Applying Senge's concepts of organizational learning to clinical outcomes research and practice

The purpose of this article is to use Senge's concepts of organizational learning as a framework for discussing issues and challenges in clinical outcomes research. Clinical outcomes research is about learning how to improve clinical practice. A learning organization balances attention to the structure and the culture in order to produce effective results. Future health care leaders will need to understand and attend to the importance of the organization's structure, but their greatest contribution will be in attending to the organizational culture to produce enduring organizational change.