of something larger than themselves, of being connected, of being
generative.”
(Senge 1990: 13)