A conventional explanation of the short notice that many management ideas get is that they are only fashions. This article presents a complementary explanation. Based on Jung's personality types and my own experiences, I suggest that mostly only people with a certain type of personality become interested in ideas such as the learning organization. I further argue that all four of Jung's personality types must join in the sculpting of learning organizations if organizations are to succeed in becoming such organizations and continue being it, and, accordingly, if the idea is to survive in the long run.
In 1998, I attended a Learning Company Conference at Warwick University arranged by Tom Boydell, John Burgoyne, and Mike Pedler at the Learning Company Project. At this very interesting and fun conference, those attending were a mix of academics and practitioners. Besides listening to and taking part in a lot of interesting lectures and practices, I held a practice myself. First, I tested some of the participants in accordance with Jung' s personality types, based on two dimensions: thinking versus feeling and sensing versus intuition (Mitroff, 1983). I then grouped them and let them build a learning organization with material that I supplied, such as clay, pipe cleaners, balloons, papers, and crayons (Mitroff, 1983).
In essence, there are four types of personalities, according to this test. Different personalities focus on different areas of organization, such as efficiency, flexibility, or democracy. Type Ones, as Mitroff (1983) calls them, or Sensation Thinkers as Slocum and Hellriegel (1983) call them, are occupied with authority and well-defined rules of behavior and economic goals, while their opposites, Type Threes (Intuitive Feelers), are concerned with flexibility and decentralization and with making a contribution to humanity. Type Twos (Intuitive Thinkers) emphasize new products, markets, and businesses; flexibility and adaptiveness to shifting environments; and new ideas for the creation of