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The purpose of this paper is to synthesize the learnings from prior interviews with thought leaders in learning organization conceptual development. Prior interviews with Karen Watkins, Victoria Marsick, Michael Marquardt, Bob Garratt and Peter Senge are included in the summary, which is an interim step as The Learning Organization continues to explore the learning organization history and evolution.

The paper summarizes prior interviews to uncover commonalities and differences in the development and evolution of the learning organization concepts as described by thought leaders.

Both commonalities and differences exist in definition, development of theory and resilience since original publication. Common threads in concept develop appear across the authors mainly in influences by Revans, Argyris and Schön. Differences also exist in how each author developed learning organization constructs.

The synthesis reveals that although the learning organization may have differing definitions, there are commonalities that tie some concepts together. Additional interviews will be continued in the exploration of the learning organization evolution.

This paper aims to attempt to collate and understand the fragmented research on female entrepreneurship in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). The review assesses the literature at the macro, meso and micro analysis levels and addresses the obstacles, challenges, motivations and characteristics of female entrepreneurship in the MENA region.

The analysis bases on a gender aware, narrative review, which is an appropriate method when aggregating studies of different methodological approaches, covering broad and fragmented topics in different settings. The study analyzes the areas that have received sufficient research attention and those which are still under-developed.

Important gaps in the field are lack of theoretical foundations; an over emphasis on macro level indicators, such as culture and religion and an under emphasis on organizational level variables; a lack of studies that analyze female entrepreneurship within ethnic groups, or studies that acknowledge the complex social, cultural and religious diversity of the region; and inattention to particular regional experiences (e.g. refugees crisis) and emerging trends.

This is the first integrative review of the literature in the growing field of female entrepreneurship in the MENA region that identifies areas of particular research interest and questions that are still under-developed. The study proposes further avenues for future research.

This paper aims to provide an overview of the development of learning organization concepts from the perspective of Nancy Dixon, who has been at the forefront of the learning organization discussion since the 1980s.

Through a conversation with Dixon, and a scan of some of her works, this paper discusses several topics pertaining to the evolution of the learning organization debate, from Dixon’s perspective.

Dixon’s understanding of learning organizations was influenced by concepts related to action learning where people in organizations learn through meeting and talking about their problems. What distinguishes her understanding from others in that it is built more on the perspective of psychological safety, as inspired by Amy Edmonson's work.

Dixon acknowledges that her work has had more impact on the practitioner side. Dixon maintains that learning organizations are more egalitarian and move away from hierarchy. There are ethical underpinnings to this understanding as, with psychological safety, people are willing to speak up in those situations when their voices are needed to be heard.

This paper aims to provide an overview of the development of learning organization concepts from the perspective of Professor Bob Garratt and presents an interesting evolution toward his work on learning boardroom members.

Through a conversation with Professor Garratt, the authors capture several topics pertaining to his evolution of learning organization concepts, those who have differing views and ultimately what led him to develope his theories on the impact of the most senior members of an organization on the learning constructs.

The learning organization debate has many foundations that today have led to differing perspectives. Professor Garratt provides his particular background and how he developed his opinions, which he admits have not always been embraced in practice.

The discussion with Bob Garratt reveals his understanding of the learning organization concept and how it developed from a lifetime of practical application. Ultimately, the reader will understand, in Professor Garratt’s own words, where he was confronted with challenges and why his concepts evolved to where they are today.

This paper aims to investigate the relationship between Islam and economic underdevelopment that characterizes many Muslim societies. It examines the Weberian thesis regarding Islam and development, assessing the role of Islamic law, in addition to the concepts of rationality and fatalism.

The paper reviews the major theses regarding the link between Islam and development and makes an attempt at explaining economic underdevelopment by engaging the most prominent arguments in this regard.

Lack of development in most Muslim societies is a multidimensional problem, and it would not help to rely on explanations that are culturally deterministic or sociologically reductionist.

Development requires improvements at various regulatory, economic, educational, and social levels. It also requires a significant transformation in people’s value systems that guide their actions. This requires a process of self-examination, not only looking at exogenous factors to explain failures, but also to focus on one’s own responsibility to alleviate crisis situations.

