Is the Learning Organization Idea Relevant to Higher Educational Institutions? A Literature Review and a "Multi-Stakeholder Contingency Approach"

The purpose of this paper is to examine systematically and reflectively the relevance of four different aspects/types of the learning organization idea to higher educational institutions (HEIs), from three ideal-typical stakeholder perspectives: the managerial perspective, the employee perspective and the societal perspective. Literature review of 73 prior works on the relevance of the learning organization idea to HEIs, and a systematic examination from different stakeholder perspectives, i.e. an examination based on a "multi-stakeholder contingency approach." The learning organization idea needs to be reformulated to some extent to become fully relevant to HEIs. The "multi-stakeholder contingency approach" can be used advantageously in any contextualization study of the learning organization idea as well as in contextualizing any other fashionable management idea. The learning organization idea should not be adopted uncritically by HEIs, nor should it be uncritically rejected. In particular, HEIs should avo