Process of Learning in the Business Organization

Charles Handy's book, The Age of Unreason, examines the nature of learning and applies Handy's insights into the prices of learning to the business organization. He indicates that the normal way of thinking about learning is wrong and that, instead, a different conception should be imposed, a conception more in keeping with a progressive form of learning that would benefit the organization and the individual alike. Handy also sees a particular need for making this change at this time, given the changes he sees coming over the business organization in light of new technologies and other changes in the workplace. Society needs new kinds of organizations, new approaches to work, and new forms of education to cope with the changing nature of society.

Handy is in many ways testing the boundaries of existing organizational theory, and his own approach can be seen as a developing in the evolution of organizational theory. There are closed models and open models of the organization. Organizational theory explains the working of organizations and the dynamics of their structure and operation. Organizational theory is broader in its application and subject matter than administrative theory, which is more specific in its emphasis on control and decision-making as a leadership matter, while organizational theory involves the broader dynamics of all organizations.

At some point in our history, we made a transition from the closed system to the open system. In the closed model w

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ution and the implementation of that solution. Handy points to some of the dynamics of the present organization and the ways in which learning and leadership will have to become staples of the system in order to adapt to even more rapid and comprehensive change in the future. The open system has been adapted more and more because of changed assumptions about human nature and about the effectiveness of different organizational structures. The open-system model appeared around 1960 and has become more important ever since. The open-system model today is applied to areas such as operations research, organization development, human resource systems, management information systems, and sociotechnical systems. The organization is now seen more and more as a decentralized. The organization is also conceived of as a wheel with a number of independent parts, each of which contributes to and receives something from the whole. The whole organization is in turn interdependent with its external environment. An open system exchanges information and matter with its environment. Open systems thus exchange information, energy, and materials with their environments. The organization can be conceived of as: 1) taking in various forms of i

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