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Discourse for Normalizing What? The Learning Organization and the Workplace Trade Union Response

Author

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  • Tony Huzzard

    (Umea School of Business and Economics)

Abstract

Recent critics of organizational learning and its normative offshoot the 'learning organization'have posited that conceptualizations of organizations based on knowledge and learning constitute a rhetorical device enabling elites to assert different forms of control through a new 'normalizing discourse'. The article, while welcoming such critique, nevertheless asks whether it is adequate to dismiss the learning organization without proposing an alternative. Moreover, a case is made for serious evaluation of the extent to which learning might contribute to progressive development of the workplace. A comparison of two cases at manufacturing plants in northern Sweden suggests that while the learning organization may indeed be criticized as a 'normalizing discourse', in practice it does appear to be of some practical benefit to unions in the design of discursive arenas for humanization of the labour process and promoting payments systems that reward competence development.

Suggested Citation

  • Tony Huzzard, 2001. "Discourse for Normalizing What? The Learning Organization and the Workplace Trade Union Response," Economic and Industrial Democracy, Department of Economic History, Uppsala University, Sweden, vol. 22(3), pages 407-431, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:ecoind:v:22:y:2001:i:3:p:407-431
    DOI: 10.1177/0143831X01223005
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Hugh Willmott, 1993. "Strength Is Ignorance; Slavery Is Freedom: Managing Culture In Modern Organizations," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 30(4), pages 515-552, July.
    2. John Seely Brown & Paul Duguid, 1991. "Organizational Learning and Communities-of-Practice: Toward a Unified View of Working, Learning, and Innovation," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 2(1), pages 40-57, February.
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    Cited by:

    1. Jason Heyes, 2007. "Training, Social Dialogue and Collective Bargaining in Western Europe," Economic and Industrial Democracy, Department of Economic History, Uppsala University, Sweden, vol. 28(2), pages 239-258, May.
    2. Mark Stuart & Jo Cutter & Hugh Cook & Jonathan Winterton, 2013. "Who stands to gain from union-led learning in Britain? Evidence from surveys of learners, union officers and employers," Economic and Industrial Democracy, Department of Economic History, Uppsala University, Sweden, vol. 34(2), pages 227-246, May.
    3. Chris Warhurst & Asaf Darr, 2006. "From Welfare to Profit: The Transformation of a Trade Union-Owned Firm," Economic and Industrial Democracy, Department of Economic History, Uppsala University, Sweden, vol. 27(2), pages 285-309, May.
    4. Catherine Casey, 2004. "Knowledge-Based Economies, Organizations and the Sociocultural Regulation of Work," Economic and Industrial Democracy, Department of Economic History, Uppsala University, Sweden, vol. 25(4), pages 607-627, November.

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