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Becoming a learning organisation (LO) is an aspiration for every organisation as it offers internal capabilities, a competitive advantage and synergy gains to organisational members. Scholars across the globe have tried to examine the outcomes of LO at various organisational levels. Still, the existing literature is fragmented, and there is no systematic understanding of the multi-level outcomes of LO. Therefore, this study aims to synthesise, analyse and categorise the scientific literature into various levels of outcomes of LO to provide a conceptual framework for use by future researchers and academicians.

The authors have performed bibliometric analysis using 603 research articles published in Scopus, entailing 1,345 authors from 77 countries, followed by a thematic cluster analysis using bibliographic coupling to understand the current research trends and to recommend a set of broad themes to provide direction for future researchers in this domain.

The results are largely descriptive and aim to capture a panoramic view of what has been written on the topic so far. The bibliometric analysis was conducted using different means like citation analysis, cluster analysis, and keyword analysis to reveal the most significant publications, notable authors, keywords, current research trends, and future research questions. Further, the bibliographic coupling led to the categorization of the outcomes of LO into the following four clusters (including sub-clusters): (1) Individual level learning outcomes (2) team-level learning outcomes, (3) organisational-wide learning outcomes and (4) inter-organisational learning outcomes.

Managers and practitioners (change agents) expect academicians and researchers to suggest a set of actions that integrates their learning efforts with business performance across diverse sectors and industries. So, future researchers may try and explain the findings of seminal studies identified in the most cited documents, to design choices and trade-offs that may address major hindrances in implementing the construct in true spirit. The researchers may collaborate with practitioners to study the outcomes of LO with a scientific and empirical lens. Finally, the study invites change agents and organisation development (OD) practitioners to document the outcomes of their efforts to create and leverage the outcomes of LO.

Researchers across the world have tried to examine the outcomes of LO at various levels in organisational setting including, measuring capabilities and attitudes at individual level, team capabilities and innovation, and organisational performance and sustainability, but still there is no tested conceptual framework which encompasses the various outcome levels of LO in one frame.

Examines the theoretical and practical development of the concept of the learning organisation (LO). Some theorists have used the term LO interchangeably with organisational learning, while others have drawn distinctions between the two. Provides a brief review of the current LO literature in the context of learning and organisational learning, and the theoretical tensions existing between these concepts. Treats the LO as a metaphor in order to explore the possibilities for its re‐interpretation. Establishes the centrality of narrative to all human endeavours and that every organisational aspect is anchored in narratives. Holistically re‐interprets the LO using narrative theory. Suggests the LO needs to be re‐interpreted in the context of power relations and Bourdieu’s social theory. Claims that the use of metaphor, narrative and social theory enhance our thinking about the LO conceptually and will open up practical possibilities for practitioners and consultants.

The primary purposes of the current paper are to: provide theoretically clear concepts of the learning organization (LO) and organizational learning (OL) process; and empirically test the relationships among research constructs – environmental aspects of the LO and three types of OL processes at the levels of individual, group/team, and organization – by using structural equation modeling.

A total of 200 cases were collected from 50 small‐medium size for‐profit organizations in the central region of Korea. Structural relationships were examined by using structural equation modeling (SEM), while integrative literature review was conducted to distinguish the concepts of LO and OL.

The results showed that while the LO is composed of the system‐related environmental aspects, the OL has the process‐oriented aspects; and the LO has a significant influence on all three types of OL processes, while it has the strongest impact on individual learning process, followed by group/team‐level learning and the organization‐level learning process. In addition, the individual learning process has a significant impact on group/team‐level learning process; in turn, group/team‐level learning process influences the overall organization‐level learning process sequentially.

The generalization issue still remains one of the research limitations because all data sets were collected from Korean business organizations. More sample diversity needs to be considered for further research in terms of cross‐cultural comparison research, which could strengthen the validity of the current developed measurement.

This research provides clear and theoretical understanding of both LO and OL, which shed light onto future research as a theoretical foundation. In addition, dynamic and systematic relationships among environmental factors and learning processes were examined, which give more theoretical and practical foundations for building learning organizations.

