Learning, leadership, teams: corporate learning and organisational change

Abstract

Organisational learning and learning organisations have become topics of great interest to HRM in the 1990s, but the conceptual basis for understanding corporate learning is fragmented and the empirical basis of many influential models limited. In particular, the roles of leadership and team‐work in transforming shared mental models, facilitating learning and linking the individual, team and organisational levels of learning have been implicit in many models, but not clearly articulated nor empirically tested. An open system model of corporate learning is presented which places these processes at the core of organisational learning. An illustration of a particular learning organisation (the Rover Group) is used to demonstrate the model.