The Role of Identity and Power in Organizational Learning

The paper discusses theoretical implications of a case study of an organizational learning project on a teacher training college. Organizational learning are often discussed and organized as if learning was a rational process. Practice and this includes the case presented in this paper - reveals something else; namely that learning seems highly irrational, inconsistent and ambiguous. We will use these results to discuss the theoretical implications in terms of approaching organizational learning. We argue that three interconnected concepts have major implications in terms of organizational learning processes. We mention three such implications: (1) that organizational learning has to be seen, organized and evaluated as if they are a collection of loosely coupled network of activities, which have their own direction; (2) that we have to focus much more on individuals and individuality in organizational learning processes in organizations. It follows that organizations have to give up the illusion that it can control learning processes in a narrow goal-oriented sense. Instead organizational learning has to must be nurtured from different agendas, motives, and intentions, which push learning in different directions.