The learning organisation: rhetoric or reality?
The concept of the learning organisation first appeared in the UK organisational literature in the early 90’s focusing on the private sector. Later in the decade it emerged as central to the New Labour Modernisation agenda and the discourse about public services. This agenda has resulted in far reaching change with new legislation and policies aimed at improving public sector services and enhancing civil society. Traditional social service and health structures are fast disappearing and being replaced by new multiprofessional organisational forms. In making these changes, government is emphasising the importance of the ‘learning organisation’ as a central organising feature.
In this paper, I will propose that although learning is integral to change and improvement, the learning organisation is inadequately theorised. I will present evidence about learning by individuals in organisations but suggest that we know less about learning by the organisation, or how one level of the organisation learns from another. I will then examine the relevance of three themes omitted in the learning organisation literature. First, an analysis of power and the ‘managerial state’ which suggests that there are continuing gender and race imbalances in the new public sector management. Second, trust and a blame free culture have been identified as important to learning, yet today’s context of league tables, stars, rewards and penalties mitigates against acknowledging mistakes and learning from them. Third, service user or carer participation is increasingly written into policy yet we have minimal evidence of learning with and from these groups.
My argument is that if we do not understand learning in and by organisations then the discourse of the learning organisation risks remaining at the level of rhetoric, merely justifying top down change.