The Acceptance of Senge's Learning Organisation Model among Managers in China: An Interview Study

摘要

Senge s model has been widely accepted as a theoretical scheme for developing learning organisations but there is little evidence for fully developed learning organisations in the West. This paper explored the extent to which managers' in China behave in a way consistent with the five dimensions of Senge s model (shared vision, whole team learning, changed mental models, continuous individual learning and systems thinking). Case studies with interviews with 37 middle and senior managers were conducted within 5 private owned enterprises (POEs) in China. The extremely high recognition by managers of all five disciplines suggested that, even though the term learning organisation is unknown, learning organisations were widespread in China. Explanations were offered in terms of Chinese leadership behaviours and Chinese pragmatic world view. This research contributes to learning organisation literature by extending Senge's well-known model and theory to a Chinese context, through qualitative empirical study.