The Strategic Building Blocks of a Learning Organization

Abstract

The current paper focuses on the importance of learning to the development of business enterprises and corporate organizations. It highlights the need for the training and re-skilling of organizations human resources in line with the developments of today’s business demands. Hence, the purpose of the paper is to explore the impacts of continuous learning on skills development to increase the performance of people in the service of business organizations. Such training interventions are, without exception, crucial irrespective of position or rank in the organization. The paper draws on Peter Senge’s five disciplines towards building strong learning organizations: building shared vision, personal mastery, mental models, team learning and systems thinking. The adoption and application of the five basic principles will aid business leaders, line managers, training consultants and employees to acquire competitive business skills and healthy intellectual minds, essential for the growth and development of business enterprises. Also, by implementing the five well-tested new component technologies, the paper advocates that corporate organizations grow more rapidly, thus facilitating management and the development of workplace skills. It will also allow the development of strong teamwork inside the organization and open up opportunities for creating a competitive advantage within the business field.

Keywords: The learning organization, basic disciplines, competitive advantage, Systems thinking strategies