Obviously, organizations exist in a dynamic environment. The context is not static.
The conditions are in constant flux, in motions of press and pull. Human organizations
must be responsive and adapt to ongoing challenges. This more developmental, adaptive
view of the learning organization as an entity in dynamic interactive relation with its
surroundings mimics the developmental, nature-nurture viewpoint of the human being.
As individuals react, learn and adapt to situations and circumstances, so do
organizations learn in analogous ways. Where one can study in detail the learning of an
individual, one can study in collective manner the learning of a group of individuals
constituting the human organization. In this view, to manage shifts from the most
conservative and conventional to the elastic, adaptive and developmental, it means to guide, facilitate, and consolidate collective learning for the ongoing benefit of the organization. Rules of conduct, means of control, policy and procedures that regulate human action become subservient to the learning process of the collective interactive with and in relation to its environment, which typically translates to other individuals and collective entities representing other human organizations. Importantly, managers who confine their supervision to conservative homeostatic definitions can retard, even jeopardize the organization as conditions demand ongoing adaptation.