How Organizations Learn: An Integrated Strategy for Building Learning Capability

(revised and reprinted from book jacket prepared by Jossey-Bass publishers, San Francisco, CA)

Now more than ever, businesses and organizations must learn from their experiences and adapt to change in order to survive, grow, and thrive. But what exactly does it mean to be a "learning organization" and how can your company's approach to learning ensure its on-going success? For example, does your company's learning portfolio match its business strategy?

This essential volume, the first integrated, comprehensive view of the subject answers these and other critical questions and provides readers with clear concepts and practical techniques for increasing the learning capability of their companies. Authors Anthony J. DiBella and Edwin C. Nevis integrate the best of established organizational learning theory with their own cogent insights. Their original research in several U.S. and European businesses have given them a compelling vision of how and why organizations learn. Working with executive managers, human resource and organizational development consultants and trainers in more than twenty-five Fortune 500 companies, DiBella and Nevis have developed, tested, and refined the set of concepts, methods, and tools they present.

From theory and research to practical applications, How Organizations Learn presents a productive framework for any organization that wants to learn more fully and adapt more quickly to the fast-changing marketplace. DiBella and Nevis advocate a strategic commitment to learning, suggesting that through such an approach, we can make not only our organizations but also our society more effective and rewarding.

The Authors

Anthony J. DiBella and Edwin C. Nevis are among the nation's leading organization development consultants. DiBella is a former visiting scholar at MIT where he received his Ph.D.; Nevis is a former professor at MIT's Sloan School of Management and one of the founders of the Gestalt Institute of Cleveland.

Selected Endorsements to Date

"The DiBella and Nevis book is one of the first to treat the whole organization as a unit of learning and to develop some concepts and methodologies that are organizational instead of individual..................The book is well-written, full of useful examples and illustrations, and should therefore be of immediate use to practitioners."
- Edgar Schein, professor emeritus and senior lecturer, MIT Sloan School of Management.

"This work is a rare find in business literature: simultaneously highly readable, practical, and academic. For the involved manager who wants to help increase the long-term viability of his/her organization, this book will prove to be highly important and valuable"
- Herbert Rau, strategic marketing manager, Fairchild Semiconductor

"The authors accomplish an amazing feat in providing an insightful synthesis of numerous theories of the learning organization, ranging from Argyris to Senge and then moving rapidly beyond them through case studies to identify a set of how-to tools for leaders and change managers. For those interested in transformation, a most valued addition."
- James J. Gannon, senior vice president, Human Resource Development, Royal Bank of Canada

"How Organizations Learn gets to the practicalities and realities of organizational learning. This is not a fad, it's the outline of effectiveness for organizations of the future."
- Patrick Canavan, corporate vice president and director of global leadership and organization development, Motorola

"This book should appeal to anyone looking for a single resource about the practice of assessing the learning capabilities of organizations. The authors provide an elegant and comprehensive approach that is based on theory yet grounded in actual learning organizations."
- Mark Van Buren, senior research officer, American Society for Training & Development.

To order a copy of How Organizations Learn, call Organization Transitions at (401) 884-4195 or visit Jossey-Bass's website at: http://www.josseybass.com

Organization Transitions, Inc.
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East Greenwich, RI 02818
Phone: (401) 884-4195
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Email: info@orgtransitions.com

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