Organizational Learning and Learning Organizations : An Insight on Processes & Structure

The purposes of this paper are to develop a comprehensive understanding of the differences between organizational learning and learning organization, to provide an evaluation of the existing literature, and to develop propositions for the future research agenda. Though highly used in the organizational science, the two concepts are still unclear to many. Organizational learning emphasis on the process of continuously improve and preserve knowledge, whereas learning organization emphasizes on structural characteristics of an organization that has the ability to learn. Recognizing that no single main framework has been proposed to clear up the difference between the two, this paper provides a model that suggests a theoretical link between organizational learning and learning organization. Our explorative model undertakes the relationships between the two concepts, their impact on company performance and synthesizes existing perspectives in the literature. The resulted framework can be used as an instrument to facilitate understanding between different research streams working with the learning phenomenon as a way of improvement and maintenance of a long term competitive advantage