The concept of the learning organization, promoted by scholars such as Garvin and Senge, has been enthusiastically embraced by many organizations as a means of enhancing their capacity for change and renewal. To transform themselves, organizations must first be able to create, acquire, and transfer knowledge. Only then do they form a basis on which to modify practice to reflect the new learning.

Success in becoming a learning organization relies not only on a commitment to learning on the part of the organization itself but on a realization of the centrality of individuals to the change process. Organizations need to engage with individual perspectives as a basis for initiating change. These may involve a notion of the disciplines of a learning organization, which involve ideas such ...