Learning as product, as process, as practice
An inherent source of confusion is the use of the term ‘learning’ as both a verb (the
process of learning) and as a noun (the product of a change process). While process and
outcome are related, they are enacted as different phenomena, and provoke different
questions. Learning as process is elusive and imminent. It resists representation, and is
usually inferred through glimpses such as narrative accounts or ‘indicators’ awkwardly
manufactured from visible activity. Further complicating notions of learning as process
are the different foci used by analysts. Some are discussing the process by which an
individual constructs new concepts or develops new behaviours, often for purposes of
informing pedagogic efforts to support this process. But for organizational developers,
what is meant by learning is often the process of collective change, such as knowledge
creation as a movement from the birth of an innovation to its embedding in
organizational routines. For others, learning is more radical: a transformation in the
basic assumptions structuring an individual’s core beliefs or a group’s cultural practices.