Learning by Design: Building Sustainable Organizations

Citation

Calvert, P. (2004), "Learning by Design: Building Sustainable Organizations", The Electronic Library, Vol. 22 No. 1, pp. 80-80. https://doi.org/10.1108/02640470410520159

For many years it has been accepted that being a learning organisation was a “good thing”, and almost every company spokesperson would tell the outside world that learning was central to growth. The limitation of this is that, in practice, few companies have a structured approach to incorporating learning, and as a result the glittering concept of the learning organisation has been tarnished. This book attempts to restate the relevancy of organisational learning, and learning mechanisms. The early chapters set out the theoretical underpinnings of behavioural, social, and organisational knowledge, and on that base the authors then present a conceptual framework that links corporate strategy with learning, and at the same time make the whole process sustainable.

Each chapter starts with what the authors call “silver bullets” that set out the learning issues they intend to tackle. Then they present the strategies, design, resources, and capabilities needed to achieve the learning mechanisms that the chapter brings forward. Each chapter concludes with some reflections and a “key lesson”. The authors illustrate their favoured “learning‐by‐design” approach through six detailed case studies from different industries and countries. The two closest cases to information management are a telecommunications company in northern Europe, and a software company in North America.

Development of the key aspect of sustainability is possibly the most interesting point made by this book. Using a mix of learning theories, including some favoured in Japan, they emphasise a total view of learning throughout each employee’s career. They also argue for involvement by trade unions and the organisation’s other partners. Putting this into practice in a library or similar organisation would not be difficult, especially for libraries in the public sector.

This book belongs to the management literature, but as so few libraries have become learning organisations that it would be good if more managers read books like this one.