The Learning Organization in a Turbulent Environment

Abstract

The notion that organizations can learn is not new [1]. But it will be more and more important to realize that organizations in a turbulent environment are more like systems in the chaos theory than like the ‘machine-like’ ones in the old theory, whose main topic was control. The new topic is increasing the organization's ability to learn. This article goes from chaos to images to the attributes of organizations in a turbulent environment. The ideas elaborated in this article are based on an extensive study of the strategic re-orientations of six major Dutch companies before, during and after a crisis.