Skip to main content

Organizational Learning

  • Living reference work entry
  • First Online:
  • 127 Accesses

Synonyms

Learning organizations; Organizational acquisition; Organizational innovation

Definitions

Organizational learning explains the way individuals learn new knowledge within organizations by setting structures, mental maps, values, practices, routines, and frameworks. Accordingly, organizational learning proposes that entities are not only influenced by individual learning processes, but organizations influence the learning of individual members and conserve what has been learned. Although this perspective recognizes the individual as the only entity capable of learning, he must be seen as being part of a larger learning arrangement in which individual knowledge is exchanged and transformed.

Introduction

This chapter aims to discuss the theoretical assumptions behind organizational learning, looking into the theories on organizational change, which consider different perspectives for explaining how organizations modify their structures, practices, values, and knowledge....

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.

References

  • Amis J, Slack T, Hinings CR (2004) The pace, sequence, and linearity of radical change. Acad Manag J 47(1):15–39

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Argyris C (1982) Reasoning, learning and action, individual and organizational. Jossey Bass, San Francisco

    Google Scholar 

  • Argyris C (1991) Teaching smart people how to learn. Harv Bus Rev 69:99–109

    Google Scholar 

  • Argyris C (2009) In: Wood JC, Wood MC (eds) Chris Argyris: Critical evaluations in business and management. London: Routledge

    Google Scholar 

  • Argyris C, Schön DA (1978) Organizational learning: a theory of action perspective, vol 173. Addison Wesley, Reading

    Google Scholar 

  • Argyris C, Schön D (1998) Organizational learning II: theory, method and practice. Addison Wesley, Reading

    Google Scholar 

  • Barley SR, Tolbert P (1995) Institutionalization as structuration: methods and analytical strategies for studying links between actions and structures. In: Bouchikhi H, Kilduff MK, Whittington R (eds) Action, structure and organizations. Warwick Business School Research Bureau, Coventry

    Google Scholar 

  • Bateson G (1971) Steps to an ecology mind. Ballantine Books, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Burke W (1987) Organization development: a normative view. Addison Wesley, Reading

    Google Scholar 

  • Cohen WM, Levinthal DA (1990) Absorptive capacity: a new perspective on organizational learning and innovation. Adm Sci Q 35:128–152

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cyert RM, March JG (1963) A behavioral theory of the firm. Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs

    Google Scholar 

  • Damsgaard J, Scheepers R (2000) A stage model of intranet technology implementation and management. Inf Syst J 10(2):131–150

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • De Schryver T (2009) An organizational learning perspective on change. Content and process analysis of change in soccer clubs. PhD dissertation, University of Nijmegen. Unpublished

    Google Scholar 

  • Dixon NM (1994) The organizational learning cycle. How we can learn collectively. McGraw-Hill, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Easterby-Smith M, Crossan M, Nicolini D (2000) Organizational learning: debates past, present and future. J Manag Stud 37(6):783

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Etzioni A (1963) The epigenesist of political communities at the international level. Am J Sociol 68:407–421

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Feldman MS (2000) Organizational routines as a source of continuous change. Organ Sci 11(6):611–629

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gibbs PA (1993) Determinants of corporate restructuring. The relative importance of corporate governance, takeover threat, and free cash flow. Strateg Manag J 14:51–68

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ginsberg A, Buchholtz A (1990) Converting to for-profit status: corporate responsiveness to radical change. Acad Manag J 33:445–477

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Greve HR (2005) Inter-organizational learning and social structure. Org Stud 26. In press

    Google Scholar 

  • Holmqvist M (2003) A dynamic model of intra- and interorganizational learning. Organ Stud 24:95

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hong J (1999) Structuring for organizational learning. Learn Organ 6(4):173–185. MCB University Press

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Huber GP (1991) Organizational learning: the contributing processes and the literatures. Organ Sci 2(1): 88–115, Special Issue: organizational learning: papers in Honor (and by) James G. March

    Google Scholar 

  • Huy QN (2001) Temporal capability, and planned change. Acad Manag Rev 26:601–623

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jaffe D (2001) Organization theory: tension and change. McGraw-Hill, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Kazanjian RK, Drazin R (1989) An empirical test of a stage of growth progression model. Manag Sci 35:1489–1503

