MGMT603

Please Follow directions or I will dispute 

Please answer original forum with a minimum of 250 words and respond to both students separately with a minimum of 100 words each

First page Original Forum with References 

second page nikole response with references 

third page autumn response with references 

Original Forum 

A learning organization is a dynamic business environment that encourages and fosters continuous learning in order to compete effectively in a highly competitive 21st century economy. What are the characteristics of a learning organization, and how do these characteristics help managers and employees work together to rise to the challenges they must confront in a rapidly changing business environment?

Student Response 

Nikole

An organization who continues to learn and grow and not be afraid of change will thrive and will not become stagnant. According to Senge who is a systems scientist and senior lecturer at the MIT Sloan School of Management, there are five basic characteristics of a learning organization. They include:

  1. Systems Thinking This type of thinking allows managers and employees to see the bigger picture. This also includes thinking of the long-term effects certain decisions have on the organization.
  2. Personal Mastery There are three components that make up this characteristic. Personal vision or a picture of what you want, creative tension by making what you want to come to life, and a commitment to the truth and never deceive yourself.
  3.  Mental Models This is done by changing our behavior and changing how we see the world itself. This characteristic also challenges managers to change their minds about lower-level workers.
  4. Shared Vision- The vision of the organization should be shared with everyone not just upper management levels. This vision should encompass what the entire organization wants not just management needs. When this happens all members of the organization will strive for excellence.
  5. Team Learning- This type of learning is when members of the team come together to share their views and the group tries to find the best view to support the decision to be made.  This creates a dialogue where team members can get a better understanding of each other.

These characteristics help managers and employees work together to rise to the challenges they must confront in a rapidly changing business environment by allowing employee ideas and views to be supported and it also allows employees to feel a sense of trust. These characteristics promotes innovation, and it challenges employees to improve their skills.

References:

MGMT603 I001 Summer 2021 Week 5: Learning Organizations

Autumn

When exploring this question I came across a publication that wrote about Peter Senge and what he wrote as the five basics characteristics of a learning organization. They are systems thinking, personal mastery, mental models, building shared visions, and team learning. Each of these characteristics, according to Senge, play a vital role in an organizations ability to collaborate successfully. “Systems thinking states that all the characteristics must be apparent at once in an organization for it to be a learning organization.” (Senge) Personal mastery involves each person in the organization being willing to understand the goal and learn from the past in order to grow. Mental models encourages the individual and the organization to challenge their thinking and move beyond what they consider to be normal or expected. Building shared visions focuses on motivating employees to learn and create a common identity that focuses on the organizations goals. Finally, team learning looks at “…problem solving capacity of the organization is improved through better access to knowledge and expertise. A learning organization has structures that facilitate team learning with features such as boundary crossing and openness.” (Senge)

These characteristics help managers and employees work together by allowing open discussions and challenging the “norm.” Many organizations want to focus on what they have always done and this can stall them in the developing world of technology and forward thinking. Managers and employees have to look within and force themselves to be able to see past what they think should happen and be willing to be open to ideas that the team puts into the conversation. Many managers and individual employees have a hard time seeing past the immediately problem but with building these characteristics into the organization, it can move forward with new and innovative ideas. 

-Curtis

References

Senge, P. (1990). Peter Senge and the learning organization. Rcuperado de.

Senge, P. M. (1990). The art and practice of the learning organization.