Challenges of Organizational Learning

The ninth chapter titled “Challenges of Organizational Learning” from the second part of the book Managing Learning Enterprises titled “Challenges of Implementing a Learning Enterprise” begins by identifying the common misconceptions about learning organizations and organizational learning. A learning organization is an environment in which organizational learning takes place. Even though every organization engages in organizational learning, but it could be imposed by top management, the best environment for organizational learning is a learning organization. Learning organizations are able to continuously change when all their members are involved. Two possible outcomes of organizational learning have been identified—changes in mental models and thinking and changes in behavior as a reflection of the new knowledge. The key question “Are organizations capable of learning?” was also addressed by noting that changes based on newly acquired knowledge remain in the system even after the people who created them have left the organization and influence the behavior of newcomers. The chapter also looks at organizational learning in modern ecosystems as adaptive, self-regulating learning systems, in supply chains and in coopetitive arrangements. The chapter concludes with an analysis of entrepreneurial organizational learning.