UNDERSTANDING ORGANIZATIONS AS LEARNING-SYSTEMS

HOW CAN YOU TELL IF YOUR COMPANY IS, INDEED, A LEARNING ORGANIZATION? WHAT IS A LEARNING ORGANIZATION ANYWAY! AND HOW can you improve the le arning systems in your company! The authors provide a framework for ex amining a company, based an its ''learning orientations,'' a set of cr itical dimensions to organizational learning, and ''facilitating facto rs,'' the processes that affect how easy or hard it is for learning to occur. They illustrate their model with examples from four firms they studied - Motorola, Mutual Investment Corporation, Electricite de Fra nce, and Fiat - and conclude that all organizations have systems that support learning.