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Learning Organizations

Managerial Control Systems?

Devi Akella is Assistant Professor, College of Business, Albany State University, 504 College Drive, Albany, GA 31705. E-mail: dakella{at}hotmail.com

Learning organizations have been described in reverential terms like employees’ paradises, good management practices, socialistic models and workplace democracies etc. These organizations provide working environments where the employees and management together reflect on all decisions, resolve all differences, if any, through mutual dialogue, and open communication systems resulting in high levels of trust, co-operation and commitment on the part of the employees which enables generation of learning. To develop such an atmosphere, these organizations adopt flat and flexible structures, use dialogue as a mode of open communication, a personnel oriented managerial style and appraisal systems, which encourage flexibility and creativity. This article will argue that the very essence of learning organizations i.e., its constituting elements or characteristics can be interpreted as a subtle form of a hegemonic control system which could impede the whole process of learning itself.

Global Business Review, Vol. 8, No. 1, 13-28 (2007)
DOI: 10.1177/097215090600800102


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