ABSTRACT
In previous chapters, we argued that individuals, by their nature, are continuous learners, whether organizations realize and capitalize on this or not. Some indi viduals are better at this than others, purposely seeking new knowledge and skills or attempting to transform themselves. In this chapter, we change our focus from the individual learner to the learning environment (the group and the organiza tion) that the individual is in and begin to describe the connections between our nested systems. As we stated in chapter 1, although groups and organizations are systems in their own right, they are learning environments from the point of view of the individual. Here we argue that all organizations are learning environments, whether this is intentional or not. Some organizations do a better job of provid ing a supportive and encouraging learning environment than others, purposely encouraging employees’ continuous learning in line with the organization’s goals, or at least not standing in their way. Some organizations may actually thwart needed learning, by, for instance, withholding resources. Employees may leam in spite of this. Or they may leam not to leam. Of course, in the process, all employ ees leam about the organization and how to adapt their work lives to the environ ment. To fully understand individual continuous learning, we must understand how the environment supports and encourages learning directly or indirectly. Some aspects of the work environment are clear and observable, such as company policies and practices. Others are less obvious and cannot be seen or measured directly, such as organizational culture.
