How are learning organizations defined by professionals in the field?
Learning organizations and the term organization learning are terms that appear to be related to each other. In other words, organizational learning and learning organizations are concepts that are embedded in each other. But what does the term learning organization mean? According to Merriam, Caffarella, Baumgartner (as cited in Peter Senge’s book The Fifth Discipline: The Art and practice of the Learning organization), “ A learning organization became a popular concept capturing the imagination of organizations worldwide. It is a place 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 act together.” (2007,p.43) In this type of definition there is the belief that the learning organization is one that is a continual and social type environment.
Watkins and Marsick’s (1993) view of the learning organization is a bit broader. According to Yang, Watkins, and Marsick (2004), “ They originally defined the concept of the learning organization as one that learns continuously and transforms itself. Learning is a continuous strategically used process that is integrated with and running parallel to work.” (1). In 1999, they wrote another book and slightly altered their original thought to state, “ We originally defined the learning organization as one that is characterized by continuous learning for continuous improvement and by the capacity to transform itself. People are aligned around a common vision. They sense and interpret their changing environment. They generate new knowledge, which they use, in turn, to create innovative products and services to meet customer needs.” (3). This definition is slightly different than Senge’s belief in that Senge stated that the organizational learning is...