Abstract

The learning organisation described by Senge in The Fifth Discipline was a revolutionary proposal for work organisations. Organisations have traditionally been regarded as command and control phenomena. The more radical proposals of the learning organisation challenge this view. The metanoia required of the managers and leaders who aspire to create learning organisations is a transformation to higher levels of consciousness. It requires a transcendence of psychological development into the realms of spiritual development. This paper, based on a transcendental phenomenological investigation of the learning organisation, suggests that the essence of the experience of the learning organisation is indeed a radical movement away from the traditional command and control to a more liberating structure based on faith and trust.