done when the leaders take up the role of facilitator. Chaisiri says that “Learning
organization leaders should be trained in exploiting appropriate strategies and
management concepts with continuous learning attitudes.”(1997).
Similarly, team learning is not something that happens on its own. In this case the
team leader is required to facilitate the learning of the team members through
identification of need for learning and creating an environment of consensus. In system
thinking creating awareness about the individual’s role and its connection to the system is
not what all is required for introducing this concept. It is the leader who time and again
has to make them realize that how an individual performance is integrated in activities
and how those activities help in continuity of the processes.
In addition to the above roles, based on Senge’s approach, Smith (2001) has
identified three different roles of a leader in a learning organization.
- Leader as a designer
- Leader as a Steward
- Leader as a Teacher
- Leader as a Designer: In the role of a designer one is responsible for designing
the whole system of the organization including policies, strategies and processes
etc(Smith, 2001). This is surely a leader’s responsibility, but in a learning
organization this is all done in a participatory manner. Policies, strategies and
processes are finalized by the leaders but are based on the feedback from the
employees as they are considered to have the right kind of information about the
processes and tasks they perform. - Leader as a Steward: As discussed earlier, the leader’s role in a learning
organization is to manage the processes while others perform. At this point the
leader’s role as a steward means that he is the steward of the vision (Smith; 2001) and
not the owner of it. Leader’s vision may be the same as organizational vision and one
can inform the employee about it but can not force it. About this role of a leader