Becoming a Learning Organization

Learning Organizations and Organizational Learning

Chris Argyris was a leading researcher in the area of organizational learning. He clarified a special approach to understanding organizational issues called “action research.” Here are a short list of books by him and some of his students.

— Flawed Advice and the Management Trap: How Managers Can Know When They’re Getting Good Advice and When They’re Not by Chris Argyris (Oxford University Press, 2000).

— Knowledge for Action: A Guide to Overcoming Barriers to Organizational Change by Chris Argyris (Jossey-Bass, 1993).

— On Organizational Learning by Chris Argyris (Second edition. Wiley-Blackwell, 1999). 

— Overcoming Organizational Defenses: Facilitating Organizational Learning by Chris Argyris (Prentice Hall, 1990). 

— Learning Organizations: Developing Cultures for Tomorrow’s Workplace, edited by Seria Chula and John Ernest. (Productivity Press, 2006).  

Learning Organizations is an anthology of chapters by many people working in the area of organizational learning. It explores some key ideas of the emerging management paradigm: community, networks, feedback, self-organization, and learning; all essential aspects of understanding business organizations as living systems.

Learning Organizations and Systems Thinking

Among Argyris’ several students who also became thought leaders in the area of organizational learning is Peter Senge who has assembled several teams of investigators and published many seminal and influential books, including:

— Presence: Human Purpose and the Field of the Future or An Exploration of Profound Change in People, Organizations, and Society by Peter M. Senge, C. Otto Scharmer, Joseph Jaworski, and Betty Sue Flowers (Crown Business, 2008). 

— Schools That Learn: A Fifth Discipline Fieldbook for Educators, Parents, and Everyone Who Cares About Education by Peter M. Senge, Nelda H. Cambron-McCabe, Timothy Lucas, and Art Kleiner (Crown Business, 2000). 

— The Dance of Change: The Challenges to Sustaining Momentum in Learning Organizations by Peter M. Senge, Art Kleiner, Charlotte Roberts, and George Roth (Crown Business, 1999). 

— The Fifth Discipline Fieldbook: Strategies and Tools for Building a Learning Organization by Peter M. Senge, Art Kleiner, Charlotte Roberts, and Rick Ross (Crown Business, 1994). 

— The Fifth Discipline: The Art & Practice of The Learning Organization by Peter M. Senge (Revised edition. Crown Business, 2006.). 

— The Necessary Revolution: Working Together to Create a Sustainable World by Peter M. Senge, Bryan Smith, Nina Kruschwitz, and Joe Laur (Crown Business, 2010). 

In addition to The Fifth Discipline book, you can learn more about the laws of systems thinking, by visiting http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fifth_Discipline#The_11_Laws_of_the_Fifth_Discipline.

Other Thought Leaders Responding to the Zeitgeist

Robert Kegan has made significant contributions to the areas of workplace demands, organizational development, change management, leadership, and human development. Here is a short list of a few books he authored or co-authored.

— An Everyone Culture: Becoming a Deliberately Developmental Organization by Robert Kegan, Lisa Laskow Lahey, Matthew L Miller, Andy Fleming, and Deborah Helsing (Harvard Business Review Press, 2016).

— Immunity to Change: How to Overcome It and Unlock the Potential in Yourself and Your Organization (Leadership for the Common Good) by Robert Kegan and Lisa Laskow Lahey (2009).

— Change Leadership: A Practical Guide to Transforming Our Schools by Tony Wagner, Robert Kegan, Lisa Laskow Lahey, Richard W. Lemons, Jude Garnier, Deborah Helsing, Annie Howell, and Harriette Thurber Rasmussen (Jossey-Bass, 2005).

— How the Way We Talk Can Change the Way We Work: Seven Languages for Transformation by Robert Kegan and Lisa Laskow Lahey (Jossey-Bass, 2002).

— In Over Our Heads: The Mental Demands of Modern Life by Robert Kegan (Harvard University Press, 1998).

— The Evolving Self: Problem and Process in Human Development by Robert Kegan (Harvard University Press, 1982).

— Learning to Lead: A Workbook on Becoming a Leader by Warren Bennis and Joan Goldsmith (Fourth edition. Basic Books, 2010). 

— Liberation Management by Tom Peters (Ballantine, 1996).

— Organizational Culture and Leadership, by Edgar Schein. (Fourth Edition. Jossey-Bass, 2010). 

— Stewardship: Choosing Service Over Self Interest by Peter Block. (Berrett-Koehler, 1993). 

— The Courageous Follower: Standing up to and for Our Leaders by Ira Chaleff. (Third Edition. Berrett-Koehler, 2009.) 

— The Postmodern Organization: Mastering the Art of Irreversible Change by William H. Bergquist. (Jossey Bass, 1993). 

— The Ultimate Advantage: Creating The High-Involvement Organization by Edward Lawler (Jossey-Bass, 1992). 

Open Books Management

— Honest Business by Michael Phillips and Salli Rasberry (Random House, 1981. Out of print.).

— The Great Game of Business: Unlocking the Power and Profitability of Open-Book Management by Jack Stack. (Currency/Doubleday, 1994). 

— Open Book Management: The Coming Business Revolution by John Case (HarperCollins, 1995). 

— The Power of Open Book Management: Releasing the True Potential of People’s Minds, Hearts, and Hands by John Schuster, Jill Carpenter, Patricia Lane. (Wiley, 1996). 

Other Resources Referred to in Book 2

— Mindfulness by Ellen Langer (De Capo Press, 1990). 

— Mindfulness and Meaningful Work: Explorations in Right Livelihood by Claude Whitmyer (ed.). (Parallax, 1994). 

— The Turning Point: Science, Society, and the Rising Culture by Fritjof Capra. (Bantam, 1984). 

— Mindwalk (Video. Paramount, 1998). Based on The Turning Point by Fritjof Capra.

— Anatomy and Physiology -Cliffs Quick Review (Cliffs Notes, 2001). 

— Anatomy and Physiology For Dummies (Second Edition. For Dummies, 2011). 

Classics - Early Writings on the Shifting Paradigm

— Deschooling Society, by Ivan Illich. (Harper & Row, 1970, 2000). 

— In The Age Of The Smart Machine: The Future Of Work And Power by Shoshanna Zuboff. (Basic Books, 1989). 

— Post-Capitalist Society by Peter Drucker. (HarperCollins, 1993).

Drucker, often given credit for inventing the concept of “management,” was its leading guru for most of the 20th century. In this book, he argues that we are in the middle of a great social transformation, akin to the Renaissance, which is symbolized by the computer. The primary resource is no longer capital, land, or labor but knowledge (hence “post-capitalist”).

Knowledge has become the means of production and creates value by “productivity” and “innovation” through its application to work. The new class of post-capitalist society is made up of knowledge workers and service workers.

— The Female Advantage: Women’s Ways of Leadership, by Sally Helgeson (Doubleday/Currency, 1990. 

— The Human Side of Enterprise by Douglas McGregor. (McGraw-Hill, 1960).

You can sometimes find this one in used bookstores. A definite classic. This is the book that launched the humanistic view of business management and first introduced an evaluation of the differences between so-called “Theory X” management (that says people are lazy and must be motivated by fear of punishment) and “Theory Y” management (that says people are basically interested in their work and are motivated by praise, success, and inclusion in the decision-making process.)

— The Human Side of Enterprise by Douglas McGregor. (25th Anniversary edition. McGraw-Hill, 1985). 

— The Human Side of Enterprise by Douglas McGregor. (Annotated edition. McGraw-Hill, 2005). 

— The Nature of Managerial Work, by Henry Mintzberg ( 1973).