Learning Organization: a Fine Example of a Management Fad

Abstract

The management theories of no practical value are known as management fads. One of those management fads - which is the focus of this research – is learning organization. There is sufficient evidence in English literature to conclude that learning organization is a management fad. The aim of this paper is to present the ample evidence that learning organization is a management fad. The maximum number of the research paper with the subject of learning organization was made in the late 1995 and the typical bell-shaped curve of the management fad is evident. In contrast to the world trend, a content analysis of Serbian journals discovered that a typical pick of a bell-shaped curve of papers covering the topic of learning organization was 17 years later. It is argued in this paper that the learning organization phenomenon, as a normative or prescriptive theory, should be abandoned in the academic world altogether. The learning organization fad is a phenomenon with low practical applicability, a phenomenon of a little value for further development in the management research.