ABSTRACT

Learning organizations are an “ideal type” of organization that are constantly adapting to change by acquiring, creating, and disseminating knowledge, and modifying their behavior to reflect new insights and experimentation. Such organizations tend to exist in a dynamic organizational environment that encourages organizations to shift faster, be flatter, and more responsive to client needs. While not abandoning hierarchy, learning organizations make greater use of teams and self-empowered individuals in systems with diffused accountability structures. Macrolevel (organizational) strategies include systematic learning approaches, experimentation, benchmarking, and information dissemination. Senge's five disciplines largely represent microlevel (individual) strategies including proficiency at uncovering mental models to examine their utility and biases, and having each individual integrate a systems perspective.