Cycles of organisational learning: a conceptual approach

Notes that, in an environment of rapid change, organisational learning theory appears to offer much for organisations trying to grapple with change and growth. However, not all theorists agree on the methodologies of organisational learning, and there is little consensus about how organisations achieve both change and growth simultaneously. The paper attempts to expand the simplistic idea that organisational learning is an adaptive approach supported by individualized and stand‐alone strategies of learning and demonstrates how various conventions of learning can be understood as integrated learning cycles, from which organisations can chart new paradigms of learning in practice. Current theories of organizational learning are imbued with their own sense of history making, clever manifestos that support a workshop or case study approach, and questionable rather than empirical validations of an internally consistent phenomenon. Existing theories of learning, however, are valuable to the extent that they collectively represent a community of practice from which scholars and practitioners benefit. New conceptual approaches are needed, however, to link current practices and empirical observation, so that individualized approaches to organizational learning can be integrated.