The Learning Organization: Adult Learning and Organizational Transformation

Abstract

The concept of the 'learning organization', with its roots in self-development and actionlearning, has recently caught the imagination of many organizations and researchers. However, emerging definitions are creating ambiguity. There is, therefore, a need to add substance to them, and widen our understanding of what the concept means, by concentrating on what is meant by 'learning', and focusing on exactly how adults learn. Understanding and facilitating adult learning in organizations is, by and large, a confused activity that fails to connect with an individual's other experiences and needs, and with what modern psychology and research have to teach us. In particular, learning and skills need to be linked to the questioning of purpose and value in an organization.

Action research as a knowledge generating change methodology

“…Bennis (1990) has referred to change as the 'metaphysics of our age'. This is particularly true of cultural change where, given the human-centric nature of such change and the ontological issues associated with it, historically embedded values and deeply socialised assumptions are the targets of transformation (Kofman & Senge, 1993;Jones & Hendry, 1994). However, much of the change literature is underpinned by positivist assumptions that discount the role of human volition in change situations.…”

Value perceptions and performance of research joint ventures: An organizational learning perspective

“…Jones and Hendry (1994) argued that the development of the learning capacity demand both, structural or technical aspects related to explicit knowledge (hard learning), and social or human aspects more related to tacit knowledge and though styles (soft learning). The reason is that each of these two perspectives has limitations that have induced their evolution towards integrative perspectives intended to create a general framework about knowledge and learning management in organizations (Brown & Eisenhardt, 1997;Choi & Lee, 2003;Popper & Lipshitz, 2000;Van der Krogt, 1998).…”

‘Learning hospitals’ and quality

“…This type of learning is nondirective since its purpose is not to transmit information through the trainer. We need to hold the 'learning hospital' as a direction and organizational learning as a descriptive and heuristic device to explain and quantify learning activities and events (Jones and Hendry, 1994). However, there is an inevitable danger of emphasizing the attributes of the system at the expense of human agency, thus leading to a refined mechanistic model.…”