Development and the Learning Organisation: an introduction

Overview

We are aware that an increasing number of NGOs, particularly some of the large international ones, as well as some bilateral and multilateral actors, are embracing the idea of ‘becoming a learning organisation’. Over the past decade, as NGOs have either rushed into the mainstream in their claims of innovative and effective practice, or they have tried to transform themselves to fit new realities, organisational learning has emerged as one way to live up to expectations and needs. Certainly, it is difficult to find organisations that are not touting the importance of knowledge generation and organisational learning in one form or another. We are curious to know how practitioners are approaching the issue of learning in organisations and whether their approaches are yielding positive results. We are especially interested because much of the writing and thinking on learning organisations has come out of the private sector, and we want to explore how applicable and useful those insights are for the development field.

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