The Nature of Organization and Its Implications for Organizational Learning

This chapter outlines the theoretical background for a conceptualization of organizational learning as relational governance. Relational economics theory forms the theoretical background for such a conceptualization. Accordingly, this chapter elaborates on the nature of organization in relational economics and its implications for organizational learning. Of particular importance to the conceptualization of organizational learning as relational governance is the concept of the organization as a nexus of resources and interests of stakeholders who bring different rationalities to organizational transactions, as well as the concept of the organization as an entity in its own right. Based on these conceptual elucidations, a definition for organizational learning in relational economics is derived: Organizational learning as a process for the relationalization of rationalities for enabling the completion of multicontextual transactions in the context of organizations intended as entities in their own right. This definition may apply to all types of organizations (not just firms), although different organizations may have different success criteria for assessing learning. Following systems theory, the concept of the guiding difference of organizations operating in different systems is applied to conceptualize the success criteria of different organizations.