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Koberg CS (1987) Resource scarcity, environmental uncertainty, and adaptive organizational behavior. Acad Manag J 30:798–807

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kraatz M (1998) Learning by association interorganizational networks and adaptation to environmental change. Acad Manag J 41:621–643

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lant TK, Mezias SJ (1992) An organizational learning model of convergence and reorientation. Organ Sci 3:47–71

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lant TK, Milliken FJ, Batra B (1992) The role of managerial learning and interpretation in strategic persistence and reorientation: an empirical exploration. Strateg Manag J 13:585–608

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Levinthal DA, March JD (1993) The myopia of learning. Strateg Manag J 14:94–112

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Levitt B, March JG (1988) Organizational learning. Annu Rev Soc 14:319–340

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • MacGillivray BH, Hamilton PD, Strutt JE, Pollard SJT (2006) Risk analysis strategies in the water utility sector: an inventory of applications for better and more credible decision-making. Crit Rev Environ Sci Technol 36:85–139

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • March JG, Olsen JP (1976) Ambiguity and choice in organizations. Universitetsforlaget, Bergen

    Google Scholar 

  • March JG, Simon HA (1958) Organizations. Willey, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Meyer JW, Rowan B (1977) Institutionalized organizations: formal structures as myth and ceremony. Reprinted in Powell WW, DiMaggio PJ (eds) The new institutionalism in organizational analysis. University of Chicago Press, Chicago

    Google Scholar 

  • Mintzberg H (1984) Power and organization life-cycles. Acad Manag Rev 9:207–224

    Google Scholar 

  • Nonaka I, Takeuchi H (1995) The knowledge-creating company. Oxford University Press, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Oster S (1982) Intraindustrial structure and the case of strategic change. Rev Econ Stat 64:376–383

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Paauwe J (1998) HRM and performance: the linkage between resources and institutional context. RIBES working paper, Erasmus University Rotterdam

    Google Scholar 

  • Paauwe J, Williams R (1999) Organizational learning: an exploration of organizational memory and its role in organizational change processes. J Organ Chang Manag 12(5):377–404

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Phelps R, Adams R, Bessant J (2007) Life cycles of growing organizations: a review with implications for knowledge and learning. Int J Manag Rev 9:1–30

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rajagopalan N, Spreitzer GM (1997) Toward a theory of strategic change: a multi-lens perspective and integrative framework. Acad Manag Rev 22:48–79

    Google Scholar 

  • Romme G, Dillen R (1997) Mapping the landscape of organizational learning. Eur Manag J 15(I):68–78

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Schulz M (2001) The uncertain relevance of newness: organizational learning and knowledge flows. Acad Manag J 44(4):661–682

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Senge PM (1990) The fifth discipline. The art and practice of the learning organization. Doubleday, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Strutt JE, Sharp JV, Terry E, Miles R (2006) Capability maturity models for offshore organizational management. Environ Int 32:1094

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Stubbart CI, Smalley RD (1999) The deceptive allure of stage models of strategic processes. J Manag Inq 8(3):273–286

    Google Scholar 

  • Tusham ML, Virany B, Romanelli E (1985) Executive succession, strategic reorientations and organizational evolutions: the minicomputer industry as case in point. Technol Soc 7:297–313

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Van de Ven AH, Poole MS (1995) Development and change in organizations. Acad Manag Rev 20(3):510–540

    Google Scholar 

  • Van de Ven AH, Poole MS (2005) Alternative approaches for studying organizational change. Sage, London/Thousand Oaks/New Delhi

    Google Scholar 

  • Van der Bent J, Paauwe J, Williams R (1999) Organizational learning: an exploration of organizational memory and its role in organizational change processes. Department of Business and Organization, Rotterdam School of Economics, Erasmus University, Rotterdam

    Google Scholar 

  • Visser M (2007) Deutero-learning in organizations: a review and a reformulation. Acad Manag Rev 32(2):659–667

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Ignacio Cienfuegos .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2016 Springer International Publishing Switzerland

About this entry

Cite this entry

Cienfuegos, I. (2016). Organizational Learning. In: Farazmand, A. (eds) Global Encyclopedia of Public Administration, Public Policy, and Governance. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-31816-5_4-1

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-31816-5_4-1

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-31816-5

  • eBook Packages: Springer Reference Economics and FinanceReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Business, Economics and Social Sciences

Publish with us

Policies and ethics