Creating a learning organisation in higher education

Abstract

The need for organisations to survive in a changing environment has led to the development of the concept of the learning organisation. A learning organisation is an organisation that facilitates learning for all of its members, and thereby continuously transforms itself. The organisation needs to create a climate in which experiential learning is managed effectively throughout the workplace, and in which individual learning is harnessed to achieve organisational learning. In higher education institutions, although they may have a learning culture, the creation of a learning organisation is dependent on embedding learning in the management processes of the organisation by extending the focus on learning from the classroom and the research laboratory to the wider organisation, so that the organisation creates and disseminates knowledge that informs the development of the organisation. The article considers the nature of a learning organisation, and how such an organisation might be created, in the context of higher education. © 1998, MCB UP Limited