Conceptual frameworks beyond the learning organisation

Abstract

The learning organisation is a concept and, as with any complex concept, embodies sets of values, goals and beliefs. As consensus grows about these values, goals and beliefs, the probability increases that the concept will be translated from representational status to action and behavioural change. This paper argues that the organisation that attaches its strategic development to the highest level of conceptual framework will be the organisation best suited to manage adaptation to change and challenge in the future. It is suggested that the learning organisation concept can be thought of as the lowest of a three‐stage conceptual hierarchy of learning‐wisdom‐enlightenment. The paper explores the characteristics of the wise organisation and enlightened organisation and suggests that this sequence of development is not accidental but intimately related to the evolution of the human mind (that gives rise to the conceptual frameworks in the first place), from prepersonal to personal to transpersonal.