LEADERSHIP IN A LEARNING ORGANIZATION

A Learning Organization can be defined as an organization where people continually expand 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 how to learn together (Senge, 1990).

Learning organizations use shared leadership principles to maximize their resources and develop leadership capacity within individuals. The organization can be described as one that learns continuously and transforms itself. Current literature on leadership development characterizes the leader as a coach, facilitator and guide. Images of leadership have shifted from expert, director, and controller to catalyst, information sharer, and coordinator.

Leadership in learning organizations is based on cooperative and collaborative partnership approaches.

Individuals and their actions are the basis of a learning organization. The culture of the organization, including its history, vision and mission, and both official and informal policies and procedures, forms the

context for individual activities and their impacts.

Senge described five disciplines:

1.) Systems Thinking;

2.) Personal Mastery;

3.) Mental Models;

4.) Building Shared Vision; and

5.) Team Learning as the foundation of a learning organization.

A similar view is expressed by Watkins & Marsick, 1993. Some basic characteristics are that learning takes place in individuals, teams, the organization, and even the communities with which the organization interacts. Learning is a continuous, strategically used process - integrated with, and running parallel to, work. Learning results in changes in knowledge, beliefs, and behaviors. Learning enhances organizational

capacity for innovation and growth. The organization has embedded systems to capture and share learning.

A comprehensive view of a learning organization is that it is an organization in which learning begins at the level of the individual, proceeds through the level of the team, and is internalized, codified and stored

at the level of processes and systems so well established that everyone who comes in contact with them is able to participate in them in a consistent manner.

Ten Action Steps you can take as an individual are to:

1.) Assess Your Learning Culture;

2.) Promote the Positive;

3.) Make the Workplace Safe for Thinking;

4.) Reward Risk-Taking;

5.) Help People Become Resources for Each Other;

6.) Put Learning Power to Work;

7.) Map Out the Vision;

8.) Bring the Vision to Life;

9.) Connect the Systems; and

10.) Get the Show on the Road

(Kline & Saunders, 1993).

Source : Doris “Katey” Walker,Extension Specialist.Family Resources and Public Policy. Kansas State University

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