Praxis Paper 17. Organisational Learning in Civil Society

This paper highlights that organisational learning requires both individual and collective learning processes which purposely contribute towards changed organisational behaviour and practice. The key message of the paper is that organisational learning is a developmental process that integrates thinking and doing at both individual and collective levels. The practice of organisational learning needs to recognise and respond to:

• the contextual and cultural elements that influence the way learning is perceived and put into practice within organisations.
• the complex set of inter-relationships which influence, and are influenced by both the process and outcomes of organisational learning.
• the informal and unconscious processes of learning which occur within organisations.