Management Learning Organizations

Abstract

Although the topic of organizational learning is still in the early stages of development, there are two interrelated issues that guide most discussions in the literature. How is knowledge acquired and used by individuals and organizations? How can the speed at which knowledge is acquired and used be increased? This article resolves these key questions in terms of describing, controlling and improving learning processes within self-designed subunits and across organizational networks. Such an approach can then use the extensive literature on quality management and organizational development as the basis for building and improving learning organizations. This article then describes how an entire incoming class of 250 full-time MBA students was formed into 18 self-designed learning organizations for the purpose of speeding up and improving their acquisition and use of business knowledge. Last, the conclusion outlines how all other types of organization can also form self-designed global learning networks in order to improve their rate of acquiring and using strategic knowledge.