Learning organizations develop and sustain an environment, which stimulates the power of learning in all organizational members, allowing organizational flexibility and adaptability. Successful organizations use the power of learning in order to produce the maximum benefit for the organization, but also to communicate to the workforce that the key element for organizational success is not cumulative knowledge, but the ability to exploit new learning opportunities at a fast pace.
Moreover, increasing market rivalry necessitates organizational flexibility. Modern organizations need to be incessantly ready to adapt to new market realities, mainly because the bargaining power of buyers and suppliers defines the market conditions, requiring from the organizations flexible organizational structures. Within this context, leadership needs to build adequate structures and to provide to all organizational members new learning opportunities. During the transformation process, the mental models of how organizational members perceive organizational culture need to shift towards a new perspective.
[...] Creative Tension and Organizational Achievement Any organizational member has the capacity to learn and to share knowledge, transforming learning into a valuable and incessant tool of organizational development and advancement, when shared (Kerka, 1995). However, while all people have the capacity to learn, the structures in which they function may not encourage commitment. Also, organizational members may lack the tools and/or the guiding ideas to transform their experiences into knowledge. The degree to which creative tension could lead to organizational achievement, as a result of conflicting objectives and the need for organizational change, depends on the degree of creativity and discipline applied during the transformation process. [...]
[...] References Hughes, C. and Tight, M. (1998). The myth of the learning society. Inside the Learning Society, London: Cassell. Kerka, S. (1995). The learning organization: myths and realities. Eric Clearinghouse Kolb. D. A., Fry, R. (1975.) Toward an applied theory of experiential learning. In C. Cooper (ed.) Theories of [...]
[...] In the process of organizational transformation, creative tension is related to tension as energy to accomplish and not as destructive, stressful tension. The goal of creative tension is to create lifelong learners who would be more productive, and more responsible, not only for individual job descriptions but mostly for the success or the failure of the organization as a whole. Creative tension is the primary source of energy for leaders, who need to know how to cause intellectual stimulation and how to exploit the creative energy in order to identify complex cause-and-effect relationships and offer incentives to the workforce. [...]
[...] In section I investigate how creative tension occurs in a learning organization, how it relates to organizational achievement and what is the role of leadership in this process. Conclusions are presented in section while References complete this paper. Defining the Learning Organization The concept of learning organization is originally introduced to the corporate literature in the 1990's. Rooting in self-development and action- learning, the first definition of a learning organization portrays an environment where people incessantly develop their capacity to create the desired results through an ongoing learning process, where innovative and unreserved patterns of thinking are encouraged, and where collective aspiration is liberated (Senge, 1990.) Other scholars have also dealt with the concept of learning organization. [...]
[...] Moreover, leadership in a learning organization should be focused on communicating the message that all members are equal and no barriers exist between management and workforce thus fostering equality. Creative Tension in a Learning Organization Learning organizations are driven by the need for an increasing change with the aid of learning. In that sense, they are not stable, but instead, they are in an incessant process of transformation, during which, people might lose their focus on the structures they should follow as to meet organizational efficiency. [...]
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