There are several studies showing the importance of having a well-functioning learning organization and history is full of examples demonstrating what failures or successes can lead to. Therefore, the emphasis of this thesis is to implement Visser´s theory regarding capability and battlefield performance and apply this and measure to which extension the Swedish 2nd Amphibious Battalion utilized organizational learning. The method used in this thesis is a case study consisting of interviews with officers, ranging from platoon to battalion. Results show that the 2nd Amphibious Battalion had an overall productive learning cycle in higher echelons but with deviation regarding lower echelons. Deviation was most prominent concerning learning capability in lower echelons regarding a systematic procedure towards systems to capture and share learning from as well as communications between individuals and higher echelons concerning development orientation and collaboration. 2nd Amphibious Battalion exhibits a decentralized leadership which enables participative decision making. Furthermore, the battalion shows a comprehensive change towards a higher degree of error openness, but with deviation regarding lower echelons.

Organizational learning has the power to gift an organization with a competitive advantage. In our society the most competitive form of organization is probably the armed forces of every nation. This is because of the fact that if the armed forces isn´t at top of its competitive advantage the chance of losing increases, and compared to a commercial organization, a military organization won’t just lose money if it’s not at its peak, it may lose lives and its nations independence. A report from the Swe-dish army have shown a deficiency in the army´s learning when it comes to reporting experiences. This Essay looks deeper into the learning of the Swedish armed forces who have made a claim to be a learning organization. It does so by a text analysis on the army’s fundamental manuals and doc-trine´s analyzing them with Visser´s theory of military learning capacity. The results from the text analyses show that the fundamental manuals and doctrine´s almost fully encourages the necessary factors to inhibit a positive learning cycle according to Visser´s theory. The Biggest flaw according to the text analyses was that the documents didn’t show enough evidence of a system to store and spread the experiences within the army.

Studies of organizational learning have found that military organisations can benefit from developing organizational learning. Successful implementation of organizational learning exists in the Israeli army. This study analyses the organizational learning capability of the Swedish army. By adopting the organizational learning capability theory by Visser and applying it to data collected through both documents and interviews, this study investigates the possible harmony and dissonance between the data. The findings discovered that while there is compatibility in two out of four dimensions, which is interpreted as the Swedish army having a good baseline to build their organizational learning; it also ascertained that there is a large dissonance regarding knowledge conversion. This is seen as a probable inhibitor for the implementation of organizational learning in the Swedish army. Specifically, is the lack of education in knowledge conversion seen as a large threat to the organization successfully implementing organizational learning. The study contributes to the research field with a comparison of the normative level and reality; in this it contributes with an understanding of which parts can be considered to facilitate and inhibit organizational learning. Furthermore, it gives the Swedish Army several recommendations to accelerate their capabilities in organizational learning.

The Swedish armed forces are growing, and six regiments are going to be re-established. The military appeared to be neglected for a long time in organization science, but in the last decade there has been a renewed interest in researching army organizations. But there have not been any studies about how growing organizations learn. The purpose of this study is to implement Visser’s modern military theory about capability and battlefield performance in a semi-structured interview analysis. The focus of this study is the army ranger battalion, which is one of the six regiments that are going to be re-established. The question at issue is to which extent the army ranger battalion utilized organizational learning. Results show that a productive learning cycle is found in 70% of the examined sub-dimensions and positive indications were a high degree of participative decision making and networks for translating and storing information. The sub-dimensions that had potential for improvement was indicated by a lower degree of communication between the older and younger officer corps and strict regulations.

Today's technological developments and the military's uses of them affect tomorrow's battlefield. This evolution requires that a military organization remains a developing and learning organization to enable them to take advantage of and protect themselves from tomorrow’s advancements. Max Visser in 2016 created the Organisational Learning Capability theory that specifically addresses non-profit and military organisations and serves as a guide to which a military organisation can be evaluated on its learning capabilities. The study examines the Swedish Army and its SUAV-division, regarding its learning capability according to Visser’s theory. A qualitative case study involving a text-analysis of the Swedish Army’s regulatory publications and an interview survey of SUAV-personnel was conducted. The study found that the Army’s publications fair well, and predominantly creates a productive learning cycle. The interview survey gave a worse result however and prevailing was a defensive learning cycle. Mutual areas of improvement for both the analysis and interviews are; aspects of openness to new ideas, experimentation, risk-taking and the utilisation of formal/informal networks within an organisational knowledge system.