Recent critics of organizational learning and its normative offshoot the 'learning organization'have posited that conceptualizations of organizations based on knowledge and learning constitute a rhetorical device enabling elites to assert different forms of control through a new 'normalizing discourse'. The article, while welcoming such critique, nevertheless asks whether it is adequate to dismiss the learning organization without proposing an alternative. Moreover, a case is made for serious evaluation of the extent to which learning might contribute to progressive development of the workplace. A comparison of two cases at manufacturing plants in northern Sweden suggests that while the learning organization may indeed be criticized as a 'normalizing discourse', in practice it does appear to be of some practical benefit to unions in the design of discursive arenas for humanization of the labour process and promoting payments systems that reward competence development.
Alvesson, M.
and H. Willmott (1996) Making Sense of Management: A Critical Introduction. London: Sage.
2.
Argyris, C.
and D. Schon (1978) Organizational Learning: A Theory of Action Perspective. Reading, MA: Addison Wesley.
3.
Argyris, C.
and D. Schon (1996) Organizational Learning II: Theory, Method and Practice. Reading, MA: Addison Wesley.
4.
Armstrong, M.
and D. Brown (1998) 'Relating Competencies to Pay: The UK Experience', Compensation and Benefits Review May/June.
5.
Brown, J.S.
and P. Duguid (1991) 'Organizational Learning and Communities of Practice: Toward a Unified View of Working, Learning and Innovation', Organization Science2(1): 40-57.
6.
Coopey, J.
(1995) 'The Learning Organization, Power, Politics and Ideology', Management Learning26(2): 193-213.
7.
Coopey, J.
(1998) 'Learning to Trust and Trusting to Learn', Management Learning29(3): 365-382.
8.
Crossan, M.
and T. Guatto (1996) 'Organizational Learning Research Profile', Journal of Organizational Change Management9(1): 107-112.
9.
Cyert, R.A.
and J.G. March (1963) A Behavioural Theory of the Firm. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
10.
Duncan, R.B.
and A. Weiss (1979) 'Organizational Learning: Implications for Organizational Design', pp. 75-123 in B. Staw (ed.) Research in Organizational Behavior. Greenwich CT: JAI Press.
11.
Foucault, M.
(1977) Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison. New York: Random House.
12.
Fournier, V.
and C. Grey (2000) 'At the Critical Moment: Conditions and Prospects for Critical Management Studies', Human Relations53(1): 7-32.
13.
Garratt, R.
(1987) The Learning Organization and the Needfor Directors Who Think. London: Fontana Collins.
14.
Gherardi, S.
(1999) 'Learning as Problem-Driven or Learning in the Face of Mystery', Organization Studies20(1): 101-123.
15.
Grugulis, I.
(1999a) 'The Learning Organization Re-Visited', paper presented at the 17th Annual International Labour Process Conference, School of Management, Royal Holloway, University of London.
16.
Grugulis, I.
(1999b) 'When Organizations Learn', paper presented at the 1st Critical Management Conference, Manchester School of Management, University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology.
17.
Gustavsen, B.
(1998) 'From Experiments to Network Building: Trends in the Use of Research for Reconstructing Working Life', Human Relations51(3): 431-448.
18.
Huzzard, T.
(2000a) Labouring to Learn: Union Renewal in Swedish Manufacturing. Umea: Borea.
19.
Huzzard, T.
(2000b) 'From Partnership to Resistance Unions and Organizational Learning at Ericsson Infocom', Management Learning31(3): 353-373.
20.
Jansson, R. (1998) Vi vill, vi kan gdra mer. Stockholm: Metall-arbetareforbundet.
21.
Lukes, S.
(1974) Power: A Radical View. London: Macmillan.
22.
Lyotard, J.-F.
(1984) The Postmodern Condition: A Report on Knowledge. Manchester: Manchester University Press.
23.
Mahon, R.
(1991) 'From Solidaristic Wages to Solidaristic Work: A Post-Fordist Historic Compromise for Sweden?', Economic and Industrial Democracy12: 295-325.
24.
March, J.G.
and J.P. Olsen (1975) 'The Uncertainties of the Past', European Journal of Political Research3: 147-171.
25.
Marquardt, M.J.
(1996) Building the Learning Organization. New York: McGraw-Hill.
26.
Metall (1985) Det goda arbetet. Stockholm: Metall.
27.
Metall (1989) Solidarisk arbetspolitikfdr det goda arbetet. Stockholm: Metall.
28.
Metall (1995) Protokoll Metall Kongress. Stockholm: Metall.
29.
Muillern, T. and K. Ostergren (1995) Ldrandekulturer. en studie av organisatoriskt larande under olika institutionella betingelser. Umea: Umea School of Business and Economics.
30.
Pant, L.W.
(1999) 'The Growing Role of Informal Controls: Does Organizational Learning Empower or Subjugate Workers?', paper presented at the 1st Critical Management Conference, Manchester School of Management, University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology.
31.
Parker, M.
(1999) 'Capitalism, Subjectivity and Ethics: Debating Labour Process Analysis', Organization Studies20(1): 25-45.
32.
Pedler, M.
, J. Burgoyne and T. Boydell (1997) The Learning Company. Maidenhead: McGraw-Hill.
33.
Pfeffer, J.
(1994) Competitive Advantage Through People. Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Press.
34.
Prichard, C.
(1996) 'A Commentary and Response on "Blackler: Knowledge, Knowledge Work and Organizations: An Overview and Interpretation"', Organization Studies17(5): 857-860.
Rohlin, L., P.-H. Skarvad and S.-A. Nilsson (1994) Strategiskt ledarskap i ldrsamhdllet. Dalby: Management Institute in Lund Publishers.
37.
Senge, P.
(1990) The Fifth Discipline: The Art and Practice of the Learning Organization. New York: Doubleday.
38.
Streeck, W.
(1989) 'Notes and Issues Skills and the Limits of Neo-Liberalism: The Enterprise of the Future as a Place of Learning', Work, Employment and Society3(1): 89-104.
39.
Svensson, L. (1997) 'Larande genom organisationsutveckling', pp. 223-44 in A. Sandberg (ed.) Ledningfor alla? Om perspektivbrytningar iforetagsledning. Stockholm: Studief6rbundet Naringsliv och Samhdllet.
40.
Taylor, F.W.
(1947) Principles of Scientific Management. New York: Harper and Row. (Orig. pub. 1911.)
41.
Watkins, K.E.
and W.J. Marsick (1993) Sculpting the Learning Organization. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
42.
Weick, K.E.
(1984) 'Small Wins: Redefining the Scale of Social Problems', American Psychologist39: 40-49.
43.
Willmott, H.
(1993) 'Strength is Ignorance, Slavery is Freedom: Managing Culture in Modern Organizations', Journal of Management Studies30(4): 515-552.
