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States that in order to remain competitive, organizations must scan and analyse environmental turbulence, formulate appropriate strategic plans and implement these through a change management process. In short, the organization must routinely learn and relearn about its environment, and learn new ways to change and implement policy and process. Examines how this organizational learning would need to be carried out as scientifically as possible in order to verify that incoming knowledge is demonstrably superior to the old. Attempts to sight the limits of the learning organization by asking questions about what organizations are capable of knowing and understanding. Explains that this is not intended as a critique of the concept. Hopes that such discussion will help to prevent the degeneration of the helpful ideas developed in the literature so far, into another trite managerial fashion and language.

The purpose of this paper is to study organizational learning from complex and heterogeneous experiences. According to March (2010), this kind of high intellect learning is difficult to accomplish because it requires deliberate investments in knowledge transfer and creation. Zollo and Winter (2002) emphasized how knowledge codification can facilitate this process, as long as it is “well-performed”. However, knowledge management scholars have yet to explore what is meant by well-performed codification and how to achieve it.

This paper addresses this gap and provides a conceptual analysis based on two related but previously disconnected research areas: organizational learning and knowledge management.

This paper contributes to the literature in three ways. First, a new understanding of different types of experiences and their effects on learning is proposed. Then the codification process using a critical realist paradigm to overcome the epistemological boundaries of knowledge versus knowing is discussed; in doing so, it is shown that codification can take different forms to be “well-performed”. Finally, appropriate codification strategies based on experience type are identified.

The abstraction-oriented codification outlined in this paper runs counter to the logic of concrete codification that dominates both theory and practice. Thus, going beyond the traditional debate on the degree of codification (i.e. should knowledge be fully codified or just partly codified), this paper introduced a new debate about the appropriate degree of abstraction.

Health care policy and practice are frequently driven by government mandate. What role does organizational learning have in government‐directed organizational change and what kind of organizational learning might we expect from legislated procedure? In 1983, a task force on indigent health care recommended that maternal and child health become a top service priority in the USA in Texas. The Maternal and Infant Health Improvement Act in Texas eventually grew out of the realization of such need. The Texas Department of Health was assigned responsibility for implementation. Focuses this investigation on the implementation of the state′s resulting maternal and infant health policy from an organizational learning perspective.

This article aims to present an alternative approach to diagnosing behavioral barriers to organizational learning.

The paper juxtaposes interruptions in organizational learning with characteristics of narcissism and arrogant organization disorder. Psychoanalytically informed theory and DSM‐IV criteria are applied to interruptions in organizational learning and an alternative approach to diagnosing behavioral barriers to organizational learning is suggested.

This paper illustrates how managers might account for human failings when considering organizational learning in less than ideal settings.

This paper demonstrates how informed psychoanalytical theory can be applied to the learning organization and provides a framework from which to diagnose and deal with arrogant organization disorder.

This paper describes how Avoidant Organization Disorder, a common form of narcissism, thwarts organizational health and performance. Avoidant Organization Disorder is juxtaposed with interruptions in organizational learning. A model illustrating the possible relationship between the two and how Avoidant Organization Disorder may precipitate interruptions in organization learning is presented.

In this study, nine managers of a Dutch multinational engineering company were interviewed on the success and failure factors of post‐acquisition processes they were involved in over the past five years. When referring to their experiences, the managers mainly spoke about failures and how to avoid these in future. The focus of this study was on the cognitive map structure of the perspectives of managers as disclosed by the interview data. Three different collective maps were found, representing “the Strategists”, strategic business unit‐presidents, and human resource (HR)‐managers. The maps show differences in perspectives on four central themes: control versus cooperation; how to handle the culture of the acquired firm; trust versus distrust; and speed versus carefulness. If the maps are compared with literature on management acquisition processes, the HR‐managers' map shows richer insights into how to manage human factors in acquisition processes than the other two. Instead of exploiting these valuable insights, the differences in perspectives fostered distrust between the two management levels, which constrained mutual learning.

Based on a review of previous research of organizational learning from experience, this paper aims to point out the notable gaps and unresolved issues in the research area and proposes a “multilevel integrated model of learning from experience”, which could integrate current research findings and serve as the theoretical framework for further investigation.

This paper is a theoretical review.

From the individual, team, organizational and multiple levels, in an order of the outcome of success and failure, this study reviews previous research about organizational learning from experience down to the last detail and points out some of their limitations, including relative fragmented-wise, lack of grope about the underlying motivations, lack of overall framework, etc. Then, this study proposes the “multilevel integrated model of learning from experience”, which provides a systematic and fine-grained framework for studies in this field.

This paper emphasizes that true underlying motivations impelling learning from experience shall be identified and exploration for the antecedents shall be further deepened. Besides, this study figures out that various factors played their parts in the process and outcome of learning from experience through both subjective perception and objective experience. Thus, future research shall distinguish the influence of learning from experience, respectively, into “knowing” and “doing”.

This study is an attempt to review and integrate current research of learning from experience in multiple levels and further differentiates the influences of different experience outcomes (success vs failure). The proposed theoretical model provides clear suggestions of where future research should be directed.

The purpose of this paper is to describe how interruptions in organizational learning effect institutional absorptive capacity and contribute to organizational inertia.

An exploratory model is presented as a heuristic to describe how interruptions in organizational learning affect absorptive capacity.

A number of pivotal factors may result in a zone of inertia hindering organizational learning and process.

This paper describes the concept of a zone of inertia and introduces a model placing the notion in context.

James G. March taught his students how to combine rigor and playfulness. He saw scholarship as the interplay between harnessing crazy ideas; the technology of foolishness on one side, and the rigorous building and assessment of models which emulate the behaviors of individuals in organizations and of organizations as a whole on the other side. Therefore, a student should develop not only an ability to understand the world, by mastering technical analytical methods, but also an ability to appreciate it. In order to develop the latter, one should grasp that the underlying problems of management and leadership are indistinguishable from the fundamental problems of life, and that the novels, poems and plays of great literature are the best sources to examine these problems. Thus, James March’s teaching involved basic skills in statistics, the subtle art of building models, and the study of major pieces of great literature. According to James March, teaching is not primarily about spreading knowledge but is about raising faith in scholarship. Learning is not aimed at adapting to the world, but at developing a desire to change it for more truth, beauty and justice. Higher education is a vision, a vocation, not a rational choice. Teaching is a sacrament.

This study addresses the research question: How does the experiential knowledge, superstitious knowledge and the wisdom of CEOs influence the internationalization behaviour of SMEs?

An exploratory qualitative study is used. Longitudinal case studies of two Swedish life science companies are analysed.

An individual's prior experiential knowledge influence the newly started SME's market commitments and internationalization behaviour. Such prior experiences can enable early and rapid resource commitments in the newly started SMEs. Relying upon such prior experiential knowledge in deciding upon the company's market commitments however heightens the risk of superstitious learning. The findings illustrate how wisdom can work as an antidote to superstitious learning. Wisdom lures even experienced CEOs away from believing they know more than they actually know.

The study contributes to extend the Uppsala model by incorporating the role of individual-level experiential knowledge. The study also adds value to the literature on small firm internationalization by providing propositions for how the prior knowledge of individual key decision makers influences SMEs' internationalization behaviour. The propositions provide new input to the ongoing discussion in the literature and help to guide future research.

Given the fact that the Uppsala model is centred upon a firm-level view on experiential knowledge, our theoretical understanding is still limited regarding how individual-level experiential knowledge influences the internationalization behaviour of SMEs. This study addresses calls for research on how individuals' prior knowledge influences small-firm internationalization.