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Abstract
This paper considers the role of team learning in organizational learning. I propose that a group-level perspective provides new insight into how organizational learning is impeded, hindering effective change in response to external pressures. In contrast to previous theoretical perspectives, I suggest that organizational learning is local, interpersonal, and variegated. I present data from an exploratory study of learning processes in 12 organizational teams engaged in activities ranging from strategic planning to hands-on manufacturing of products. These qualitative data are used to investigate two components of the collective learning process-reflection to gain insight and action to produce change-and to explore how teams allow an organization to engage in both radical and incremental learning, as needed in a changing and competitive environment. I find that team members' perceptions of power and interpersonal risk affect the quality of team reflection, which has implications for their team's and their organization's ability to change.
(Organizational Learning; Team Learning; Psychological Safety; MesoLevel Research)
Introduction
The notion of organizational learning has been explored in the management literature for several decades (e.g., March and Simon 1958, Argyris and Schon 1978, de Geus 1988, Hayes et al. 1988, Levitt and March 1988, Stata 1989, Senge 1990, Huber 1991, Schein 1993, Garvin 2000). This interest stems from the premise that success in changing environments requires learning-recognizing a need for change, evaluating new possibilities, and implementing new courses of action. Organizational learning is an encompassing rubric under which researchers have studied, in remarkably varied ways, this fundamental need to adapt and change. Understanding the processes by which organizations learn and how these processes might be better managed is of central importance to management scholars and practitioners alike. This paper takes a group-level perspective to shed light on interpersonal processes that influence organizational learning outcomes.
Organizational learning is defined here as a process of improving organizational actions through better knowledge and understanding (Fiol and Lyles 1985, Garvin 2000). Although the literature includes numerous definitions of organizational learning (e.g., see Edmondson and Moingeon 1998), not all of them encompass change in behavior or action.1 Learning, more generally, is viewed as an iterative process of action and reflection, in which action is taken, assessed by the actor, and modified to produce desired outcomes (Kolb 1984,...