Exploring the Divide--Organizational Learning and Learning Organization.

The terminologies organizational learning and learning organization were once used interchangeably. However, in the mid‐1990s there was a bifurcation into two streams. Organizational learning became the descriptive stream and dealt mostly with the learning processes in the organization. This stream had its roots in social and cognitive psychology with a strong academic focus. Learning organization became the prescriptive stream with a strong practical focus. A broad theoretical framework is presented that links the two streams. In the implementation of learning organization prescriptions, enormous practical difficulties were encountered, making implementations less than successful. The barriers involved in transfer of learning to all levels in the organization (i.e. individual, collective, organizational, and inter‐organizational) and the absence of a link to the learning processes are identified as the major issues in implementation failures. It is postulated that these are the reasons for the gap between the two streams.

[1]  Donald A. Schön,et al.  Organizational Learning: A Theory Of Action Perspective , 1978 .

[2]  J. Burgoyne,et al.  The Learning Company , 1989 .

[3]  P. Senge.  The fifth discipline : the art and practice of the learning organization/ Peter M. Senge , 1991 .

[4]  G. Huber.  Organizational Learning: The Contributing Processes and the Literatures , 1991 .

[5]  M. Dodgson.  Organizational Learning: A Review of Some Literatures , 1993 .

[6]  Investing in People: towards corporate capability , 1993 .

[7]  D. Garvin.  Building a learning organization. , 1993, Harvard business review.

[8]  V. E. Schein.  THE WORK/FAMILY INTERFACE: CHALLENGING “CORPORATE CONVENIENT” , 1993 .

[9]  I. Nonaka.  A Dynamic Theory of Organizational Knowledge Creation , 1994 .

[10]  Kenneth D. Mackenzie,et al.  A Model of Organizational Learning and the Diagnostic Process Supporting It , 1994 .

[11]  David M. Boje,et al.  Organizational Storytelling , 1994 .

[12]  I. Nonaka,et al.  The Knowledge Creating Company , 2008 .

[13]  Donald A. Schön,et al.  Organizational Learning II: Theory, Method, and Practice , 1995 .

[14]  Stephen A.W. Drew,et al.  The learning organization: “change proofing” and strategy , 1995 .

[15]  Ceri Roderick,et al.  Learning organizations in practice , 1995 .

[16]  Chris Argyris,et al.  Action science and organizational learning , 1995 .

[17]  Rosemary Hill,et al.  A measure of the learning organization , 1996 .

[18]  Richard T. Harrison,et al.  Learning organizations: the measurement of company performance , 1996 .

[19]  Mary Crossan,et al.  Organizational learning research profile , 1996 .

[20]  K. Starkey.  How Organizations Learn , 1996 .

[21]  T. Garavan.  The learning organization: a review and evaluation , 1997 .

[22]  Daniel H. Kim.  The Link between individual and organizational learning , 1997 .

[23]  Chris Argyris.  Initiating Change That Perseveres , 1997 .

[24]  Eric W. K. Tsang.  Organizational Learning and the Learning Organization: A Dichotomy Between Descriptive and Prescriptive Research , 1997 .

[25]  Peter C. Whiting,et al.  Success factors in learning organizations: an empirical study , 1997 .

[26]  Lars Steiner,et al.  Organizational Dilemmas as Barriers to Learning. , 1998 .

[27]  R. Reynolds,et al.  Transforming the rhetoric of organisational learning to the reality of the learning organisation , 1998 .

[28]  Bill Buckler,et al.  Practical steps towards a learning organisation: applying academic knowledge to improvement and innovation in business processes , 1998 .

[29]  Paul Iles,et al.  Learning, Leadership, Teams: Corporate Learning and Organisational Change. , 1998 .

[30]  Steven H. Appelbaum,et al.  How to measure an organization’s learning ability: the facilitating factors ‐ part II , 1998 .

[31]  M. Easterby-Smith,et al.  Organizational Learning: Diverging Communities of Practice? , 1998 .

[32]  Paul Tosey,et al.  Assessing the learning organization: part 2 – exploring practical assessment approaches , 1999 .

[33]  Jacky F. L. Hong,et al.  Structuring for organizational learning , 1999 .

[34]  Peter M. Senge,et al.  The Dance of Change: The Challenges to Sustaining Momentum in Learning Organizations , 1999 .

[35]  Managerial perceptions of barriers to becoming a “learning organization” , 2000 .

[36]  R. Lipshitz.  Chic, Mystique, and Misconception , 2000 .

[37]  P. C. Wright,et al.  Predictors of learning organizations: a human resource development practitioner’s perspective , 2000 .

[38]  Y. Lam,et al.  Toward reconceptualizing organizational learning: a multidimensional interpretation , 2001 .

[39]  Fons Wijnhoven,et al.  Acquiring Organizational Learning Norms , 2001 .

[40]  Deb Stewart,et al.  Reinterpreting the Learning Organisation. , 2001 .

[41]  Jan W. Rivkin.  Reproducing Knowledge: Replication Without Imitation at Moderate Complexity , 2001 .

[42]  Raili Moilanen,et al.  Diagnostic tools for learning organizations (Инструменты диагностики научающейся организации) , 2001 .

[43]  M. Schulz.  THE UNCERTAIN RELEVANCE OF NEWNESS: ORGANIZATIONAL LEARNING AND KNOWLEDGE FLOWS , 2001 .

[44]  J. Bratton,et al.  Leader‐follower dynamics: developing a learning environment , 2001 .

[45]  Frederick P. Wheeler,et al.  Using the Learning Square , 2001 .

[46]  Anders Örtenblad.  On differences between organizational learning and learning organization , 2001 .

[47]  Viviane M. J. Robinson.  Descriptive and normative research on organizational learning: locating the contribution of Argyris and Schön , 2001 .

[48]  Richard R. Reilly,et al.  Multi‐dimensionality of learning in new product development teams , 2002 .

[49]  Diane L. Coutu.  The Anxiety of Learning. The HBR Interview. , 2002 .

[50]  Anita L. Tucker,et al.  When Problem Solving Prevents Organizational Learning , 2002 .

[51]  G. Kleinman,et al.  Teams as a Learning Forum for Accounting Professionals. , 2002 .

[52]  D. Coutu,et al.  An anxiety of learning , 2002 .

[53]  Amy C. Edmondson,et al.  The Local and Variegated Nature of Learning in Organizations: A Group-Level Perspective , 2002, Organ. Sci..