Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine systematically and reflectively the relevance of four different aspects/types of the learning organization idea to higher educational institutions (HEIs), from three ideal-typical stakeholder perspectives: the managerial perspective, the employee perspective and the societal perspective. Design/methodology/approach: Literature review of 73 prior works on the relevance of the learning organization idea to HEIs, and a systematic examination from different stakeholder perspectives, i.e. an examination based on a "multi-stakeholder contingency approach." Findings: The learning organization idea needs to be reformulated to some extent to become fully relevant to HEIs. Research limitations/implications: The "multi-stakeholder contingency approach" can be used advantageously in any contextualization study of the learning organization idea as well as in contextualizing any other fashionable management idea. Practical implications: The learning organization idea should not be adopted uncritically by HEIs, nor should it be uncritically rejected. In particular, HEIs should avoid becoming too organic and instead, be moderate when adopting the "learning structure" aspect/type of the learning organization idea. Social implications: It is recommended that the societal perspective be prioritized, in that HEIs are mainly for society. Originality/value: In contrast to the previous stock of literature on HEIs as learning organizations, which, generally speaking, is non-cumulative, uncritical, incongruent and unsystematic, this paper systematically and reflectively examines the relevance of various definitions of the learning organization from diverse and explicit stakeholder perspectives.