The Fifth Discipline: The Art and Practice of the Learning Organization ... by Peter Senge, 1990 - 1st edition, 1994 - paperback edition, xxiii, 413 pages
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[ISBN 0-385-26095-4] While Senge's book frames the issue and primes management for a pattern-based view of the world, it's my personal opinion that his approach to finding these patterns is a bit haphazard, and I certainly feel his diagraming style could use some help. I'd really like to see some convergence between the tech-centric and business-centric worlds (isn't this one of the things we are supposed to get from Object Technology) and a well defined method of documenting patterns across the two might be a nice starting place.
I've always thought that there is a lot of potential synergy between Senge's organizational structures and the work being done by the patterns community (especially some of the Organizational Patterns work done by Jim Coplien et al.) Sadly, I haven't seen much that tries to bridge the gap between the two areas. Fifth Discipline is widely read by management, but most of them have very little (if any) understanding of the work being done on Organizational, Analysis, and Design Patterns.
I've always felt that the patterns community (or at least the Organizational Patterns work) has been largely ignoring the wider study of organizations by people like Senge. A quick revisit of Jim Coplien's site gives me no obvious reason to change my view (e.g. the very limited view of management expressed by www.bell-labs.com 
, wayback ). It's also very based around software development organizations, and appears to me very prescriptive, not accounting for the variety of things that can and do work in practice.
So achieving this synergy would be great (and extending it to the organizational design field more widely, and it's definitely a two way process; the Organizational Patterns world has a lot to learn from Senge et al.
BTW, read The Fifth Discipline Field Book for something more practically focused. -- Paul Hudson
2006 revised edition
It has a new section called "Reflections from Practice" which from browsing, appear to have a Societal dimension (a worldview in the real sense) to it. This seem to match up with a new Appendix on "U Process". A reference to "U process" can be seen at www.generonconsulting.com
A Systems Thinking perspective to Wiki Edit Wars
Bridging the Impedance Mismatch in concept and practices of Shared Vision
Near the end of the Shared Vision chapter, Peter Senge was commenting on the current disillusionment with the Shared Vision concept. He said Leader Ship teams are about to give up on Positive Dialogue, in the last section titled "THE MISSING SYNERGY: SHARED VISION AND SYSTEMS THINKING". He completes the chapter with a quote he heard from a manager, saying , "... the reality we have is only one of several possible realities" (page 215).
What has that got to do with Edit Wars? Perhaps we can consider there is another alternative to the geek mode of Listen With Your Answer Running. I think the author did a superb job in explaining the need to strike a balance, between "advocacy" and "inquiry" in a previous version of this book, if more explanations are needed than what is here already.
Those of us who haven't got the book may want a peek at this www.thedialoguegrouponline.com , a link on Positive Dialogue
Related: Mental Model In Dialogue
Shift in Mental Model
And Systems Thinking lets participants realise sometimes an acceptable solution (reality) lies within the larger system, within which the Wards Wiki people reside. -- Wiki Nobody
See original on c2.com