Towards the Learning Organisation? Explaining current trends in training practice in the UK

Here the authors take a critical look at the now popular concept of the ‘learning organisation’. In particular, they draw upon new research which helps to clarify some of the fine detail of current organisational practices with regard to skill formation. It is found that there are in fact some features of contemporary organisational practices which do accord with the concept but that, in the main, the abstract and aspirational character of the concept renders it a poor guide to understanding the dilemmas and activities of real organisations, and that on balance, the concept is more of a hindrance than a help