Women and Consciousness in the “Learning Organization”: Emancipation or Exploitation?

This study's goal is to uncover the contradictions inherent in the philosophy and practice of the learning organization. Through a Marxist-feminist analysis of recent shifts in adult education and workplace structure, this study attempts to uncover the function of the learning organization in the capitalist political economy, the location of workers in relation to the learning organization, and the role of learning rhetoric in maintaining the status quo. This study argues that the learning organization model can be seen both as a mechanism for the extraction of surplus value from workers and as a method of social control. The learning organization model is often associated with progressive, even emancipatory, claims of inclusion and collaboration in the work-place. However, this study argues that the educational legacies of feminism, trade unionism, antiracism, and revolutionary struggle are better places to seek the learning interests of the workers that make up the learning organization.