The Art and Practice of the Learning Organization
by Peter M. Senge
Synopsis:
Finally in paperback, Senge's national bestseller The Fifth Discipline, which has turned the principles of the learning organization into a movement of snowballing size and strength. The ability to respond to change is the crucial issue of the '90s, but management tools such as "reengineering" and "total quality" simply treat the symptoms. Adopted by Ford, AT&T, and others, here is a cure for the disease Senge calls "learning disabilities."
Chris Lonsdale and Associates Review
This book brings systems theory right into the middle of business. If you ever wanted to know why change is so hard to create and why so many organisational programmes fail in their promise, this book is guaranteed to give new insights. The fifth discipline actually refers to systems thinking, referred to by Senge as being the cornerstone of the learning organization . The other four disciplines are team learning, mental models, shared vision and personal mastery.
The concepts are very powerful, and when properly applied can generate energy and change in an organization. There is a warning, however. This book is not for the faint hearted. If you want to use the concepts presented by Senge you had better be prepared for some personal changes in thinking and working. The fifth discipline, when applied, mean it's no longer business as usual.
Other Comments
Senge's pathbreaking book draws on science, spiritual wisdom, psychology, and the cutting edge of management thought to show how businesses can overcome their "learning disabilites" and beat the odds of failure. The book
provides a searching personal experience and a dramatic professional shift of mind. --This text refers to the hardcover edition of this title.
The publisher, Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group, Inc.:
"An MIT Professor's pathbreaking book on building "learning organizations" -- corporations that overcome inherent obstacles to learning and develop dynamic ways to pinpoint the threats that face them and to recognize new opportunities. Not only is the learning organization a new source of competitive advantage, it also offers a marvelously empowering approach to work, one which promises that, as Archimedes put it, "with a lever long enough... single-handed I can move the world."
"Forget your old, tired ideas about leadership. The most successful corporation of the 1990s will be something called a learning organization." -- Fortune Magazine. --This text refers to the hardcover edition of this title.
