Organizations are people: reflections, obstacles and learning opportunities

Abstract

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to place the idea of the learning organization in a historical, multidisciplinary context with the aim of identifying obstacles and opportunities for its greater realization in practice. Design/methodology/approach Marking the 30th anniversary of publication of Peter Senge's “The Fifth Discipline”, the paper reflects on approaches to the study and analysis of organizations over the past century from German sociology, human relations, organization development, the learning organization to responses to the Covid-19 pandemic. Findings It is suggested that distributed leadership is critical to the realization of organizational learning and its absence is a major inhibitor of such learning. Following Argyris, it is argued that high levels of skill (personal mastery) may, in some circumstances, provide a barrier to organizational learning in the face of contextual uncertainty and change. Research limitations/implications While no specific areas of research are proposed, questions are raised which may only be answered in the wake of appropriate (interdisciplinary) research. Practical implications The reflective nature of the paper suggests that significant reform is required in the legislation that encourages short-term thinking on the part of institutional investors to the detriment of strategic thinking and long-term planning. Social implications The Covid-19 pandemic seems to have provided an opportunity to redress a perceived imbalance between traditional organizational thinking and opportunities demonstrated by effective community action, for reappraisal of organizations as communities of people as well as being formalized structures, systems and processes. Originality/value This paper seeks to synthesize diverse theories of organization with the aim of stimulating further innovation in approaches to organizational learning.

Connecting organizational learning and open innovation research: an integrative framework and insights from case studies of strategic alliances

“…OL is considered as the process through which organizations learn through the acquisition and integration of knowledge. Among the various methods used, the best known are certainly those of experimentation (Shahriari & Allameh, 2020), improvisation (Baker et al, 2003) and learning by doing (Robinson, 2020). After examining some of the mechanisms used by companies to acquire knowledge, we noted that previous studies have pointed to the importance of experiential learning (Adler & Clark, 1991) and experimental learning (Miner, Bassoff, & Moorman, 2001).…”

The fifth discipline: looking ahead

“…In his piece, Robinson (2020) tackles the problem of the nature of the organization. He starts by remembering the ideas by Harari (2014) who stated that there is no such thing as an organization.…”

“…In this regard, Robinson (2020) evokes the dilemma of key constituents of natural and social systems. Natural systems are governed by the laws of physics in which energy is the key concept, whereas social systems are seemingly based and managed on power and power structures.…”

“…Is it a community of people or is it a system of rules and regulations? This question has been addressed by Robinson (2020). Finally, to further examine the foundation of Senge’s (1990) conceptualization of the learning organization, Kaiser and Peschl (2020) address the concept of transcendence, especially personal transcendence in organizational development, which could also be transcendental.…”