10.1177/1523422303251362 ARTICLE Advances in Developing Human Resources May 2003 Watkins, Marsick / EDITORIAL Summing Up: Demonstrating the Value of an Organization’s Learning Culture Karen E. Watkins Victoria J. Marsick Scholars and practitioners alike consistently note that although much is said about the learning organization, little is known about how to implement these abstract ideas across national or local cultures and in different kinds of organizations (e.g., different kinds of businesses, nonprofits, government agencies, professional associations, or educational institutions). Our work on diagnosing the learning culture has spanned multiple organizational set- tings and cultural contexts. In this issue we sum up this experience by bring- ing together examples of how we diagnosed the learning culture, how orga- nizations have used our diagnostic instrument to guide change, and what we have learned that might influence theory, research, and practice. Previous research in this area has consisted primarily of case studies, single organiza- tional studies, or large-scale surveys in one context. This issue brings together research and practice using the Dimensions of the Learning Orga- nization Questionnaire (DLOQ) in different contexts. Various scholars have looked at organizational culture, but they have not generally focused on systems-level learning analyses carried out in a wide variety of organizational and national cultures. The DLOQ measures systems- level learning culture. And unlike some learning organization instruments that reflect consultant preferences but may not be guided by theory and research (Gephart, Marsick, Van Buren, & Spiro, 1996), the DLOQ grew out of both research and practice (Marsick & Watkins, 1997) and has been adapted based on new research on its use. As reported in this issue, we sum up years of research and offer illustrations of how to intervene with an orga- nization using feedback results from our organizational learning culture survey (DLOQ). Purposes of This Issue The purposes of this issue are to: 1. identify how a validated organizational learning culture survey can be used to advance theory, research, and practice; Advances in Developing Human Resources Vol. 5, No. 2 May 2003 129-131 Copyright 2003 Sage Publications  Editorial