Can Leaders Influence a Learning Organization?

Can Leaders Influence a Learning Organization?

Author: Ira Ann Grover

Publisher:

Published: 2012

Total Pages:

ISBN-13:

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The purpose of this research is to study how organizations maintain their competitive advantage in today's turbulent and highly competitive business environment, by striving to become a learning organization. The impact of factors such as leadership (both transformational and transactional leadership) and trust on an organization's learning capability is empirically examined. This research adds to the existing body of literature in two ways. First, it argues that a transactional leadership style can influence learning, despite research spanning the last decade that has focused on transformational leadership theory as the dominant model of effective leadership. Therefore, the importance of both leadership styles, each having valuable differential effects is emphasized in this study. Second, the previously untested role of trust as mediating the relationship between leadership and organizational learning capability is examined. It is argued that without supervisor trust, the opportunities for a learning organization to reach its full potential and to subsequently develop learning capabilities is reduced. Findings from this study support the influence of both leadership styles on learning. Trust in one's supervisor was also found to fully mediate the relationship between leadership and learning.


Building an Innovative Learning Organization

Building an Innovative Learning Organization

Author: Russell Sarder

Publisher: John Wiley & Sons

Published: 2016-01-15

Total Pages: 216

ISBN-13: 1119157471

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Institute a culture of learning to boost organizational performance and agility What makes organizations successful? Today, most successful companies are learning organizations. Building an Innovative Learning Organization shows you how to join their ranks and bring your organization up to the head of the class. This book is a practical, actionable guide on how to boost performance, successfully manage change, and innovate more quickly. Learning organizations are composed of engaged, motivated employees who continually seek improvement, which leads to organizational agility and the ability to innovate ahead of the curve. When you encourage learning at every level, from the intern to the C suite, you gain a more highly skilled workforce with a greater ability to act in any situation. Building an Innovative Learning Organization shows you how to create this culture in your organization, with detailed explanations, practical examples, and step-by-step instructions so you can get started right away. Written by a recognized thought leader in the training industry, this informative and insightful guide is your roadmap to a more effective organization. You will discover how to: Attract, retain, and motivate the best employees Become a more innovative and agile organization Create a culture of continuous self-improvement Encourage learning at all levels and translate it into action Learning and education doesn't end at graduation—it's a lifelong process that keeps you relevant, informed, and better able to achieve your goals. These same benefits apply at the organizational level, making the culture self-sustaining: learning organizations attract top workers, who drive the organization forward, which attracts more top workers. If you want the best people, you have to be their best option. Building an Innovative Learning Organization gives you a blueprint for building a culture of learning, for a stronger, more robust organization.


Smart Leaders, Smarter Teams

Smart Leaders, Smarter Teams

Author: Roger M. Schwarz

Publisher: John Wiley & Sons

Published: 2013-03-18

Total Pages: 279

ISBN-13: 0787988731

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A proven approach for helping leaders and teams work together to achieve better decisions, greater commitment, and stronger results More than ever, effective leadership requires us to work as a team, but many leaders struggle to get the results they need. When stakes are high, you can't get great results by just changing what you do. You also need to change how you think. Organizational psychologist and leadership consultant Roger Schwarz applies his 30+ years of experience working with leadership teams to reveal how leaders can drastically improve results by changing their individual and team mindset. Provides practical guidance to help teams increase decision quality, decrease implementation time, foster innovation, get commitment, reduce costs and increase trust Outlines 5 core values leadership teams can adopt to exponentially improve results Author of The Skilled Facilitator and The Skilled Facilitator Fieldbook Get the results you and your team need. Start by applying the practical wisdom of Smart Leaders, Smarter Teams.


Assessing the Role of Leadership in Transformation in a Learning Organization

Assessing the Role of Leadership in Transformation in a Learning Organization

Author:

Publisher:

Published: 2001

Total Pages:

ISBN-13:

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Much has been written about the dramatic nature and pace of change that is ongoing in our w rld. Change can be both evolutionary and revolutionary. In an era where the speed and nature of change is having a profound effect on organizations, most are looking for ways to respond to these forces of change: to make changes to their organizations to make them more flexible, more adaptable. Among these organizations, a smaller number are looking to do much more than simply improve or alter existing processes in their organizations: they are looking to fundamentally reform or "transform" their organizations. Within this environment, the capacity to adapt to, or try to 'manage' change has become increasingly important. But in an environment of increasing complexity and uncertainty is it really possible to manage change? This thesis explores the issue of change and how leadership can influence the ability to navigate change effectively, within learning organizations. The Thesis suggests that, while it may not be realistic to try to manage change, the leaders of organizations may be able to create the conditions necessary to prepare for and adapt to change, and indeed, to seize the opportunities that change may present. More specifically, this thesis suggests that this role is the central one for leadership in helping organizations survive and thrive. With these ideas in mind, a framework for initially examining the role of leadership with respect to organizational change is developed. The creation of this framework involves looking at living systems theory, understanding the nature of change, identifying key leadership attributes and tasks, and juxtaposing these against what systems theory suggests as a potential role for leadership.