Organization hierarchy plays a crucial role in the effective management of knowledge and learning. Typically, the organization hierarchy includes employees at the top, middle and lower levels. Employees possess a wealth of knowledge but often knowledge‐driven learning across organization hierarchies is not uniform due to various factors pertaining to the employees such as their literacy levels, available‐time, access to resources, reward and recognition, mindset, level of empowerment etc. This paper attempts to compare how employees at the top and middle level hierarchies in Indian organizations perceive a learning organization (LO). It also attempts to understand how the dimensions of knowledge management (KM) influence LO and tests whether this is significantly different for the aforementioned two hierarchy levels.

A convenience sample of 57 top and middle level executives from India participated in the study. The extent of learning practices was compared and tested for significant differences across the top and middle level hierarchies.

A comparison of the mean scores shows that there is hardly any difference in the way executives at the two levels perceive LO. All the mean scores are below five on a scale of six, pointing to scope for improvement. Further, no statistical difference is found in the mean scores. The impact of KM dimensions on LO was found to be statistically insignificant for the two levels. Most of the KM dimensions were found to positively impact the LO as per the proposed hypothesis.

The sample comprises 34 responses from top and 17 from middle level executives. This small sample size can be largely attributed to respondents' reluctance, especially of those from the public sector organizations, to openly share their views. A larger representation of respondents from the middle level hierarchy would certainly enhance the generalization of results. This low response rate has limited the use of the regression analysis technique as against any other powerful explanatory techniques.

The findings of this study can provide insights to organizations on the role of hierarchies in the management of knowledge and learning which can, in turn, help in developing best practices to manage the same.

The paper addresses the paucity of empirical research done to examine whether top and middle level executives perceive LO differently. It also studies the impact of KM on LO and provides evidence to demonstrate the difference in perception among different hierarchy levels. The value added is in identifying future areas of research by extending this synergy between KM and LO to enhance performance and competitiveness. This approach could be adopted to examine the relationship in different socio‐economic contexts and cultures.

This study aims to examine the influence of the talent management (TM) process on employee ambidexterity (EA) and the moderating role of learning organizations in Indian IT and ITes organizations.

The study is descriptive and based on empirical data from 390 IT and ITES employees from India. Data were collected using three valid and reliable questionnaires. Data were analysed using partial least squares structural equation modelling.

The findings show that the TM process significantly impacted EA. The moderating effects of the four dimensions of learning organization (LO) on the relationship between the TM process and EA were also noteworthy, even though no direct association was found to be significant. Regarding demographic variables, male and female employees do not vary considerably in their perception of TM process and EA in LO.

The study’s novelty lies in creating and discussing a synthesis of exploration and exploitation stemming from EA in learning organization.

The purpose of this paper is to perform integrative literature review of the learning organisation (LO) concept, on the basis of the results of the literature review to assess the concept on the principles of “good” theory, and provide future avenues for LO concept clarification and development.

The “good” theory properties approach is used to present, synthesise and discuss studies that focus on the LO. The paper reviews in more detail the definitions (Who? and What?), the domain (When? and Where?), the relationships (How? and Why?) and the predictions by the LO theory (Would? Should? and Could?).

The review revealed that the LO violates the properties of the “good” theory, especially the definitions’ and relationships’ properties. As a result, it is suggested for the research in the future to be focused on creation of formal conceptual definitions, development of ontology as a base for clarification of the relationship property and improve the instruments for measurement of the LO.

Previously published literature reviews have advanced the clarification of the LO concept. However, there remains a need for evaluation of the concept in light of approach to concept formation. By using the “good” theory approach, this paper identified the shortcomings and laid down the ground for future research that will improve the LO concept.

This study aims to propose a new research agenda for the theories of “organizational learning” and the “learning organization” in relation to the public sector. The research agenda can be used by researchers to make explicit accounts of how and where the results from their studies advance the current state-of-the-art in the intersection between public sector and organizational learning and/or the learning organization.

A combined systematic and bibliometric review methodology is applied based on the research that has been published in the past three decades.

