Learning/Becoming/Organizing

TLDR

The paper frames organization as two interlinked ways of exploring and constituting it, emphasizing the intertwined relationship between thinking and organizing. The study aims to reconceptualize organizational learning as organizational becoming, linking learning and becoming through a space between order and chaos, and arguing that learning and organizing are mutually constitutive, unstable, and non‑rational. The authors conceptualize organization as a space between order and chaos, proposing that learning and organizing are mutually constitutive, unstable, and pragmatic constructs. They conclude that organizational becoming entails a permanent non‑rational movement, preventing any rational definition of organization.

Abstract

In this paper we rethink and reframe organizational learning in terms of organizational becoming. We see these concepts as two mutually implicating ways of exploring and simultaneously constituting the phenomena of organization. Bearing in mind that the understanding of organization is simultaneously a question of the organization of understanding, we reflect on the complex interrelation between thinking and organizing. In order to connect the processes of learning and becoming, we consider the concept of organization as space in between order and chaos. We propose a perspective that sees learning not as something that is done to organizations, or as something that an organization does; rather, learning and organizing are seen as mutually constitutive and unstable, yet pragmatic, constructs that might enable a dynamic appreciation of organizational life. Further, we argue that the becoming that is in organizing implies a permanent non-rational movement such that organization can never be rationally defined.