A learning organization is an organization that enables its members or employees to adapt service to an ever changing environment by stimulating education, development and initiative. Characteristic
A learning organization promotes the education and development of all its members to continually adapt themselves to their changing environment. In addition to learning new skills, this continuous transformation also requires the learning of old habits. It is necessary for the organization to have sufficient freedom of management to always reorganize itself. Management has a supporting and managing task in a learning organization.
In 1990, Peter Senge developed a theory in the fifth discipline on changing and learning people in organizations. According to this theory, in a learning organization, free-translated people are constantly working on improving (learning) their ability to achieve what they really want. In a learning organization, new ideas and collective ambitions are encouraged. These are continuously measured against the organizational goals. In 2005, Senge, together with his co-authors Scharmer, Jaworski and Flowers, made a thorough reflection on the current thinking about learning and changing. In addition, they came to a fundamental innovation of existing practice and present the so-called U model for in-depth transitions. "Presence: Exploring Profound Change in People, Organizations and Society", Nicholas Brealy Publishing, 2005.
The extent to which an organization is learning depends to a large extent on its organizational culture. In essence, a learning organization needs a healthy tension between autonomy and authority.
In the Netherlands, this development of sociotechnology (change management theory) by Ulbo de Sitter has begun the concept of "learning organizations". The concept of learning organization was further elaborated, inter alia, by Gerard Bomers in his 1989 speech for the University of Nijenrode. Also see
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