| Abstract |
Purpose - Every social system, be it cultural, political or economic is governed by a set of principles, or in other words, by a paradigm. Paradigms are models or frameworks encompassing a specific set of values that enable understanding of the system functionality of the world and serve as instructions for managing actions of a wide array of entities. The shift of a paradigm usually happens when people are faced with a series of contradictions that can no longer be denied while the existing mental models can no longer provide satisfying explanations. Considering the magnitude of change in modern business and the connection between previously separated disciplines and areas of research such as sociology, psychology and economics it can be concluded that the paradigm shift should be named socioeconomic encompassing not only managerial, but also wider economic and social dimensions of human activities. On the basis of the extended research of contemporary management ideas the concept of the learning organization can be proposed as the technology for the implementation of the socioeconomic paradigm on the individual, organizational and social level in general. Design/methodology/approach - The system thinking approach has been used to explore the transformation of the modern business with the special accent on recent trends in the European socio economic development. This paper surpasses the traditional approach of uniform economic analysis, pointing out the possibility of strengthening democracy and social sustainability by implementing the learning organization concept on the individual, organizational and social level. Originality/value - This methodology puts into evidence that contemporary theoretical and practical approaches to economic and social development indicate the need for transformation of the business value system in order to strengthen the democratic element of economic and social activities as a prerequisite for sustainability. In that sense, the paper discusses the prospects of the paradigm shift and proposes the learning organization concept as the technology for the socioeconomic paradigm implementation. The proposed concept based on the learning organization premises can contribute to the development of the social democratic process and welfare so the main social challenge within the learning framework becomes stimulating positive manifestations of cooperation and complexity as well as increasing behavioural variety as a means of fighting entropy. European economic development can only be realized in various forms of collaborations, especially focused on research and development. Networking can be viewed as a means of diffusing and sharing information and knowledge and therefore as a means for regional development strategy implementation. In that way, learning oriented entrepreneurial actions based on socially responsible behaviour become behaviour leading routines that assist decision-making in order to stimulate further entrepreneurial actions and make the process self-reinforcing. With establishing fundamentals of the learning organization concept organizational members acting as learning agents are stimulated to question deep-rooted assumptions that lie behind the decision process or engage in the process of double loop learning. Stimulation of the double loop learning is especially important for further European regional development since it can result with the redefinition of existing boundaries between sectors, industries and regions, leading to new organizational forms that can help enhance the knowledge flow and thereby stimulate the innovation process. Practical implications - The outcome of this approach is the learning organization concept which has been proposed as a suitable European development model based on its social and cultural background. The arguments for such a proposal can be based on the fact that the humanistic dimension, especially participative tradition has long been embedded in the European model of economic and social development. The suggested direction of the European economic development based on the transformation of enterprises towards the learning organization concept can serve as a coherent model for the formulation of partnership-based development in order to achieve economic growth as well as a high degree of the European social cohesion. This is in accordance with the fact that the EU regional development policy is equally focused on promoting social cohesion and sustainable development. The process of learning embedded in a coherent long term development model of a learning organization can thus become the fundamental binding European value, supranational in nature with which all entities can identify with and relate to. It is therefore advisable that European Union promote the idea of the learning organization on the supranational level and design programs to help organizations learn about it and implement it while horizontally sharing their experiences. |