Issue 1, 2004

Senge P. M. Building Learning Organizations

In his classical article «Building Learning Organizations» Senge has made the case that the learning organization is the logical successor to the quality movement in USA traced back to 1980s. Senge has analyzed «building learning organizations» process in the view of three waves, first of those was quality movement. Senge argues that, with a few exceptions, American industry primarily operates within the first wave. By contrast, the second wave is well under way in Japan thanks to the organizational shift of its attention away from improving work processes to creation and management ways of thinking and interacting that are conductive to continual learning. Senge positions the five disciplines of the learning organization as the means by which American managers can move into the second wave and surpass Japanese management. According to Senge, «these two waves will gradually merge into a third wave in which learning becomes institutionalized as an inescapable way of life for managers and workers (even we bother maintaining that distinction)».

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