Power, Politics and State Intervention in Organizational Learning

Abstract

Power and politics are two issues that have received great attention in numerous fields of inquiry, but as yet have been virtually ignored in the field of organizational learning. This paper briefly notes the minimal contributions made thus far and demonstrates the limitations of the approaches to the study of power in organizations currently favoured, before suggesting an alternative starting point for empirical investigation. Empirical evidence is used to suggest that learning in contemporary organizations is already influenced by ideological interventions, and that formal qualifications demonstrate the increasing attempts of the UK government to influence organizational learning.