Organisational learning: a personal view

In this paper, Professor Vince provides a distinctive and thought-provoking discussion on the theme of organisational learning. After a brief introduction he uses a fictional company, Goodwill plc, to illustrate three propositions that are a part of his thinking about organisational learning. First, organisational learning involves questioning the collective assumptions that inform both learning and organising. Second, organisational learning involves challenges to the characteristic power relations that organising has created. Third, there is a paradoxical tension involved in organising, between the desire to learn and the need to avoid learning. He argues that organisational learning cannot be understood simply by analysing the sum of individual learning within an organisation. He proposes an "organisational" view of learning that can be put into practice through developments in processes of reflection and through revised notions of managerial authority.