Gaps & Challenges to the Development of the Learning Organizations

The success of an organization depends on the culture within the organization. Many businesses are finding success in developing learning organizations. Some organizations have challenges in creating a learning organization, which often leads to failure of the company. Two common barriers in developing a learning organization are leadership support and lack of a learning structure.

Learning organizations are successful in all aspects of the business. A learning organization provide staff with the opportunities to gain knowledge, they accelerate learning curves and adopt new technologies more quickly. By creating a learning environment, employees become empowered, which leads to innovation. Innovation is what drives the business to stay competitive.

Leadership Support

One common challenge to developing a learning organization is leadership support. . It is nearly impossible to implement a successful learning organization when it lacks management support. If an organization does not have the leadership involvement, it sends a message to the rest of the organization. The example in The fifth discipline: the art and practice of the learning organization of WonderTech is a prime example of lack of leadership support (Senge, 2006). One individual on the leadership team was trying to implement a learning organization but the rest of the management team did not support the effort. Lack of leadership participation prevents organizations from implementing the basics. Creating a learning organization requires an investment of time and money. If the leadership team lacks support, the funding will be rejected.

In addition, if the vision of the organization is not shared and is not genuine, the chance of successfully impl...

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...s unit is responsible for their own financials; therefore, will not collaborate with other business units. Competition amongst business units leads them to develop competitive products. This leads to duplication of ideas and work.

Becoming a learning organization is a difficult task. To become a learning organization, commitment by the whole organization is necessary from leadership to the route driver. By having a learning structure as part of the culture, allows the organization to overcome the challenges the business may encounter for survival of the company. Learning organization is the way of the future.

Works Cited

Biech, E. (Ed.). (2008). ASTD handbook for workplace learning professionals. Alexandria, VA: ASTD Press.

Senge, P. M. (2006). The fifth discipline : the art and practice of the learning organization (4). London ; Sydney: Random House.