This paper challenges many of the for-granted theses regarding the purported link between Islam and development. While not dispelling the need for internal reflection for Muslim societies, it puts some of the popular arguments regarding this link in proper perspective.

This paper aims to provide an overview of the development of learning organization concepts from the perspectives of Dr Victoria Marsick and Dr Karen Watkins and presents an interesting evolution of their work together spanning over three decades.

Through a conversation with thought-leading scholars Dr Victoria Marsick and Dr Karen Watkins, this paper discussed serval topics pertaining to the evolution of the learning organization debate and provides their unique perspective on the development of their theories.

The learning organization debate has many foundations that today have led to differing perspectives, which Dr Marsick and Dr Watkins advocate. They developed their learning organization concepts from their particular background, which varies from others. To these thought leaders, cultural aspects are the critical focus of the learning organization.

The discussion with Victoria Marsick and Karen Watkins reveals their understanding of the evolution of the contested discussion around learning organization definition and implications. The understanding of this evolution, in their words, provides context for researchers and practitioners.

The purpose of this paper is to address issues of gender, age, and ethical sensitivity and to address the interplay of gender and age and levels of ethical sensitivity within the Lebanese context.

A structured survey was designed and administered to a sample of Lebanese respondents to test the extent of ethical sensitivity of the respondents. This study used a range of situations and scenarios to identify the levels of both sensitivity to business ethics and awareness of unethical business.

Significant differences were found in ethical sensitivity in only four out of 18 situations where in all cases females were more sensitive than males to issues of ethical nature. When comparing younger to older employees, significant differences were found in six out of the 18 situations. Age of the respondents seemed to better explain some ethical differences among respondents in some situations.

The specific context (workers) in which this study was conducted may limit the generalizability of the results. In addition, such studies measure perceptions of business ethics or intentions to act in an ethical or unethical way. This does not necessarily describe the actual behavior that people will be involved in.

The findings suggest that males and females ethical orientations tend to get closer to each other as they mature in age. This could be due to workplace socialization. Accordingly, managers are invited to see the impact of workplace culture on ethical beliefs and behaviors.

This study contributes in understanding variations in ethical sensitivities across gender and age. There are only few research studies addressing business ethics and gender differences in the Middle East. This study adds to what is known about the effect of these variables on ethical orientations across different contexts.

The purpose of this paper is to present a case of proactive change that occurred in a large organization in Saudi Arabia.

The paper explains how management actively used religious discourse to institute a stakeholder perspective within the organization.

The process of change that occurred leads to the development of a successful change process that borrows from legitimacy theory and legitimation in discourse. The findings show the impact of religious discourse on organizational change in the context under study.

While this change process, grounded in religious discourse, cannot be assumed to work across contexts, future research can uncover what contextual or cultural dimensions facilitate or impede such an approach.

This study provides an example as to how change agents can engage people within their organizations in the change process through a systematic process of sensemaking that grants moral legitimacy to company's initiatives.

The paper draws attention to the importance of religious discourse in institutional change, a thing that has rarely been discussed at the firm level.

This paper takes an institutional approach to identify cognitive, normative, and regulatory factors affecting women’s business leadership in an under-studied traditional society. The purpose of this paper is to assess how such forces work to create a case of female leadership deficit (FLD) in Lebanon.

The authors analyze interview data to identify themes linking women’s leadership with societal institutional forces. The qualitative analysis provides an understanding at the societal level of analysis which is only partially tempered through organizational structures.

Misalignments among cognitive, normative, and regulative pillars inhibit real change. Organizational structures are not highly salient as the most important factors affecting women’s leadership. Rather, patriarchal structures, explicit favoring of males over females, and assignment of women to nurturing roles within the private sphere of the family are the major limiting factors impeding women’s ascension to leadership.

A promise of the institutional approach is enhancing the capacity to make meaningful comparisons between societies. This opens the door to uncovering whether documentable changes in regulations, cognitions, values, and norms regarding women in business leadership, will lead to observable changes in the size of FLD.

This study presents a case of institutional pluralism where a positive force in one direction (regulatory) is sometimes opposed by other forces (cognitive and normative) limiting meaningful change. This study helps to explain why societies differ in the size of the FLD and to identify factors that predict within societal changes in the size of this deficit over time.