To Come of Age: The Antecedents of Organizational Learning

The twin ideas of organizational learning and the learning organization have recently fired the imagination of many academics, consultants and practising managers. There is, however, a pressing need for empirical research to examine the origins and development of these closely related concepts. The qualitative research underpinning this paper was conducted over a three-year period (1994–97) and involved detailed examination of organizational learning aspirations and practices within the UK operations of five major manufacturing companies. Sixty-six interviewees were classified into three groups – strategy, human resources, and research and development – and the data gathered were analysed using the conceptually clustered matrix technique. This led to the identification of a set of six antecedents which together explain the rise to prominence of organizational learning. These six antecedents are: the shift in the relative importance of factors of production away from capital towards labour, particularly intellectual labour; the ever more rapid pace of change in the business environment; widespread acceptance of knowledge as a prime source of competitive advantage; the greater demands being placed on all businesses by customers; increasing dissatisfaction, among managers and employees, with the traditional, command-and-control, management paradigm; and the intensely competitive nature of global business. A model is unfolded which explains the ready acceptance and rise to prominence of the organizational learning phenomenon. A valuable feature of the model is that it demonstrates the interplay of thoughts and feelings between management practitioners and theorists.