subject: A Custom Essay on Learning Organization [print this page] This is a custom written essay on entrepreneurial qualities and traits. The essay can be one of the best among custom essay writing services. You can comment on the quality Today we live in a world of mounting expectations. Both shareholders and employees are expecting more from organizations. Demand for immediate fulfillment of needs and wants has never been so intense. How does an organization survive in this environment (forget about thriving)? In the last 200 years, there has been tremendous progress in the outside environment (I refer to the instruments we use, the complexity of activities we involve in). But as individuals, we remained the same. Our mental make-up remained the same. We are still driven by the same old motives: Power, hunger, sex, and belongingness. When the environment around us is changing, we also have to change our mental habits to align with it (I assume that motives are reflection of habits). For example, command and control style was appropriate in the 1950s and 1960s. The same style is no longer relevant. Knowledge economy needs teamwork. A leader of knowledge economy, unlike one of the past, has to share his power. If we do not change with the times and environment, we will naturally be overwhelmed by the environment. That is what is happening currently. The crisis of today is due to human being's unwillingness to change and belong to future. The Concept of Learning Organization The basic idea of learning continuously can be traced to eastern philosophies. They state that one never understands anything completely. And life is a continual process of learning. One cannot say the word "learning" in Chinese without saying both "study" and "practice" constantly. One cannot say, "I learned something" in Chinese. It is literally impossible. Organizations are continuously changing either through mergers or some other means. Changes are significant and rapid in some cases. They are slow and not so significant in some other cases. In any case when the organizations are changing, they are trying to adapt themselves to the changing surroundings. In the process they are also learning. A learning organization is an organization that is continuously expanding its capacity to create its future. Leading a Learning Organization A leader's role in a learning organization is different from that of a decision-maker. In a learning organization a leader is a designer, a teacher, and a steward. The skills required for these roles are an ability to bring shared vision to the surface and challenge existing mental models, and an ability to foster systematic ways of thinking in the organization. Systems Thinking The word system originates from a Greek word "sunistanai." This Greek word means "to cause to stand together." Thus, a system can be defined as a whole whose elements "hang together" because they continually affect each other over time and operate toward a common purpose. Atmosphere, chemical reactions, communities, families, teams are systems only. Mental Models Mental models are the images, assumptions, and stories which we carry in our minds of ourselves, other people, institutions, and every aspect of the world.1Mental models determine how we see the world. They are invaluable to live in a complex world like ours. But all the mental models are flawed in some or other way. Team Learning Real work in the organizations is done by teams and not lone individuals. So for organizations to be effective, they need effective teams. Teams are supposed to operate at a higher level of intelligence than the intelligence level of their members. But often they operate at far lower level of intelligence than that of individual members. Shared Vision Shared vision is not an idea. Simply said, it is an answer to the question "what do we want to create?" Shared vision is the pictures, and images that all the people in the organization carry. Personal Mastery Personal mastery is beyond competence and skills. People practicing personal mastery perceive life as creative work. Learning in the context of personal mastery is not acquiring information. It is rather expanding the ability to produce the results one truly wants in life. Leader as a Designer An organization with poor design will be an ineffective organization, even if it is led by a great leader. Organization design is concerned with designing governing ideas of purpose, vision, and core values by which people will live. The first task of leadership is designing governing ideas to be followed by policies, strategies, and structures that can translate guiding ideas into business decisions. Leader as a Teacher A leader's main responsibility is to define reality. He should help his people get accurate, insightful, and empowering views of current reality. Thus, the leader assumes the role of a teacher. According to Peter Senge, teaching role in a learning organization can be developed by giving attention to people's mental models and with the help of systems thinking. A leader as a teacher has to bring people's mental models of important issues to surface. This is important because, a mental picture of how the world works (people hold this mental picture), influences how people perceive various problems and opportunities. It also influences how the courses of action are identified and how people make their choices. Deborah Carter has been writing for custom essay writing services for many years. His specialization includes management essays, philosophy essays and admission essays.
