Handbook of Organizational Learning and Knowledge Management, Second Edition

Contrasting Images: Implications

To talk about developing ‘learning organizations’ means focusing on certain prescribed organizational and managerial characteristics. With its emphasis on managerial initiatives to establish the pre-conditions or skills for learning, a research agenda based on the need for ‘learning organizations’ would be oriented towards micro or individual-based factors. Another key issue pertains to establishing a vision and moving the firm towards that vision. By invoking the need for ‘learning organizations,’ theorists lay out a prescription for organizational improvement. While visions are powerful tools that motivate, one effect is to denigrate rather than appreciate the strengths of an organization. This implication may be one of the liabilities of the learning organization fad as suggested by Calhoun et al., 2003. Also, to regard learning as somehow antithetical to organizations is contrary to appreciative inquiry (Shrivastava, 1999).

To consider ‘organizations as learning portfolios’ produces a view of learning and organizations that is fundamentally different from the prescriptive vision of the ‘learning organization’. Instead of focusing on some future state to be attained through managerial action and executive leadership, any desire to enhance an organization’s learning must focus on understanding the organization as it now exists through its culture and differentiated structures. Organizations house diverse learning activities and styles that ideally ...