The Learning Organization: Swedish Concepts- Aims and Experiences from two of the Swedish Work Environment Fund’s R&D Programmes

Abstract

Sweden is facing today the same changes and demands in both industry and the service sector as other European countries. We feel that these are probably more profound and more far reaching than we have experienced in the last fifty years. The radical integration of geographical markets, e.g. in trade blocks, of corporations, e.g. in the multinational cooperations, of technologies, e.g. in information technology, and of products and services, e.g. the technoservice sector, are placing tremendous demands on organizations and individuals to adapt and develop. The demands relate to all the central features of an organization — its business ideas, its structure and work organization, the attitudes, skills and knowledge of its personnel and its technology. Irrespective of which of these areas is deemed by top management to be of highest priority or the starting point for necessary changes in the individual company, the execution of the required changes will entail adaptation and learning on the part of its workforce.