Through an analysis of 238 journal publications obtained from the Scopus database, the authors determine the leading authors, countries, highly cited papers and take the stock of current literature. Similarly, by analyzing papers published between 2010 and 2020, the authors identify current tendencies and emerging themes of organizational learning and learning organization in the public sector and offer avenues for future research.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is potentially the first, fully refereed study published reporting on a bibliometric and a systematic review of organizational learning and learning organization in the public sector.

This paper aims to contribute to the debate on what is a learning organization (LO). The author proposes that pragmatist philosophy may be a source of inspiration in this endeavor.

The author revisits a 25-year-old case study in which the process of implementing an LO in a public enterprise was observed. This was in the heyday of LOs, when they were regarded as an organizational form that could provide solutions for almost all organizational problems. The author starts by considering this case using the first four types of understanding in Örtenblad’s LO taxonomy (2018): “learning at work,” “climate for learning,” “organizational learning” and “learning structure.” Then the author uses Örtenblad’s fifth version of LOs, the “social perspective,” to show that the pragmatist concepts of experience, inquiry and commitment are helpful in revealing and explaining how learning happens as part of the “social”.

The author proposes the sixth version of Los, involving letting experience and inquiry loose. This is an extension of Örtenblad’s fifth version of LOs, which rests upon collective as the learning unit and learning as context-dependent cultural or social activity. The sixth version makes it possible to understand organizational learning and LOs as recursive processes of inquiry into tensions in experiences and the organizational affordances of voicing and enacting these tensions.

Regarding LOs from a pragmatist perspective makes it possible to view learning as cultural and social activity without making learning a matter of either motivational persons for learning or organizations as “conducive” for learning, but understands the two as connected in recursive, iterative and rhythmic processes of tensions and resolutions.

This paper aims to examine the concept of learning organization (LO) in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Its objective is to provide initial insight into the potential impact of cultural context on how business managers perceive and interpret the LO theory and practice.

The study was conducted in two phases; the first phase involved a focus group review and discussion of the LO concept and major LO models. With insights gained from the focus group discussions, the second phase of the study developed a number of hypotheses on the potential impact of national cultural orientations on the LO concept, which were tested with managerial responses to a survey.

While UAE managers viewed and interpreted the LO concept in several different ways, most qualitative comments emphasized the following four aspects of an LO: workplace learning, organizational learning, learning climate and learning structure. Both sets of data revealed strong linkages between dimensions of national culture and the LO concept. Organizational culture partially mediated the relationship between national cultural orientations and aspects of an LO. Potential barriers to the implementation of the LO concept as perceived by respondents were largely related to national cultural value orientations and organizational cultures. The findings suggested that Western LO models and measurement instruments do not fully capture the socio-cultural reality of UAE-based organizations and the manner in which they view and interpret the LO concept and practices in their specific context.

Being a preliminary and largely reflective in nature, the present study has relied more heavily upon the qualitative data than the survey data.

The findings of this study document the value of culture-specific criteria to monitor the performance of companies in their LO journey rather than using a standardized LO assessment model.

The study represents an initial attempt at enhancing the understanding of the impact of national culture on the development and application of the LO concept and the challenges it faces in the UAE context.

This paper aims to study the antecedents and consequences of learning organizations (LOs) in Indian higher educational institutes.

The methodology used is survey-based. Primary data were collected from 300 faculty members of Indian higher educational institutes.

It was found that all the variables, i.e. resonant leadership (RL), knowledge management, intrapreneurship and total quality managt1ent, have a significant moderate impact on LO. It has also been found that LO results in strong employer branding.

Discussions are performed and conclusions are drawn in the context of existing literature. The study bears implications for researchers to take on similar research in other contexts.

The study bears significant implications for faculty members working in higher educational institutes. It is suggested that RL should be used to contribute toward LOs in institutions. Moreover, this would make the institute emerge as a strong employer brand.

This paper identifies significant antecedents and consequences of LOs. It is a pioneering effort to use all these variables together as predictors of LO in Indian context.