Organizational Learning: A New Challenge for System Dynamics

Abstract

The subject of how organizations learn and how organizational learning can be enhanced and accelerated is becoming a major interest in the business world. In the movement to reinvigorate American manufacturing, organizational learning has emerged as a major theme. In Hays, Wheelwright and Clark’s recent book Dynamic Manufacturing: Creating the Learning Organization. (Hays, R. H., Wheelwright, S. C. Clark, K. B., 1988) the authors conclude:

“There is one common denominator in high-performance plants: an ability to learn -to achieve sustained improvement in performance over a long period of time. When assessing a manufacturing organization, learning is the bottom line.”