There has been a lot of press in recent years about the importance of the “learning organization.” While many authors have explored the idea of a learning organization from the perspective of how learning can be enabled and shared, the economic impact of learning, and its resulting effect on competitive advantage, have been less fully explored. This article looks at organizational learning from that perspective.

Hardly anyone today disputes the importance of learning in firms. Learning is essentially the acquisition of knowledge, understanding, and skill through experience, instruction, or study. For most firms, experience will be the main pathway to learning—i.e., people gain knowledge and skill from actually performing a job. By attaining and leveraging the learning acquired through accumulated experience, a firm can drive significant improvements in quality, work processes and routines, and products and services.

 …