Title: Post-modern perspectives of organisational learning

Authors: Andrew Chan; Christopher Dixon

Addresses: Department of Management, City University of Hong Kong, 83, Tat Chee Avenue, Kowloon, Hong Kong. ' College of Business Administration, Abu Dhabi University, P.O. Box 59911, Abu Dhabi, UAE

Abstract: This paper argues that, under the contemporary development character of society and organisations the rationalist objective-based approach to learning has to be seen anew with a post-modern organisational learning perspective. We outline the alternatives in terms of defining knowledge and learning characteristics across three sets of assumptions under the pre-modern, modern and post-modern eras. The notion of different rationalities in each involving a sequence of links between experiences, ideas and concepts is applied to the design and evaluation of management development programme. This new approach emphasises the interactive and the co-creation of knowledge as a process of negotiation. It points out the rules and categories of management development programmes should be explored in the very nature of the programme as it evolves rather than presented as given.

Keywords: learning theories; management development; organisational learning; postmodernism; knowledge creation; postmodern perspectives; rationalist approaches; objective-based approaches; learning characteristics; pre-modern perspectives; different rationalities; negotiation; interactive knowledge; educational programmes; intellectual capital; innovation.

DOI: 10.1504/IJLIC.2012.043986

International Journal of Learning and Intellectual Capital, 2012 Vol.9 No.1/2, pp.137 - 150

Published online: 02 Sep 2014 *

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