Ralph Douglas Stacey betoogt in zijn artikel Learning as an Activity of Interdependent People dat organisaties eigenlijk niet kunnen leren:

“For me, the claim that organisations learn amounts to both reification and anthropomorphism. I argue that organisations are not things because no one can point to where an organisation is – all one can point to is the artefacts used by members of organisations in their work together. In our experience, the organisation qua organisation arises as the patterning of our interactions with each other.

(...)

Since an organisation is neither inanimate thing nor living body, in anything other than rather fanciful metaphorical terms, it follows that an organisation can neither think nor learn.

Bron: Learning as an Activity of Interdependent People - Ralph Douglas Stayey, in: The Learning Organization (December 2003)