European perspectives on the learning organisation.

The article discusses the European challenge in building work organisations that are both economically efficient and good places to work and learn, on the basis of the publication entitled "Facing up to the Learning Organisation Challenge" published in April 2003. The happenings in recent European research and development work dealing with the learning organisation and organisational learning have also been analysed and interpreted. A number of current criticisms of the learning organisation concept are outlined. The article also analyses dilemmas and tensions that have to be understood before beginning to tackle organisational learning and some key principles to be adhered to so that productive organisational learning can in fact take place. Four main conclusions were drawn from the study. The first is that, in order to build learning organisations, one has to ensure that: there is coherence between the "tangible" (formal/objective) and the "intangible" (informal/subjective) dimensions of an organisation. A need for boundary-crossing and interdisciplinary partnerships between the vocational education and training and human resource development communities has also been emphasised.