Analysing the Role of Leadership in Fostering a Learning Organization

Abstract

This research examines the problem of supervision within the context of fostering a learning organization. The goal is to construct a systematic model describing critical supervisory behaviors and actions that facilitate organizational learning. The methodology relies upon building a model from the analysis of literature on leadership and learning in organizations which is comprehensive in scope, focusing on theories of leadership and concepts of a learning organization. Some hypothetical measures of organizational learning capability are calculated to illustrate the effects leadership may have on the ability of the organization to learn. The results indicated that leadership with vision, empowerment, and support combined with practices that encourage sharing, knowledge, knowledge creation, and reflective processes are the most important for learning in organizations and consequently improve adaptability and performance. This framework constructs an organization that embraces constant change and improvement enables leaders to better understand the processes involved.