Balancing power, learning and change in learning organizations

Introduction In this issue, we explore the question of how power, learning and organizational change and transformation can be reconciled to achieve optimal outcomes. Normally, we assume that learning occurs naturally and that whatever is useful is integrated into organizational activities. However, this is often not the case, as learning and the use of acquired knowledge is influenced by power dynamics in the organization, which was addressed by Nakanishi (2022). This shows us that while organizations can and do engage in organizational learning, they do not have to be learning organizations, especially considering Senge’s (1990) conceptualization. Finnestrand (2023) was also on the same track and offered a solution in terms of Nordic management. Even if the interests of the main stakeholders –managers and employees – do not always coincide, democratic dialog is very much practiced in these countries, leading to collective sense-making and co-generative learning. Learning is critical to organizational change and transformation, and this was addressed by Andres & Heo (2023). In the face of adverse circumstances, but also in normal situations, practitioners should practice agile and contextual learning as well as transformational learning. Transformational learning can be stimulated by transformational leadership, which Hariharan & Anand (2023) explored in terms of learning flows, particularly feedforward learning flows that introduce new learning and ideas. In some systems, such as libraries, order is a much more desirable state, especially when it is culturally driven, which was addressed by Tran (2023). A bureaucratic culture should not prevail in health care and should instead give way to ambidexterity or exploration and use of new knowledge, which was addressed by Kuntz, Wong & Budge (2023). However, it seems that health-care organizations are still far from the state of free and open dialog with all stakeholders.