The institutionalization of learning organizations - From neoinstitutionalism to the sociology of knowledge of organizational research

Using a clarified concept of institutionalized organizations processes and problems of organizational learning and the requirements of learning organizations are examined. Some recent ideas in organizational research including organizational memory, organizational culture, and unlearning, as well as some of the traditional points af reference, such as organizational action, decision making, and rationality are discussed and systematically connected. It is stressed that by institutionalizing learning organizations two contradicting demands have to be dealt with: the need to institutionalize as well as to renounce institutionalization.