The problem and the solution. Some organizations seek to become learning organizations. Yet, implementation is elusive and is not often based on research about what constitutes a learning culture. Over the past 16 years, a model of a learning organization was developed that draws on both the literature and organizational case studies. However, organizations wanted a way to diagnose their current status and guide change, and scholars wanted better measures of learning to compare organizations and to explore links between organizational learning and the performance of the firm. The solution was to develop and validate an instrument that addresses these needs.

This research describes efforts to develop and validate a multidimensional measure of the learning organization. An instrument was developed based on a critical review of both the conceptualization and practice of this construct. Supporting validity evidence for the instrument was obtained from several sources, including best model-data fit among alternative measurement models, nomological network among dimensions of the learning organization, and organizational performance outcomes. Acceptable reliability estimates were obtained for the seven proposed dimensions. Consequently, the instrument, Dimensions of the Learning Organization Questionnaire, was recommended for use in organizational studies.In the past, organizational researchers have focused their work on conceptualization of the learning organization, identifying characteristics of such enterprises that have the capacity to learn, adapt, and change. A number of approaches to defining the construct have emerged.Systems Thinking. Senge (1990) defines the learning organization as an organization that possesses not only an adaptive capacity but also "generativity"-that is, the ability to create alternative futures. Senge identifies the five disciplines that a learning organization should possess: team learning-emphasis on the learning activities of the group rather than on the development of team process; shared visions-ability to unearth shared "pictures of the future" that foster genuine commitment and enrollment rather than compliance; mental models-deeply held internal images of how the world works; personal mastery-continually clarifying and deepening personal vision, focusing energies, developing patience, and seeing reality objectively; and system thinking-ability to see interrelationships rather than linear cause-effect chains.

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This chapter provides a theory of informal and incidental learning and updates this theory based on recent research.

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