Self-Organization as a Perspective for Organizational Learning

Abstract

This chapter introduces the perspective of self-organization for organizational learning. Using the perspective of organizations as actor networks in which common activities are established through the connected behaviour of individual actors, it argues that organizational learning entails altered and different behaviour on the part of actors, leading to alterations in the ways in which individual behaviour is interconnected. Organizational learning is fuelled by ambiguity perceived by the organization's actors who try to make “sense” of their surroundings, when they observe it, grapple with it, grasp it, and manipulate it. In this chapter, the author elaborates on the implications of this perspective for organizational learning and the learning practitioner in the role of leader.