Learning OrganizationThe idea of le

Learning Organization

The idea of learning organization in the context of management theory was developed by Argyris and

Schön (1978) and made popular by Senge (1990; as cited in Coppieters, 2005). The concept of the learning organization evolved out of the research from organizational learning and became popular in the early 1990s. Senge (1990) defined organizations as learning where people continually explain their capacity to create the 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 to learn together (p.3). Learning organizations are organic ‘system’ of shared learning rather than impersonal bureaucratic machines or market driven entities focused on individual self-interest and competition (Bui & Baruch, 2010). Garvin

(1993) defined learning organization as “skilled at creating, acquiring and transferring knowledge, and at modifying its behavior to reflect new knowledge and insights” (p. 80) whereas Bowen, Rose and Ware (2006, p. 98) defined it as “associated with a core set of conditions and processes that support the ability of an organization to value, acquire, and use information and tacit knowledge acquired from employees and stakeholders to successfully plan, implement, and evaluate strategies to achieve performance goals”, and Ortenbald (2002) identified four perspectives to understand what a learning organization is. These perspectives are organizational learning, learning at work, learning climate, and learning structure.

Coppieters (2005) summarizes Senge’s disciplines as following: “The first concerns personal mastery.

People in the organization need to have a good self-knowledge of what they wish to achieve. The personal attitude to learning is the basis for organizational learning. The second discipline necessitates the continual reflection of the tacit mental models that members of the organization bring to all its activities. Building of a shared vision for the organization and its members of the future that they wish to create is the third discipline. Organizations have to be value driven.” (p. 135)

The fourth discipline is a devotion to team learning. Aligning personal vision with organization vision is not a matter of chance; it is a matter of practice and process. Senge (1990) called this process “team learning” and described it as a discipline marked by three critical dimensions as followed: (1) The ability to think insightfully about complex issues, (2) the ability to act in innovative and coordinated ways, (3) the ability to play different roles on different teams (p. 236). Many voices in the school reform movement have discussed the need for schools to operate as “learning organization”, which addresses the importance of faculty and staff working together to solve problems through networking and team learning (Senge et al., 2000).

The discipline which unites the others is system thinking. A good understanding of how complex

(chaotic) and dynamic (living organism) systems work is required referring to ‘system thinking’ as a fifth discipline. Senge (1990) explained ‘system thinking’ as a discipline for seeing wholes. It is a framework for seeing an interrelationship rather than things, for seeing patterns of change rather than static ‘snapshots’ (p.

68). Mingers (2006) emphasized that system thinking has long and complex intellectual genealogy, and it has assumed an enormous and disparate variety of disciplinary and trans-disciplinary forms.

Even though this research based on Senge’s (1990) study defined characteristics of learning organization, there are different aspects to characteristics of learning organization. Coppieters (2005) explains essential characteristic of learning organization as follows: shared insights or vision; learning based on experience; willingness to change mental models; individual and group motivation; team learning; learning nurtured by new information; increasing the learning capacity to reach a state of continuous change or transformation. There are some numerous researchers attempting to describe characteristics of learning organization such as open communications (Phillips, 2003; Pool, 2000), rewards for learning (Lippit, 1997; Phillips, 2003), knowledge management (Loermans, 2002; Selen, 2000), team learning (Anderson, 1997; Salner, 1999), risk taking (Rowden, 2001), support and recognition for learning (Griego, Geroy & Wright, 2000; Wilkinson & Kleiner, 1993). Bowen et. al, (2007) defined learning organization dimensions as following: team orientation, innovation, involvement, information flow, tolerance for error and results orientation. An instrument as learning organization developed by Yang, Watkins and Marsick, (2004) includes 9 dimensions as followed: Continuous learning, inquiry and dialogue, team learning, embedded system, empowerment, system connection, providing leadership, financial performance and knowledge performance.

As a learning organization, the professional development school promotes students and teacher learning, as well as an opportunity to reform education in both contexts (Harris, Tassel, 2005, p. 181). Hiatt-

Michael (2001) defined schools as learning communities: “The learning community is an organization in which all members acquire new ideas and accept responsibility for developing and maintaining the organization and members working together, mutually understanding each other, yet respecting the diversity of one another.” (p. 115) Brandt (2003) defined 10 ways of learning organization in school context. Learning organizations 1) have an incentive structure that encourages adaptive behavior. 2) have challenging but achievable shared goals. 3) have members who can accurately identify the organization’s stages of development. 4) gather, process, and act upon information in ways best suited to their purposes. 5) have an institutional knowledge base and processes for creating new ideas. 6) exchange information frequently with relevant external sources. 7) get feedback on products and services. 8) continuously refine their basic process. 9) have supportive organizational cultures. 10) are “open systems” sensitive to the external environment, including social, political, and economic conditions.