The Influence of Leadership in Building a Learning Organization
Educational institutions as learning organizations could be best explained through Senge's theoretical framework of schools as learning organizations. For Peter Senge, 'real learning gets to the heart of what it is to be human. We become able to recreate ourselves. This applies to both individuals and organizations. Thus, for a learning organization, it is not enough to survive, but to enhance capacity to create' Educational leaders are individuals in schools, colleges, universities and educational institutions that have responsibilities and a decision making role. These people are responsible for the successes and failures of their institutions. This paper discusses the potential of leadership styles in influencing a learning organization. It first explores the leadership styles most frequently engaged in schools and secondly identifies the dimensions of leadership style that influence a learning organization. The study was conducted across 80 schools in the city of Bangalore. Two tools were used in this study, namely, Learning Organization Profile (LOP) to measure learning organization and leadership styles scale to measure the leadership style most engaged in by the supervisors/principals/coordinators of schools. A total of 750 respondents' data was analyzed. The study has indicated that leadership styles play a significant role in building a learning organization. The paper concludes with a discussion of the implications.