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Learning, dynamic capabilities and operating routines: A consumer package goods company

Peter E. Swift (Department of Business, University of South Carolina Beaufort, Bluffton, South Carolina, USA)
Alvin Hwang (Department of Management and Management Science, Lubin School of Business, Pace University, New York, New York, USA)

The Learning Organization

ISSN: 0969-6474

Article publication date: 11 January 2008

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Abstract

Purpose

This paper seeks to present organizational learning processes of knowledge accumulation, articulation, codification and subsequent routine development in a marketing services organization where judgment and rules of thumb were more the norm than codified knowledge and explicit routines. The case illustrates how organizational learning through a conscious knowledge codification effort could lead to tangible benefits for consumer‐driven organizations and how heterogeneous and infrequent yet important routines can be aided by an explicit and dynamic learning process.

Design/methodology/approach

After a review of the relevant literature, a case is provided to illustrate many of the key concepts in the organizational learning literature as they are applied to a consumer package goods company.

Findings

The case study is followed by a discussion of how the organization in the case applied organizational learning processes through a knowledge clarification and codification system. The organizational learning process was enabled by contextual enablers such as leadership commitment to organizational learning, teamwork and organization‐wide participation in the knowledge articulation and codification processes, and multi‐lateral flow of information across the organization in developing the routines.

Practical implications

Implications of how companies in market‐oriented environments that often have nuanced practices and uncodified norms could utilize various organizational learning processes are discussed in the paper.

Originality/value

It is rare in the field of organizational learning to see the application of numerous learning theories in one place and one organization. Such was the case in this examination, where different roles played by different organizational components, such as support from leadership, teamwork and flexibility, organization‐wide participation, and multilateral communication, in addition to knowledge accumulation, articulation, codification, and circular learning loops were utililzed by the organization to produce marketplace success for a major consumer battery company with heterogeneous and nuanced yet important learning requirements.

Keywords

Citation

Swift, P.E. and Hwang, A. (2008), "Learning, dynamic capabilities and operating routines: A consumer package goods company", The Learning Organization, Vol. 15 No. 1, pp. 75-95. https://doi.org/10.1108/09696470810842493

Publisher

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Emerald Group Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2008, Emerald Group Publishing Limited

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