The Relationship between Individual and Organizational Learning: New Evidence from Managerial Learning Practices

Abstract

The relationship between individual and organizational learning remains one of the contested issues in organizational learning debates. This article provides new evidence about the relationship between individual and organizational learning and presents empirical findings exploring the learning practices of individual managers. The discussion reveals the psychosocial dimensions of learning as a process that transcends across multiple levels and units of analysis. The analysis of the relationship between individual and organizational learning highlights the multiple and interlocking contexts that define the content and process of learning in organizations, the politics of learning at work and the institutional identity of individuals’ learning as a reflection of organizational learning (or lack of it). The article concludes with a review of the implications of the findings for future research on learning in organizations and the way we study the relationship between individual and organizational learning.