Critical revision of some core ideas within the discourse about the learning organization: Experiences from field research in East German companies

This paper is a critique of some basic assumptions in the debate about the learning organization. It develops a practice-oriented approach of learning and discusses how institutional contextual differences influence the direction and the outcome of the learning process. The study presented here builds an understanding of organizational learning through the use of multiple case studies. The analysis is based on field research conducted within East German companies in the context of social and economic transformation. It is assumed that postsocialist societal transformation as an entity does not directly influence how and why certain modes of organizational learning emerged. Consequently, the macro perspective of institutional change has to be related to the actual practice of organizational learning in a specific social context. The comparative discussion of three distinct case studies shows how actors and groups of actors socially construct the opportunities and constraints that they experience in the process of organizational learning, within a context of macro-level structures previously enacted. Thus, it can be concluded that the institutional embeddedness of organizations influences the selection and development of certain learning goals and recipes; influences whether the learning process is more focused internally or externally; and, related to this latter point, whether more exploitative or explanatory learning approaches emerge.