CALL FOR PAPERS: Are organizations able to learn?
A special issue of the journal Learning Inquiry

Special Issue Editor:
Anders Örtenblad
Halmstad University, Sweden
Email: [log in to unmask]

Please submit papers by September 1st, 2008 at: http://www.editorialmanager.com/linq/

Many of those who write about organizational learning emphasize that it is still a question 
of individual learning--learning is a pure individual phenomenon.  Others claim that 
organizational learning only makes sense as a metaphor, and should therefore not be 
understood literally. Yet others still ask for proofs for in which ways individuals and 
organizations are similar.   These perspectives deny the collective or organic nature of 
the organization and organizational learning.

The more traditional perspective of organizational learning has elements that can be 
interpreted as organizational learning, such as the storing of what the individuals have 
learnt into the organizational memory/mind. The newer and more social perspectives on 
organizational learning leave space for regarding the organization, not the individuals, as 
the learning unit.

The goal of this special issue is to explore the often taken for granted assumption, that 
the only learning entity is the individual. We want papers to challenge this mainstream 
perspective and to explore the wide possibility of the literatures and research that 
addresses organizational learning qua organizations. We invite argumentative papers 
arguing in favour of that organizations as such are capable of learning.  Papers on related 
topics, such as those that interrogate the questions surrounding levels of analysis 
(individual or organizational) are also welcomed.

The papers may be based on empirical evidence or may be viewpoints or conceptual 
papers, as long as they are based on strong arguments. The following topics shall be seen 
as some suggestions that the papers could be focused on (but they should not be seen as 
restrictions):

•	convincing descriptions of how organizations as such learn, from any specific 
perspectives (or a few perspectives);
•	examinations of previous work on organizational learning and how this could be 
interpreted in terms of the organization per se learns;
•	case studies that shows that organizations can learn;
•	discussions regarding when the organizational level of learning is appropriate and 
when the individual level is appropriate;
•	should "organizational learning" be taken as a literal utterance, or "merely" as a 
metaphor.

Papers that refute the notion that organizations as such are capable of learning, and that 
the individual is the only possible entity that is capable of learning, are welcome. In order 
to publish such a paper, though, it must contain a convincing argumentation in support of 
the individual as the only learning unit as well as against those who argue that 
organizations as such can learn.

Please put “orglearning” in the title of the submission.

Please submit papers by September 1st, 2008 at: http://www.editorialmanager.com/linq/

Style guide and further journal information at: http://www.springer.com/11519

If you have any questions about content or direction of your paper, please contact the 
Special Issue Editor: Anders Örtenblad, Halmstad University, Sweden 
[log in to unmask]