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Organizational Learning and the Learning Organization: A Dichotomy Between Descriptive and Prescriptive Research

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Human Relations

Abstract

Despite the growing popularity of the term“organizational learning,” writings on thetopic have little consensus in terms of definition,perspective, conceptualization, and methodology. Thisarticle examines the dichotomy between two main streamsof theorizing in the field. The first stream,prescriptive writings on the learning organization, isconcerned with the question “How should anorganization learn?” Targeting practitioners, thesestudies are usually based on the authors' consultingexperience and seldom follow rigorous researchmethodologies. They also tend to overgeneralize theirtheories to all types of organization. Descriptiveresearches on organizational learning fall in the secondstream which tackles the question “How does anorganization learn?” These are academic studiesstriving for scientific rigor. Nevertheless, they oftenfail to generate useful implications for practitioners.In the final section of the article, brief suggestionsare made to integrate the two streams ofresearch.

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Tsang, E.W.K. Organizational Learning and the Learning Organization: A Dichotomy Between Descriptive and Prescriptive Research. Human Relations 50, 73–89 (1997). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1016905516867

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