importance of organizational learning for organizational sustainability (PDF)

This ebook is intended to heighten awareness of the importance of organizational learning in addressing the demands of organizational sustainability and in particular triple bottom line (TBL) sustainability. A definition of TBL sustainability is provided together with an exploration of the practical issues relevant to adopting organizational learning in addressing it. By exploring research and practitioner viewpoints bearing on sustainability-related applications of organizational learning, this ebook aims to help organizations remove barriers to achieving sustainability goals and catalyze the progress for an organization on its sustainability journey. Individual authors voice their understanding of the application of organizational leaning to particular aspects of sustainability based on their research, their case studies, and the extant literature. Findings include enhanced understanding of the incompatibility of single- and double loop learning in TBL sustainability contexts, and the required emphasis on double-loop learning to successfully progress sustainability aims. The effectiveness of dialogic interaction is described in achieving a transition towards sustainability in people, organizations and society as a whole. How individual worldviews called 'our ecological selves' allow creation of the conditions for confronting our global environmental challenges is explained. Contributions are made to the understanding of hybrid organisations through the case of a Brazilian networked organization, and a paradox view of management based on the theories of Organizational Learning and Managerial Cybernetics is applied to enlighten our understanding of sustainability. The learning and adaptive system of the U.S. commercial aviation industry is explored and application of such a system in an organization operating according to triple bottom line sustainability principles is described. The opinions and research presented provide new and unique understanding of how organizational learning may contribute to organizational sustainability. Further value is added via the assessment of means to progress the sustainability ideal, the identification of barriers, and the many practical examples of means to facilitate progress toward that ideal.