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Journal of Management Inquiry
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The Mystification of Organizational Learning

Victor J. Friedman

Emek Yezreel College, Israel, victorf{at}yvc.ac.il

Raanan Lipshitz

University of Haifa, Israel, Raanan{at}psy.haifa.ac.il

Micha Popper

University of Haifa, Israel, popper{at}construct.haifa.ac.il

Despite the growing popularity of organizational learning and the proliferation of literature on the subject, the concept remains elusive for researchers and managers alike. This article argues that enduring uncertainty about the meaning and practice of organizational learning reflects its so-called mystification. It attributes mystification to five features of the field: (a) ever-increasing conceptual diversity, (b) anthropomorphizing organizational learning, (c) a split in the field between visionaries and skeptics, (d) the reification of terminology, and (e) active mystification of the concept. The article explains and illustrates how the literature on organizational learning has contributed to these processes of mystification. It concludes by specifying a number of strategies that researchers and practitioners can employ to demystify the concept of organizational learning.

Key Words: organization learning • learning organization • knowledge management

Journal of Management Inquiry, Vol. 14, No. 1, 19-30 (2005)
DOI: 10.1177/1056492604273758
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