Organizational Learning: A Literature Review

Abstract

While a comprehensive model for organizational learning (OL) remains elusory, the wide web of scholarly conversation and debate has spurred rich insight into the central questions of how and what people learn in organizational settings. This paper is aimed at exploring some of those debates, with a view to identifying a complementary set of factors that, if present, might tip the balance towards more fruitful learning in organizations. I begin by exploring the debates shaping the literature through two central questions: 1) What is learning? and 2) Can organizations learn? Based on the insights gained, I turn to the question of how organizations can increase their capacity to learn. I define learning in organizations as a multilevel process whereby members individually and collectively acquire knowledge by acting together and reflecting together. Knowledge is acquired, or created, and applied by individuals. In turn, individual knowledge is shared, combined, expanded, tested, and applied amongst individuals to become group or community knowledge. As that knowledge is captured, spread and embedded in organizational features, such as strategies and protocols, it becomes part of an organizational context, or code, that, in turn, influences what and how groups, communities, and individuals learn. The code continues to evolve as it consumes the learning of individuals and groups. Rather than searching for the ultimate recipe for learning, I offer a set of questions as a starting place for this exploration. The questions and commentary are meant to tap into the tremendous amount of wisdom that has been generated in the area of organizational learning.

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