Search results

This paper aims to generate both a theoretical and an empirical basis for a research model that serves in further research as an analytical tool for understanding the complex phenomenon of learning at different levels in a work organisation. The key concept in this model is the routine concept of Nelson and Winter.

A review of the literature in the academic fields of educational sciences, industrial sciences, economics, social psychology and sociology is used to develop a conceptual model that could serve as an analytical instrument to describe the ongoing dynamics, i.e. learning processes at different levels. The theoretical findings were tested against empirical data of an industrial bakery in order to evaluate if the theoretical concepts help to identify possible mechanisms that account for parallel learning processes at different levels.

The paper gives an overview of possible key concepts that helps in explaining what happens at the intersection between individual and team, and team and organisation. This paper concludes that the concept of routines is the most sufficient for understanding the coordinating mechanism between the different aggregation levels in an organisation.

As organisations are modelled as a set of interlocking routines, innovation can be understood as the change of routines. The central question in future research is: “How do routines change?”

By taking a multi‐disciplinary approach, economic theories on innovation and educational theories on learning are combined. Such combination seems fruitful to bridge individual and organisational learning.

The purpose of this paper is to understand why structures of learning underpin the creation of competencies that allow firms to compete more successfully in dynamic markets. The paper seeks to challenge the idea that, in the absence of learning, capabilities are the main source of competitive advantage.

First, the paper discusses the relationships between competencies, learning, and dynamic markets. Second, a preliminary analysis is conducted of the learning routines of 118 top sales managers. The results are compared with three different structures of learning, allowing conclusions to be drawn about learning in dynamic markets.

The study illustrates that a number of dynamic learning routines are not evident in the sales environments of dynamic markets. The findings suggest that firms are not well placed to renew routines from inside‐out and to respond to market dynamics. The patterns of integration among individuals and groups, however, seem to be well represented, reflecting higher‐level learning routines.

The empirical findings offered here are of a preliminary nature. Future researchers might usefully apply the typology of learning structures to examine in more detail the empirical links established. Studies might also examine organisational learning in a variety of industrial and consumer‐based contexts.

The idea that learning structures (rather than capabilities themselves) are the basis of competencies that enable a firm to better respond to dynamic markets is a useful and novel approach.

During hyper‐competition, disruptive technological innovations germinate causing significant changes in software development organizations' (SDOs) knowledge. The scope and flexibility of the SDO's knowledge base increases; its volatility and the demand for efficiency grows. This creates germane needs to translate abstract knowledge into workable knowledge fast while delivering solutions. The aim of this article is to examine SDOs' responses to such learning challenges through an inductive, theory‐generating study which addresses the question: how did some SDOs successfully learn under these circumstances?

The article takes the form of an exploratory, theory‐building case study investigating seven SDOs' web‐development activities and associated changes in their learning routines during the dot‐com boom.

The SDOs increased their ability to learn broadly, deeply, and quickly – a learning contingency referred as “hyper‐learning” – by inventing, selecting and configuring learning routines. Two sets of learning routines enabled broad and flexible exploratory‐knowledge identification and exploratory‐knowledge assimilation: distributed gate‐keeping; and brokering of external knowledge. Likewise, two sets of learning routines enabled fast and efficient exploitative‐knowledge transformation and exploitation: simple design rules; and peer networks. The authors further observed that SDOs created systemic connections between these routines allowing for fast switching and dynamic interlacing concurrently within the same organizational sub‐units. The authors refer to this previously unidentified form of organizational learning as parallel ambidexterity.

The study contributes to organizational learning theories as applied to SDOs by recognizing a condition where knowledge scope, flexibility, efficiency and volatility increase. It also argues a new form of ambidexterity, parallel ambidexterity, was created and implemented in response to this set of requirements. Parallel ambidexterity differs from traditional exploitative forms where SDOs focus on improving and formalizing their operational knowledge and improving efficiency. It also differs from traditional explorative forms where SDOs focus on identifying and grafting and distributing external abstract knowledge by expanding knowledge scope, flexibility. Most importantly, parallel ambidexterity differs from the widely recognized forms of sequential and structural ambidexterity because exploration and exploitation take place at the same time within the same unit in holographic ways to address volatility. Here learning outcome are applied directly and fast to the tasks for which the learning was initiated.

