Learning Organization on Change Management

    The consequence of rapid changes in the business and technology environment in the era of knowledge and technology as it is today is that organizations are faced with increasing complexity and uncertainty in their environment.Rapid environmental change requires every organization to respond and adapt to changes, and the emergence of this change is not to be resisted or opposed, but it must be managed.The ability of an organization to manage change will be able to increase its competitiveness. In an effort to improve competitive advantage, this forces each organization to adapt and transform into a Learning Organization (LO), which is trying to make itself an organization that is able to continuously learn.

    In a learning organization the ability to anticipate these changes depends on the creativity and innovation of the members. Creativity and innovation is an indicator of the success of an organization that emerged from organization's members that continuosly learning. Through learning, individuals can do everything that was previously they were unable to do and to create individual learners, organizations must provide the widest possible opportunity for their members to grade knowledge and skills. The leaders of the world's big companies claim that the only way to win the competition is only through their people. This means that the competencies of the workers will determine the progress of the organization which in turn will reflect the competencies of the organization.

      Senge in his popular book, The fifth discipline: The Art and Practice of Learning Organization explains the definition of learning organization. Learning organization is an organization that people always  continuously develop their capacity to create the results they want, with new thinking patterns, the freedom aspirations of groups and members continuously learn. The core concept means that building a learning organization is basically creating individual learners in the organization. There is no learning organization without individual learners and only by learning organizations will be able to maintain competitive advantage. Through learning, a person can improve himself and will expand his ability to create something according to what he wants. Besides that, forming an organization that is able to learn will be able to restore or "rejuvenate (refresh)" the working atmosphere within the organization.

    Learning organizaton is an organization that facilitates learning from all its members and continuously transforms itself. A learning organization is not an organization that merely follows a lot of training, but learning has been embedded in the concept and reflected in the daily work atmosphere in the organization so that it has become a culture in the organization. To build a learning organization three important elements that can be said to be the pillars of a learning organization are (1) individual learning, (2) transformation of knowledge and (3) organizational learning in which these three things will support and relate to each other.

    Individual learning is a process of accumulation of individual knowledge to produce skills / personal skills. The second pillar is the transformation of knowledge which serves as a tool to bring about the process of knowledge transfer among members of the organization, this pillar also demands learning facilities that are able to create transformation such as training, small group discussions and integrated communication and information technology. The third pillar is organizational learning, to produce intellectual capital that is able to provide added value to the organization. Intellectual capital comes from the knowledge of workers so that it can be said that organizational learning is a way to build people who have diverse competencies, and are able to work together so that they can share their vision and knowledge to be synergized and transformed into organizational intellectual capital. The main concept of organizational learning is joint learning that involves all members of the organization, so that the mechanism of sharing ways of thinking, perspectives and shared vision, becomes the key to success for the organization. 

    It can be concluded that the most important resources in realizing a learning organization are intangible resources that are sourced from workers' knowledge, emotional and intellectual abilities (soft skills), and also technical skills (hard skills). These resources must be developed continuously in efforts to build a learning organization. Robert Pitts in his book Strategic Management: Building and Sustaining Competitive Advantage develops six main dimensions of learning organization.  

1. Frequent rotation managers: Rotating managers periodically will increase the knowledge of managers in each area or part of the organization's activities.

2. Continual training: Continuous training for members of the organization. With a commitment to training and developing human resources, new skills will be available. Training will encourage the emergence of new ideas.

3. Decentralization of decision making: Organizations can facilitate learning of their members through the decentralization of responsibilities so that they participate in decision making. Decentralization of decision-making gives room for members to experiment in new ways that they think are appropriate. Decentralization will encourage creativity to develop.

4. Openness and diversity of ideas: There is openness in leadership and willingness to listen to ideas, proposals and criticisms. There is a willingness for leaders to understand different views. Openness will be able to understand the diversity of others.

5. High tolerance of failure: To facilitate learning, the leader does not pose a threat to members who draft ideas that ultimately fail. The company must tolerate accepting errors / failures of the experiments of its members. Awards are given if the work is successful.

6. Encouragement multiple experiment: It takes initiative and courage to try to develop the best results. Teamwork that develops skills and knowledge will be beneficial for producing the best. Experimenting is the key to product development.

    The application of these six dimensions is certainly adjusted to the conditions of the organization, some elements may have to be adjusted, and there are elements that might be added. Creativity and innovation in building learning organizations become very important because flexibility in the application of these elements will be adjusted to the rapid changes that occur. Finally, this paper is expected to be an inspiration for everyone who manages or becomes part of an organization to be able to build their organization into a learning organization.