Condition+4

__The Six Conditions to Support Organizational Learning in Schools__ __According to Collinson and Cook__ CONDITION 1 CONDITION 2 CONDITION 3 CONDITION 4 CONDITION 5 CONDITION 6 **CONDITION 4 - PRACTICING DEMOCRATIC PRINCIPLES**
 * = //In Plain English?// ||= //Practical examples?// ||= //What would the Theorists Think?// ||
 * Democratic principles refer to individuals within an organization having the freedom to inquire, think independently, and speak as equals. Some democratic principles include truth and transparency, representation, vigorous discussion, freedom of speech, and pluralism, which refers to beliefs, sources of information, and intellectual positions. Democratic principles encourage free flow of communication, equality and participation in decision-making. There should be a checks and balances system to protect the minority and to avoid abuse of power. All members, with the leaders at the forefront, should practice these principles in order to encourage learning within an organization. || * Simple example of democracy:

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 * Beautiful video on democracy (it’s a little longer, though):

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SIX CONDITIONS THE THEORISTS CORE ASSUMPTIONS BACK TO HOME 
 * An example of trying to maintain democracy is what happened in Madison, WI this past spring of 2011. The many walks that were organized at the state capital were a way to give a voice to public workers across the state. People shared their ideas, expressed themselves in a positive way, and joined together to defend the rights of workers in order to maintain democracy in our state. Although people came from different organizations and joined forces, they were connected in other ways. Education, the Wisconsin working class, families in Wisconsin, and political views were among some of the connections. || * **Wenger** believes in communities of membership that participants negotiate meaning through identifying themselves with an organization. He mentions that we know, through practice, what we are by what is familiar, understandable, usable, and negotiable, We know what we are not by what is foreign, opaque, unwieldy, and unproductive (Wenger, 1998, 153). He goes on to say that identity is fundamentally temporal, and that we are on various trajectories at any one given time. It is through these trajectories that people find connections with others and their identities change-a constant interplay of the local and the global. I believe that Wenger supports a democratic view of participation, and that if communities of participation are functioning fully, they would support the idea of the individual contributing to the organization.
 * Argyris & **Schön** support democratic thinking in that they believe that cultural assumptions result from explicit sharing of assumptions and understandings among organizational members (Collinson & Cook, 2007, 19). This idea supports a democratic view in that every person’s view is considered in decision-making. This is emphasized in their idea of double-loop learning, wherein members engage in changing their thinking or views in order to change established norms.
 * **Daft & Weick** also support democratic thinking in their view of respecting individual ideas in relation to the whole. They envision the organizational interpretation process as a collective process. Their quote “Organizations do not have mechanisms separate from individuals to set goals, process information, or perceive the environment, yet the organizational process is more than the sum of what occurs individually” supports the democratic philosophy (Collinson & Cook, 2007, 23).
 * **Fiol & Lyles** believe that cognitive change involves shared understandings of an organization’s members. They believe that all members play an integral part in organizational learning through cognitive and behavioral changes.
 * **Levitt & March** discuss how organizations rely on historical practices and routines, and that there is danger in doing this due to personal motives and ways of viewing past practices. They go on to explain the dangers of competency traps, in which organizations continue to use an inferior procedure due to experiencing temporal success with it (Collinson & Cook, 2007, 26). This interferes with discovering new and better ways of doing things due to members’ inabilities to “see” beyond the present practices. Democratic principles are absent in an organization such as this due to lack of discussing, learning, and collaboration. ||