Empirical research has already postulated the link between learning routines and the creation of competencies, but it is less clear how competencies influence organisational performance. This paper is an empirical investigation determining the relationship between the creation of competencies and the quality of learning. The purpose of the paper is to not only build on prior research that has validated the usefulness of linking levels of learning with the evidence of competencies, but also to illustrate how the creation of competencies is a socially constructed phenomenon. Thus, the paper has a strong theoretical disposition examining the existing literature as well as building on it. Socially constructed routines of themselves have little inimitable advantage to firms unless the routines are underpinned and harnessed by unique learning systems. The paper explores these concepts by showing how the creation of competencies depend on, and are predisposed to, the quality of learning interaction, the routines that are patterned from these, and the capacity of the organisation to turn the new socially constructed routines into superior performance. The paper is expected to make a major contribution to the strategic management literature by showing what types of competencies are more likely to lead to superior firm performance, and how competencies are linked to learning.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Information, whether it is acquired from an external source or generated internally, is subjected to perceptual filters made up of the organization’s norms, procedures, and beliefs that influence what information the organization attends to and ultimately accepts. This paper examines the role which these organizational filters play in unlearning; viewed here as a specialized form of organizational learning. Unlearning is defined as the “process by which firms eliminate old logics and make room for new ones” by Prahalad and Bettis. The author argues that firms which engage in unlearning activities are better able to cast aside established routines in order to replace them with ones that ultimately result in superior value to their customers.

Organisational learning theory appears to be practical when researchers can find links between two or more variables that can be justified and implemented. While much has been written about organisational learning, with many reported successes, further research is needed to link the internal techniques of procedure with the externalisation of these in practice. Such principles seem more valuable when superior organisational competencies are linked to a learning culture, when the improvement of behavioural routines can be traced to the existence of superior learning. This paper explores these links. The paper is based on an empirical investigation – the contemplative link between learning levels and the creation of organisational competence is a new approach. The paper seeks to make a contribution to developmental theory as well as organisational learning in practice. It suggests that a firm’s competitive advantage can be increased as a result of competencies that are established from a learning culture.

The purpose of this paper is to propose a new model to show how continuous joint learning of participant organisations improves project performance. Performance heterogeneity between collaborative infrastructure projects is typically examined by considering procurement systems and their governance mechanisms at static points in time. The literature neglects to consider the impact of dynamic learning capability, which is thought to reconfigure governance mechanisms over time in response to evolving market conditions.

There are two stages of conceptual development. In the first stage, the management literature is analysed to explain the standard model of dynamic learning capability that emphasises three learning phases for organisations. This standard model is extended to derive a novel circular model of dynamic learning capability that shows a new feedback loop between performance and learning. In the second stage, the construction management literature is consulted, adding project lifecycle, stakeholder diversity and three organisational levels to the analysis to arrive at the collaborative model of dynamic learning capability.

The collaborative model should enable construction organisations to successfully adapt and perform under changing market conditions. The complexity of learning cycles result in capabilities that are imperfectly imitable between organisations, explaining performance heterogeneity on projects.

The collaborative model provides a theoretically substantiated description of project performance, driven by the evolution of procurement systems and governance mechanisms. The model’s empirical value will be tested in future research.

Organisations must build resilience to be able to deal with disruptions or non-routine events in their supply chains. While learning is implicit in definitions of supply chain resilience (SCRes), there is little understanding of how exactly organisations can adapt their routines to build resilience. The purpose of this study is to address this gap.

This paper is an in-depth qualitative case study based on 28 interviews across five companies, exploring learning to build SCRes.

This study uncovers six learning mechanisms and their antecedents that foster SCRes. The learning mechanisms identified suggest that through knowledge creation within an organisation and knowledge transfer across the supply chain and broader network of stakeholders, operating routines are built and/or adapted both intentionally and unintentionally during three stages of a supply chain disruption: preparation, response and recovery.

This study shows how the impact of a supply chain disruption may be reduced by intentional and unintentional learning in all three disruption phases. By being aware of the antecedents of unintentional learning, organisations can more consciously adapt routines. Furthermore, findings highlight the potential value of additional attention to knowledge transfer, particularly in relation to collaborative and vicarious learning across the supply chain and broader network of stakeholders not only in preparation for, but also in response to and recovery from disruptions.

This study contributes novel insights about how learning leads both directly and indirectly to the evolution of operating routines that help an organisation and its supply chains to deal with disruptions. Results detail six specific learning mechanisms for knowledge creation and knowledge transfer and their antecedents for building SCRes. In doing so, this study provides new fine-grained theoretical insights about how SCRes can be improved through all three phases of a disruption. Propositions are developed for theory development.

Reports research into how the organisational learning process can be routinised. Three sets of enabling routines and four sets of defensive routines are identified which are core to facilitating and challenging the learning process. A field‐tested prototype methodology is reported which supports the introduction of a strategy for organisational learning and change by practitioners within companies. In this way the abstract notions of organisational learning, corporate regeneration and change can be made operational.