The Fifth Discipline

The Fifth Discipline

Author: Peter M. Senge

Publisher: Crown Currency

Published: 2010-03-31

Total Pages: 466

ISBN-13: 0307477649

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MORE THAN ONE MILLION COPIES IN PRINT • “One of the seminal management books of the past seventy-five years.”—Harvard Business Review This revised edition of the bestselling classic is based on fifteen years of experience in putting Peter Senge’s ideas into practice. As Senge makes clear, in the long run the only sustainable competitive advantage is your organization’s ability to learn faster than the competition. The leadership stories demonstrate the many ways that the core ideas of the Fifth Discipline, many of which seemed radical when first published, have become deeply integrated into people’s ways of seeing the world and their managerial practices. Senge describes how companies can rid themselves of the learning blocks that threaten their productivity and success by adopting the strategies of learning organizations, in which new and expansive patterns of thinking are nurtured, collective aspiration is set free, and people are continually learning how to create the results they truly desire. Mastering the disciplines Senge outlines in the book will: • Reignite the spark of genuine learning driven by people focused on what truly matters to them • Bridge teamwork into macrocreativity • Free you of confining assumptions and mindsets • Teach you to see the forest and the trees • End the struggle between work and personal time This updated edition contains more than one hundred pages of new material based on interviews with dozens of practitioners at companies such as BP, Unilever, Intel, Ford, HP, and Saudi Aramco and organizations such as Roca, Oxfam, and The World Bank.


The Future of Leadership Development

The Future of Leadership Development

Author: Susan Elaine Murphy

Publisher: Psychology Press

Published: 2003-09-12

Total Pages: 306

ISBN-13: 1135630089

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Leadership in today's organizations is a tough business. Organizational leaders face a number of challenges as their jobs, and the world around them, become increasingly complex. Trends, such as organizational "delayering," rapid technological advances, and increased employee empowerment require that leaders adapt their techniques and styles of leadership to meet these new challenges. Consequently, there has been an explosion of interest in leadership in recent years as researchers and management educators struggle to understand the process of leadership development, how it operates, and what characteristics make effective leaders. Born of these questions, the 11th Annual Kravis-de Roulet Leadership Conference at Claremont McKenna College brought together an impressive slate of scholars whose theories, research, and cutting-edge techniques are now gathered together in this impressive volume. Each chapter asks and answers questions about the current state of the field while providing future direction for research to help bridge the gap between leadership researchers and leadership development practitioners. Notable topics include chapters on "e-leadership" and leadership within the "virtual" organization, exploring 360-degree feedback, the importance of "social capital," and a comprehensive analysis of the well-researched theory of Leader Member Exchange.


Work Engagement

Work Engagement

Author: Arnold B. Bakker

Publisher: Psychology Press

Published: 2010-04-05

Total Pages: 218

ISBN-13: 1136980881

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This book provides the most thorough view available on this new and intriguing dimension of workplace psychology, which is the basis of fulfilling, productive work. The book begins by defining work engagement, which has been described as ‘an opposite to burnout,’ following its development into a more complex concept with far reaching implications for work-life. The chapters discuss the sources of work engagement, emphasizing the importance of leadership, organizational structures, and human resource management as factors that may operate to either enhance or inhibit employee’s experience of work. The book considers the implications of work engagement for both the individual employee and the organization as a whole. To address readers’ practical questions, the book provides in-depth coverage of interventions that can enhance employees’ work engagement and improve management techniques. Based upon the most up-to-date research by the foremost experts in the world, this volume brings together the best knowledge available on work engagement, and will be of great use to academic researchers, upper level students of work and organizational psychology as well as management consultants.


The Nature of Organizational Leadership

The Nature of Organizational Leadership

Author: Stephen J. Zaccaro

Publisher: John Wiley & Sons

Published: 2002-02-28

Total Pages: 534

ISBN-13: 9780787959937

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The quality of an organization's top leaders is a critical influence on its overall effectiveness and continuing adaptability. Yet, little current research examines leadership within the context of organizational structure, such as how leaders influence organizational performance in those key moments when an executive's action is critical to driving the organization forward. This book represents a significant contribution to the literature of leadership, combining a contextual approach to organizational leadership with an in-depth treatment of the cognitive, social, and affective dynamics underlying that leadership. The Nature of Organizational Leadership, using an interdisciplinary approach that draws from the work of scholars in both management and psychology, provides a much-need organizational perspective on the problems to confronted by top executive leaders and the requisite behaviors, attributes, and outcomes necessary to lead organizations effectively.


Leading a Learning Organization

Leading a Learning Organization

Author: Casey Reason

Publisher: Solution Tree Press

Published: 2011-11-22

Total Pages: 237

ISBN-13: 1935543938

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Improve the quality of organizational learning in your school and address how current demands for rapid change and accountability contribute to levels of fear and stress. The author draws on educational, psychological, and neuroscientific research to show how leaders can change the prevailing emotional climate or tone of a school to promote deeper learning at all levels.


Leadership

Leadership

Author: Robert P. Vecchio

Publisher: University of Notre Dame Pess

Published: 2007-06-01

Total Pages: 600

ISBN-13: 0268161623

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Today, there are a growing number of business schools, law schools, and continuing education programs in executive development and management training that offer leadership classes. Despite the growing curricular recognition of this area, there is a shortage of strong college-level texts. Leadership, second edition—a completely up-to-date anthology of key writings by well-known contributors—meets this need for a textbook that encompasses the major theories in the field of leadership. Leadership is divided into six sections. Part I provides an overview of the subject with readings that examine what leaders actually do, as well as the many myths surrounding the notion of leadership. Part II focuses on the fundamentals of leadership by taking a close look at the specific tactics people use to get their own way. These readings analyze the political games people play and the two-way nature of leader-subordinate influence. Part III considers problems that can arise from leadership gone wrong—when power and influence are abused. The major formal models of leadership that have been offered over the years are reviewed in Part IV. The next section looks at contemporary views of leadership, emphasizing reliance on maturity of subordinates for success, including leadership in the context of self-directed work teams, entrepreneurial leadership, the notion of the leader as servant, and examples of leaders who are recognized for having empowered others or for providing moral leadership. The final section examines the roles of societal and organizational cultures as they pertain to leadership. Robert P. Vecchio has updated the second edition with six new articles. Aimed at upper-level undergraduate and graduate-level courses, Leadership continues to provide classic essays by the major figures in the field of leadership along with topical essays on current and emerging issues.