Integrating organizational learning and business praxis: a case for intelligent project management

Organizational learning is a process that is naturally indigenous to a broad spectrum of organizations, such as tribes and extended families. In the course of history, modern organizations have often evolved in a direction that emphasizes the machine‐like qualities of organizations and diminishes the importance of natural processes. While the importance of organizational learning for innovation and competitiveness is widely acknowledged, it often becomes relegated to being a cumbersome adjunct to existing mechanical processes, rather than serving as an integral element of an organization’s core processes. In this article, we propose that project management structures provide a natural home for organizational learning. A model is developed that explains how organizations can benefit from the potential synergies that result when organizational learning and project management become integrated together.