Learning Organization

In this highly competitive and dynamic world it is the essential that every organization transforms itself into a more vibrant and effective workplace through maximizing human talent to properly align the organization with its goals. In this journey, becoming a Learning Organization is the key for any organization to face changes and nurture its employees to face challenges.

What is a Learning Organization?

The Learning Organization can be defined as “ one in which everyone is engaged in identifying and solving problems, enabling the organization to continuously experiment, change, and improve, thus increasing its capacity to grow, learn, and achieve its purpose” (Daft, 2003).

In a learning organization culture employees are ensured that they undergo continuous and sustainable learning for both professional and personal betterment. Hence there are three main characteristics seen by organizations that embrace learning organizational culture.

 

                         Figure 1: Characteristics of a Learning Organization (Daft, 2003)

In a learning organization team work is encouraged whereby team mates are given opportunities to solve problems and arrive at decisions more wisely. Empowerment involves giving the power of creativity, freedom of speech, decision making authority and resources to perform tasks effectively without much supervision. Openness to information allows an organization to flood with necessary information such as budgets, expenses etc. to everyone without discrimination. These changes in organizational structures builds up a supportive learning environment while realizing organizational goals

“Continuous capacity building of the people in organizations would only be possible when organizations follow the learning management principles” (Your Article Library, 2019). There are many organizations that have adopted this concept today. “Toyota succeeds as a learning organization ultimately because it has relentlessly pursued success rather than pursued several flavors of the month over years with little results” (Dolcemascolo, 2019).

“Capability to learn does not naturally and readily occur within organizations, it is imperative that organizations ensure that resources allocated and efforts made to instill learning within organizations” (Hussein et al., 2014). When a learning organization is welcomed and when leaders demonstrate high degree of willingness to entertain alternative opinions it is inevitable that employees feel courageous to offer new inputs. By doing so, even the most unpredictable situations can be easily overcome by the organization.

References

Daft, R. (2003). Management. 6th ed. Thomposon, pp.55-56.

Dolcemascolo, D. (2019). A look into Toyota's learning organization. [online] Reliableplant.com. Available at: https://www.reliableplant.com/Read/13439/toyota-learning-organization [Accessed 4 May 2019].

Hussein, N., Mohamad, A., Noordin, F. and Ishak, N. (2014). Learning Organization and its Effect On Organizational Performance and Organizational Innovativeness: A Proposed Framework for Malaysian Public Institutions of Higher Education. Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences, 130, pp.299-304.

Your Article Library. (2019). Learning Organizations: Introduction, Definitions, Concepts and Characteristics. [online] Available 

athttp://www.yourarticlelibrary.com/organization/learning-organizations-introduction-definitions-concepts-and-characteristics/45125 [Accessed 4 May 2019].