Organisational learning in a political environment

Abstract

This article observes that the political environment will always compromise the application of the organisational learning concept in government. In an attempt to overcome this problem, it seeks to demonstrate that a conceptual synthesis between policy learning and organisational learning has an important contribution to make in terms of developing an understanding of how and why policy transfer occurs. Although the concept of organisational learning is now fairly well established in management approaches for improving organisational effectiveness, its current attraction is largely a result of the same environmental pressures that have allegedly globalised policy-making. The efforts of the UK government to improve learning from the international environment are examined and it is argued that while adaptive behaviour is common, true learning is rare. This observation underscores a key problem with the policy learning approach. The article therefore considers how the demands for effective organisational learning have presented new challenges for public management that involve understanding the mechanisms of adopting and evaluating policy innovations from overseas. The complex and unpredictable nature of the contemporary public sector environment, along with the international diffusion of policy knowledge, means that it is vital for governments to learn effectively. In practice, however, the ‘Learning Organisation’ ideal can only be realised in a very narrow sense by public organisations.