The Learning Organization: Foucauldian Gloom or Utopian Sunshine?

Based on Coopey’s critical review of the terms ‘Utopian sunshine’ and ‘Foucauldian gloom’ with regard to the learning organization (Coopey, 1998), this article explores the learning organization from two opposing perspectives. While researchers agree that the learning organization concept is an important one for organization science, two seemingly irreconcilable research communities are arguing about whether the learning organization is a dream or a nightmare for its members, particularly with regard to three critical dimensions: control, ideology and potentially painful employee experiences. The purpose of this article is to review and critically examine both the optimistic view of the learning organization as positive ideal and the more critical view of the learning organization as negative ideology. Based on this examination, the article aims to synthesize a new middle-ground perspective on the learning organization, referred to as the ‘fluorescent light’ view, incorporating elements from both optimistic and critical views in hopes of generating a dialog between them that will provide new research questions on control, ideology and potential pain in learning organizations.

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