Organizational Learning Revisited

Organizational learning is a nebulous concept which needs to be articulated in order to be of concrete use. In this paper we will recapitulate and criticise some of the prevailing ideas concerning organizational learning. An alternative definition is suggested which is tightly coupled to the purpose and goals of the organization, which for Ericsson is to develop and sell telecommunication systems. Thus our definition of organizational learning is of immediate practical value. We examine some problems at Ericsson which are related to organizational learning and discuss an application at Ericsson of the alternative definition: the coordination of the integration of software increments in the UMTS releases. We also discuss organizational learning from a theoretical and philosophical point of view.