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Asserts and explores the claim that further headway in substantive wide‐scale learning organization development is seriously jeopardised unless individual organizations objectively measure their progress. In part 1 a new evaluative standpoint grounded in “New Science” is suggested, and foundations for two non‐traditional discriminant approaches based on this standpoint are discussed. The potential to link such assessments to business performance is evaluated. In part 2, applications of these two approaches in organizational settings are reviewed.

This article presents an application in organizational consulting of a model that utilises the concept of “energy”. This model has its roots in an ancient framework, the chakra system. The approach is emergent, and to date has proved insightful for managers and others in settings such as higher education, coaching, and consultancy. The article describes a specific application of the framework in an organizational consultancy project. The consultant used the framework to guide a collaborative inquiry by organizational participants into their experience of the organization, leading to formulation of intended changes. Issues for practice and for critical reflection are raised.

Asserts and explores the claim that further headway in substantive wide‐scale learning organization development is seriously jeopardised unless individual organizations objectively measure their progress. In part 1, a new evaluative standpoint grounded in “new science” is suggested, and foundations for two non‐traditional discriminant approaches based on this standpoint are discussed. The potential to link such assessments to business performance is evaluated. In part 2, applications of these two approaches in organizational settings are reviewed.

The term “transformation” is much used in the practice and literature of management and organizations. We are curious as to why there has been little challenge to or questioning of usage of the term. In this paper we identify a number of dimensions on which usage of ‘transformation’ appears to vary. This results in a tentative classification into a matrix of four types. While these clusters overlap they imply a variety of agendas, expectations and modes of working, with widely differing implications for those involved in associated change processes. The aim of the article is to stimulate debate about the idea of transformation, not to attempt to define what transformation “is”. Thus we treat this variety of usage as interesting and potentially significant, not as a problem or as an inadequacy of terminology that has to be resolved.

The term “learning community” is in common usage but appears to mask significant variation in practice. This article begins with a description of the “peer learning community” model within the MSc in Change Agent Skills and Strategies at the University of Surrey, UK. Tosey and Gregory have proposed five criteria as distinguishing this specific, designed model from more general usage of the term “learning community”. From this basis, it is argued that the effectiveness of learning programmes (such as action learning) will be greatly influenced by the framework and context within which they take place. The peer learning community is an example of a contextual design that could be applied within both business and higher education. As such it has relevance to the concept of the “learning organisation”. The presence or absence of conditions such as the five proposed may crucially impact on the effectiveness of programmes of learning. The article concludes by raising critical questions about the peer learning community model.

The purpose of this paper is to outline the aims for this journal with the new editor.

The paper gives an overview of TLO in the past and the possible future direction for the journal.

It is found that: first, the LO as a prescription for organizational change “writ large” has little relevance to contemporary practitioners, consultants, and researchers; second, that the LO concept is in effect a contradiction in terms and therefore fatally flawed to the point it should be abandoned; third, if the journal is to continue the use of the LO concept that it does so pragmatically with a refocusing on tried and tested informal work‐integrated action learning and critical analysis and adopt a distinct critical edge; fourth, that if so, it must adopt broader and more culturally sensitive perspectives that recognise the limitations and biases inherent in this Euro/American‐centric concept and its practices; and fifth, that this of all journals needs to acknowledge and respond to the irresistible tide of the democratisation of information in the digital age and the growth of informal learning both in terms of the papers published and in the way it, as a journal, operates.

The author believes that as an international journal The Learning Organization is eminently placed to engage practitioners, professionals and academics in a progressive dialogue that, though characterized by a questioning stance, recognizes the opportunities to enhance not just organizational productivity and managerial power but also the quality of work environments for all personnel.

The purpose of this paper is to enrich the conceptual vocabulary of organisational learning by discussing the relevance of the interdisciplinary work of Gregory Bateson, an original and challenging twentieth century thinker.

The paper debates a number of principles identified by Bateson, which reflect patterns that appear in stories (including, for example, Sufi teaching stories) as well as in practical experiences of organisational learning.

Bateson's ideas have the potential to overturn assumptions about organisational learning and to offer new perspectives on the subject. The belief is that Bateson's thinking implies, for example, that communication is multi‐layered and paradoxical; that learning is always political; that organisational learning is emergent and transient; and that stories can provide more effective encapsulations of the complexities of organisational learning than rational analyses.

The paper offers fresh views on the conceptualisation of organisational learning that may assist practitioners to “think outside the box”, together with some practical insights and good stories.

The purpose of this paper is to explore a contemporary European development in research into first person accounts of experience, called psychophenomenology, that offers enhancements to phenomenological interviewing. It is a form of guided introspection that seeks to develop finely grained first‐person accounts by using distinctions in language, internal sensory representations and imagery that have been incorporated from neuro‐linguistic programming (NLP). It is also a participative, relational and developmental form of interviewing, in the sense that the interviewee can gain significant insight into their experience; the process is not concerned purely with data gathering.

The authors review the theoretical assumptions on which psychophenomenology is based, then describe the principal method used in psychophenomenology, the “explicitation interview”. The interview protocol is illustrated with transcript data, through which they identify specific aspects of NLP that have been incorporated into psychophenomenology.

Psychophenomenology offers refinements to the precision of phenomenological methods found in organizational research, such as interpretative phenomenological analysis.

The epistemological claims and implications of psychophenomenology are reviewed.

These developments may provide a basis for reconsidering the research value of introspection, which has often been dismissed as non‐rigorous.

The paper introduces psychophenomenology to the field of organizational research. It also describes how psychophenomenology has innovated by drawing from NLP, an approach to personal development that is found in organizational practices such as executive coaching, in order to enhance the precision and rigour of both interviews and transcript analysis.

The purpose of this paper is to introduce the Special Issue; to provide a practitioner's retrospective views of the learning organization concept; and to comment on the status of The Learning Organization journal.

The approach adopted involves recounting a personal history of a practitioner's experiences with the concept, and an observation on the health of The Learning Organization journal.

The paper finds that, although the learning organization concept is deemed narrow and out of date, it is judged to have had significant positive influence on organizational thinking. The Learning Organization is shown to be a healthy and popular journal.

The paper is included in a Special Issue that is part of the series commissioned by the journal on organization‐related topics of interest to its readers. Its originality stems from its examination of the learning organization concept through a particular practitioner's lens, provoking reflection amongst others engaged in both the delivery and the consumption of practice and study.