Organizational Learning, Knowledge and Capabilities: New Ideas and Insights

A special issue of Administrative Sciences (ISSN 2076-3387).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (12 May 2017) | Viewed by 18732

Special Issue Editor

School of Management, University of Bath, Bath BA2 7AY, UK
Interests: organizational learning; leadership and change; emotion in organizations; the organization of reflection
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The field of Organizational Learning continues to provide scholars with opportunities for new and interesting study in important contemporary issues. In addition, there remains significant interest in “the past, present and future” of this area of study.

For this, Special Issue on the theme of “Organizational Learning, Knowledge and Capabilities”, we are open to wide ranging submissions that address any contemporary aspects of organizational learning, knowledge, capabilities, and development.

The Guest Editor invites the submission of theoretical and empirical papers that make a clear and explicit contribution to knowledge around one or more of the three main themes of this Special Issue. In their papers, contributors should identify, develop and illustrate one well-focused idea or issue that will help readers to improve their understanding of Organizational Learning.

Prof. Dr. Russ Vince
Guest Editor

Keywords

  • organizational learning
  • knowledge
  • knowledge sharing
  • capabilities

Published Papers (3 papers)

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2232 KiB  
Article
Organizational Identity: An Ambiguous Concept in Practical Terms
by Humaira Mujib
Adm. Sci. 2017, 7(3), 28; https://doi.org/10.3390/admsci7030028 - 12 Aug 2017
Cited by 8 | Viewed by 9929
Abstract
Albert and Whetten defined organizational identity (OI) as the central, distinctive and enduring characteristics of an organization. Scholars found OI to be a difficult construct to apply to organizations and, over time, they defined it from functionalist, social constructionist, postmodernist and psychodynamic perspectives. [...] Read more.
Albert and Whetten defined organizational identity (OI) as the central, distinctive and enduring characteristics of an organization. Scholars found OI to be a difficult construct to apply to organizations and, over time, they defined it from functionalist, social constructionist, postmodernist and psychodynamic perspectives. All of these perspectives made great theoretical contributions to the field, but they were largely unable to integrate practice and theory in a way that could benefit organizations. Hatch and Schultz’s work is exceptional in this regard: they provided a theory that has the promise of practical implications for organizations in regard to organizational continuity. They perceived organizational continuity as existing in the balanced/responsible behavior of an organization’s members, among themselves and with key external stakeholders. They provided an effective model in this regard, but they overlooked how individuals’ political interests overshadow balanced behavior. Politics that arise as a result of individuals’ identity are generally considered to be psychological in origin and link OI to organizational learning (OL) as a co-evolving process. The present research hence operationalizes Hatch and Schultz’s model by reference to a Winnicottian framework to understand how OI is socially constructed and psychologically understood in the political interests of the management and employees, among themselves and with key external stakeholders. In doing so it explores the political implications of OI for OL, as perceived in an organization’s continuity. The context of the research is the Pakistani police. Full article
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647 KiB  
Article
No Room for Mistakes: The Impact of the Social Unconscious on Organizational Learning in Kazakhstan
by Indira Kjellstrand and Russ Vince
Adm. Sci. 2017, 7(3), 27; https://doi.org/10.3390/admsci7030027 - 03 Aug 2017
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 4339
Abstract
The aim of this paper is to add to existing work on the theme of power, emotion, and organizational learning. The study was undertaken in Kazakhstan, where tensions between old and new regimes provide an environment that is rich in emotion and power/politics; [...] Read more.
The aim of this paper is to add to existing work on the theme of power, emotion, and organizational learning. The study was undertaken in Kazakhstan, where tensions between old and new regimes provide an environment that is rich in emotion and power/politics; and offer an opportunity to study the interplay between emotion and power during individual and organizational attempts to learn. The social unconscious is used as a conceptual frame to identify underlying dynamics that impact on organizational learning. The empirical study illustrates a social fantasy concerning the fear of mistakes and its consequences. This fantasy is sustained through blaming and punishing the people who make mistakes, and through feelings of internalised embarrassment and guilt that are enacted through interpersonal relations of shaming and being ashamed. Our contribution to knowledge arises from employing a concept (social unconscious) that has not been used to study organizational learning within a social and organizational context for organizational learning (Kazakhstan) that has not yet been studied. The practical purpose of this paper is to improve our knowledge of the social and political context of organizational learning in post-Soviet Kazakhstan through understanding unconscious dynamics that both inform and undermine attempts to learn. Full article
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213 KiB  
Article
Interest Differences and Organizational Learning
by Laurie Field
Adm. Sci. 2017, 7(3), 26; https://doi.org/10.3390/admsci7030026 - 03 Aug 2017
Cited by 7 | Viewed by 3886
Abstract
This paper argues that interest differences are the key to understanding the nature of organizational learning and the processes by which it occurs, yet the concept of ‘interest’ is very much underdeveloped in the organizational learning literature. Drawing on the work of Habermas [...] Read more.
This paper argues that interest differences are the key to understanding the nature of organizational learning and the processes by which it occurs, yet the concept of ‘interest’ is very much underdeveloped in the organizational learning literature. Drawing on the work of Habermas and Lukes, the paper proposes a model of the relationship between shared learning and interests and elaborates on it using a case study of pay and performance management change at a large Australian finance-sector company, DollarCo. The case study provides many examples of shared learning associated with both common and competing interests, including a great deal of learning resulting from tensions between DollarCo’s economic and technical interests, on the one hand, and employees’ ontological interests on the other. By doing so, it underlines the value of foregrounding interests and interest differences in studies of workplace and organizational learning and raises questions about the extent to which many published accounts of so-called ‘organizational’ learning are actually describing ‘shared interest group’ learning. Full article
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