Global institutions: Transforming international development agencies into learning organizations

Abstract

Executive Overview Transforming a company may have many interesting similarities to transforming a country. For instance, many executives have learned that increased capital investment does not necessarily build a better company, and international development institutions like the World Bank have learned painfully that investment in physical capital is also not the key to economic development. Knowledge embodied in human capital is now seen as key in economic development, and in knowledge-based companies or organizations. Executives developing learning organizations will share many problems with development institutions trying to foster knowledge-based economic development in the Third World. As knowledge-based transformation is learning writ large in both companies and countries, this article applies an activist philosophy of education, organizational psychology, and pedagogical theory to the international problems of economic development. The topics treated include: (1) methodologies of active learning ...