ABSTRACT
The chapter will examine the emergence and development of the ‘learning organisation’ and organisational learning as viable concepts to assist contemporary companies to manage change and environmental instability. It explores how the approach has developed in response to both the nature of environmental change and the evolutionary process within organisations. The range of definitions that theorists advance, together with the framework that underpins the concept of organisational learning are considered, in order to identify the reciprocal connection with the process of change. On this basis, the chapter continues with an examination of contemporary concepts that explain the need for redefined approaches to work organisation that incorporate a learning approach to environmental change. It concludes that traditional systems, structures, processes and attitudes may need to be realigned in order to maximise the contribution of the individual in this new employment relationship.
