The Meaning of Organizational Learning

Abstract

This conceptual article focuses on organizational learning (OL), which is broadly defined as a learning process within organizations that involves the interaction of individual and collective (group, organizational, and inter-organizational) levels of analysis and leads to achieving organizations’ goals. This article explores a largely uncharted route of looking at OL through the lenses of several research paradigms and developing a meta-paradigm framework of this construct. The meta-paradigm framework accounts for the complexity of OL, as well as connections between its levels of analysis that have not been explained in the literature. The meta-paradigm framework of OL includes the definition of organization, the definition of OL, its ontology and epistemology, as well as its implications for human resource development (HRD) research and practice.