Prominent business thinkers and researchers, including Toffler, Porter and Senge, argue that learning is the basic ingredient of business success in the third millennium. The nature of technological advancement and development also leaves little doubt that people and their knowledge is the cornerstone of global competition. Consequently, numerous books and articles have written about the knowledge economy and learning organisation over the last twenty years. Organisations have also joined in and they now talk about the advantages of becoming a learning organisation. But do they really believe in and act on what they hear and read about learning in organisations? How important is learning to business people, particularly business managers? This paper reviews the literature on learning and what business writers have said about learning and its role in business and management performance. A survey of managers is conducted to investigate their perception of managerial competencies, including learning competency and its dimensions, in effective performance. The same respondents are also invited to rank a number of managerial competencies to determine their order of importance in decision-making. The result of the two surveys are compared and contrasted to highlight the difference in what Argyris and Schon (1974) refer to as individual s espoused theory andtheory-in-use. The research findings are highlighted and discussed in the context of education and training of managers. The paper recommends several teaching strategies for fostering active and reflective learning.

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