Leadership and Change Management

Chapter 5 :Leading a Learning Organization

Learning

The learning organization

Innovative learning

Leading a learning organization

Leader as a designer Leader as a teacher Leader as a steward

Chapter Summary

Organizational learning can be defined as a process by which organizations obtain and use new knowledge, tools, behavior, and values. Organizational learning occurs at three levels: the individual, group, and system levels.Organizational learning occurs whenever a group of people comes together to accomplish any task. Organizational learning can be classified as maintenance learning and innovative learning.

Maintenance learning is concerned with acquiring fixed outlooks, methods, and rules. This type of learning is meant to deal with known and recurring situations, and improves the problem solving ability of organizations. On the other hand, innovative learning aims to prepare organizations for action in new situations. It requires an understanding of the environment before it actually appears.

There are six ways in which an organization can pursue innovative learning: By taking a look at the past, through controlled experiments, learning from others’ experiences, learning through analysis, learning through formal and informal means, and unlearning. The leader’s role in a learning organization is different from that of a decision maker. A leader in a learning organization is a designer, a teacher, and a steward.

In order to lead a learning organization, a leader needs to possess special skills: an ability to bring shared vision to the surface and to challenge existing mental models, and an ability to foster systematic ways of thinking in the organization. According to Peter Senge, leadership in a learning organization is based on the principle of creative tension. Creative tension occurs when the leader sees clearly where the organization should be, and understands clearly where the organization is currently. The gap between these positions generates creative tension.

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