Organizational Learning and the Learning Organization

Citation

Mumford, A. (2000), "Organizational Learning and the Learning Organization", Industrial and Commercial Training, Vol. 32 No. 5. https://doi.org/10.1108/ict.2000.03732ead.001

Organizational Learning and the Learning Organization

Organizational Learning and the Learning Organization

Edited by M. Easterby-Smith, J. Burgoyne and L. AraujoSage1999ISBN 07619 59157£47.50 hardback, £15.99 paperback

Keywords: Organizational learning, Learning styles

The flood of books about the learning organisation shows no sign of slackening. This is a particularly interesting and useful work because it combines some chapters which deal primarily in concepts or indeed theories, and others which describe the experiences of trying to carry out the practices involved in creating both/either organisational learning and/or the learning organisation.

An introductory chapter usefully captures a specific difference between organisational learning, described as the processes involved in individual and collective learning inside organisations, compared with the learning organisation which the authors describe as being drawn and described through specific diagnostic tools about the quality of learning organisations.

Slightly to reinterpret their statement, organisational learning describes the ways in which learning may be produced, whereas the learning organisation is a description of achievement or at least a target. Easterby-Smith and Araujo in this chapter describe as problems both a lack of empirical work and especially independent studies of achievement in these areas, while there is also insufficient theory development. In both cases what does exist is in their view too dominated by the USA (with the exception of Nonaka).

Either by ironic editorial judgement, or accident, the next chapter says that theory building is "impeded by an excessive concern for usefulness to the practising manager". Personally, I have long been an adherent of Lewin, "This is nothing so practical as a good theory". I might well be one of those who show "excessive concern".

A later chapter by Huysman is to me an interesting demonstration of the application of a theory, since he describes the chapter as being a first attempt to deconstruct writings on organisational learning, such as Derrida, an author who I suspect is well-known amongst some academics but not at all amongst practising managers.

There are some excellent practical chapters. For example, "The role of evaluatory enquiry in creating learning organizations" by Preskill and Torres provides an excellent template for processes required for producing and examining data. Nancy Dixon's chapter is characteristically helpful, describing a particular experience of trying to create "learning across organizational boundaries". I suspect she identifies a common problem in that the creation of special vehicles for organisational learning was not followed by effective driving of similar vehicles when people returned to work.

For trainers and developers, this book is worthwhile particularly for the contributions of these last two authors, since it might enable them to avoid some of the problems which they might encounter in trying to facilitate the creation of organizational learning.

Alan Mumford