Learning crisis unit through post-crisis: characteristics and mechanisms
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to identify the characteristics that a crisis unit should have to achieve effective learning after crisis. Literature has identified many relations between learning organizations and crisis; yet, there is a dearth of research on specific studies about crisis units and their post-crisis learning features. Thus, this paper aims to fill such a gap by giving some practical answers to this question: How can the crisis unit reduce defensiveness phase and extend openness and forgetfulness while learning after the crisis?
Design/methodology/approach
This research mobilizes a framework composed by three theoretical grids: the post-crisis learning cycle (Kovoor-Misra and Nathan, 2000); the characteristics of a learning organization (Senge, 1990); and the mechanisms of crisis learning (Mitki and Herstein, 2011). A qualitative investigation is conducted to study a crisis within an oil company (PON).
Findings
This paper shows that the duration of the learning cycle depends not only on the organization context but also on the characteristics of the crisis unit. Along with the cognitive, structural and procedural mechanisms, which contributed differently in each phase, the mixed framework allowed operationalizing Senge’s dimensions.
Research limitations/implications
The elaboration of a single case study could be considered as a limitation, although it allows a deeper analysis of events within the organization.
Practical implications
This paper pinpoints the characteristics that organizations should have as well as the learning mechanisms they should use during each phase of the post-crisis learning cycle.
Originality/value
This paper analyzes crisis units as learning structures, which has not been seen yet in known literature.
Keywords
Citation
Chebbi, H. and Pündrich, A.P. (2015), "Learning crisis unit through post-crisis: characteristics and mechanisms", The Learning Organization, Vol. 22 No. 4, pp. 198-214. https://doi.org/10.1108/TLO-07-2011-0044
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2015, Emerald Group Publishing Limited