Re-examining the Structure of the Educational and Organizational Program of the University by Resorting to the Learning Organization Theory of Peter Senge

The structure of the educational and organizational program of the university should be flexible and appropriate to the scientific developments and the needs of society in order to help improve the quality of education and students' skills. For this purpose, the current research aimed to investigate the structure of the university’s educational and organizational program by resorting to Peter Senge’s learning organization theory.

The current research method was qualitative with a descriptive phenomenological strategy. The field of research involved the professors of Kurdistan University and Razi University of Kermanshah. Through targeted sampling, 12 of these professors were selected as the research sample. The data collection tool was a semi-structured interview, which continued until reaching the theoretical saturation category, where no new data was obtained by the researcher. The data were analyzed after using Glaser's two-stage open and axial coding method.

The research findings revealed four main categories as the components of the mental model of the university's educational planning structure, including an emphasis on learning and creating knowledge, encouraging dialogue and cooperation, supporting personal development, and flexibility and adaptability. Also, four main categories were counted as common ideals in higher education, including leadership support, feedback and performance evaluation, innovation and creativity, and systemic thinking.

Changing the university’s bureaucratic structure to a learning structure will improve the current structures of Iranian universities.