To what extent does your workplace conform with the requirements of a Essay

To what extent does your workplace conform with the requirements of a learning organisation - Essay Example The organisation mainly works around the parameter that sustainable living must be promoted and that science and technology should be harnessed in the most effective way in order to achieve this purpose. I believe that DERM, my organisation, is a learning organisation. I will explain in this paper why this is so. In order to demonstrate that the Department of Environment and Resource Management is a learning organisation, it is necessary to provide some form of benchmark or standards that would set clear requirements and criteria to credibly assess DERM’s organisational capability in the context of the learning organisation concept. For this purpose I have collated some authoritative insights from experts and academics. What is a Learning Organisation? According to Forest, a learning organisation is one that purposely applies its resources towards â€Å"the acquisition of knowledge about itself and its environment† and is continually expanding its capacity to meet prese nt and future challenges with increasing sophistication and success. (p391) Central to this definition is the idea that the organisation can learn and not some individual employees or groups of employees, the management, and so forth. The organisation is recognized to have the capability to acquire knowledge and use it for its own good. Another interesting insight that adds dimension to the learning organisation concept is the variable of change or the concept of organisational change as suggested by many academics. For instance, Caldwell (2006) stressed that learning organisation is a model of a team approach to change agency and organisational change because it views organisations â€Å"not as highly formalized hierarchical structures, but as macro-systems and micro-processes of learning and knowledge creation that give primacy to leadership and change agency at all levels.† (p155) The organisation in the entire process is characterized by all employees who work together as a whole – cooperating, coordinating and collaborating – acquiring knowledge and applying them for common organisational goals. This point of view has been supported by Rosell (1995) who explained that a learning organisation is able to adapt over time to changing conditions in a way that is productive to itself and its members by having the so-called â€Å"distributive intelligence†, which calls for horizontal information flow and less vertical decision making. (p83) Senge (2006), one of those credited to have brought the learning organisation concept to mainstream attention, talked about the role that people/employees play in this framework. According to him, the learning organisation is a place â€Å"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.† (p3 ) Lunenberg and Ornstein (2007) summed up the five disciplines posited by Senge that collectively create the learning organisation. These are: Personal mastery: the process of personal commitment, vision, excellence, and lifelong learning. Shared vision: Sharing an image of the future one want to realize together. Team learning: The process of learning collectively. Mental models: the ingrained assumption that influence personal and