Abstract:
In a world in which social, economic, and environmental circumstances are
continuously evolving and increasingly complex, leaders face the challenging prospect of
navigating their organizations through unpredictable operating conditions. Finding a way
to tap into the learning capacity of the people who comprise their organizations may be
the answer to adapt and to survive. This qualitative research study explored the role of
leaders in building this organizational learning capacity.
The literature identified three domains of personal, interpersonal, and
organizational capacity for learning in an organizational setting. Interviews with three
senior leaders who had successfully built learning capacity in their respective
organizations revealed four elements of leader commitment: (a) to the process of building
learning capacity, (b) to organizational objectives and results, (c) to personal actions and
behaviours, and (d) to the people of the organization. Each of the four elements of leader
commitment spans the three domains of learning capacity that can guide leaders as they
build organizational learning capacity.
