Introduction

The culmination of research by Senge (1990) has popularized the now widespread concept of the learning organization, which has evolved to meet new corporate challenges. These challenges rest upon the need to survive in a competitive and turbulent environment, while simultaneously generating sufficient profits. Senge (1990, p. 4) proposed that the most successful corporations of the 1990s will be something called the learning organization. The ability to learn faster than your competitors may be the only sustainable competitive advantage . The need to transform an organization into an active learning entity is reinforced by other conceptual and empirical accounts that aim to convert organizational learning (as a passive action performed by an organization) into a driving force that invigorates an organization. Accounts provided by theorists, such as Kim (1990), Garvin (1993), Thurbin (1994), Pearn et al. (1995) and Rowley (2000), support such a notion.

Three commonly shared presuppositions found in the current learning organization debates are outlined as follows. First, in a learning organization, continuous learning at individual, group and organizational levels is embedded within the company s culture (Brown and Duguid, 1991). Secondly, a learning organization engenders an environment where synergy is created, developed and nurtured based on collective actions and shared understanding (Hutchins, 1991; Weick and Roberts, 1993). Thirdly, the argument that one type of learning is superior to another (e.g. double-loop learning is more desirable than single-loop) can no longer be sustained (Argyris and Sch n, 1978).