Reinterpreting the Learning Organization

Reinterpreting the learning organisation
Deb Stewart

Introduction
The concept of the learning organisation (LO) has gone through many combinations and permutations over the last decade in terms of theoretical development and attempts at practical application. The fervent interest in the LO stems from what Senge (1990; Senge et al., 1994) calls the age of globalisation where one source of competitive advantage is the ability and rate at which an organisation can learn and react more quickly than its competitors. Some writers have used the term LO interchangeably with organisational learning (OL) while others have attempted to draw clear distinctions between the two. There appears to be little consensus about what a LO organisation looks like or what OL means. Furthermore there seems little agreement on the relationship between individual learning and collective learning in organisations and how one translates into the other. This paper initially provides a cursory glimpse at the current literature on the LO in the context of learning and OL and in particular the theoretical tensions and dilemmas existing between these concepts. Management theorists have under-utilised the insights and practices from other disciplines such as sociology, philosophy and anthropology. As Burrell (1994) argues:
Sooner or later organisation studies must enter an area where philosophy and social science meet. Organisation studies must also enter intellectual theory where the well-established French and German traditions of social theory meet.

The author Deb Stewart is a Lecturer in the School of Management, Victoria University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Keywords Learning organization, Organizational learning, Organizational change, Metaphor, Narratives Abstract Examines the theoretical and practical development of the concept of the learning organisation (LO). Some theorists have used the term LO interchangeably with organisational learning, while others have drawn

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