Learning organisation Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Learning organisation - Essay Example Learning organization can be defined as, â€Å"A Learning Company is an organization that facilitates the learning of all its members and continuously transforms itself†Development of an organization into a learning organization is not an organic process Instead, such a development is facilitated by certain factors. With the growth of organization and structuring of the company, individuals tend to assume more strength and power and their rigidity subdues the organization’s capacity to learn as it grows. In such circumstances, solutions applied to counter problems are often ineffective. Organizations tend to downsize in an attempt to enlarge profits and remain competitive. With fewer staff members, load on individuals grows manifolds. In order to gain competitive advantage and to promote a culture that is customer responsive, it is imperative that companies learn faster than their parallels in the market. This requires maintenance of knowledge regarding new processes an d products and an understanding of the outside environment. That is why learning organization has been defined as, â€Å"a company that can respond to new information by altering the very â€Å"programming† by which information is processed and evaluated† (Malhotra, 1996). In order to accomplish this, employees assume a greater responsibility of both managing their own works and cooperating with one another to play part in the organization’s strategic processes meant for competitive advantage. This paper aims at discussing some of the key features of a learning organization.... According to the systems thinking, in order for an organization to gain the qualities a learning organization, all traits should be simultaneously apparent in it. In case an organization lacks any of the five characteristics, it will not be able to achieve its goal. However, some people are of the view that these traits can be acquired or developed one by one with time. For example, O’ Keeffe (2002) is of the view that these features can not all be acquired at once, and are instead, developed gradually to convert an organization into a learning organization. Shared vision: One of the key factors that provide an organization with an opportunity to gain competitive advantage is shared vision. Shared vision among the organizational personnel builds their common identity. This in turn, provides the workers with tremendous energy and inculcates motivation in them to gain learning. In this way, shared vision plays a cardinal role in promoting learning among the members of the staff. Individuals’ vision plays a big role in the development and promotion of shared vision. Thus, if the vision in a company is enforced by particular people who assume greater power over others, this may hinder the development of a shared organizational vision. This is the fundamental reason why most of the learning organizations prefer to adopt decentralized and flat organization structures. Personal mastery: Personal mastery is the name of an individual’s commitment to the organizational learning process (Senge, 1990). An organization whose personnel are quick learners acquires an edge over the competitors whose employees are not. There are various organization specific events and happenings that