A preliminary typology of organizational learning: synthesizing the literature

Journal of Management, Fall, 1996 by Danny Miller

Contexts

According to Thompson and Tuden (1959) and Grandori (1984), two aspects of context can have an especially profound influence on learning and decision making: uncertainty concerning means, and disagreement about goals. The former concerns the degree to which there are known, reliable ways of achieving goals; the latter refers to the level of consensus among managers about the goals themselves. A third aspect of context, the complexity of an organization, may also have a beating on a few modes of learning. Complexity is reflected by an organization's size and the diversity of its products and markets.

H1: Analytical learning will be most common where there is: a) modest uncertainty about means, and b) little conflict about goals.

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High levels of uncertainty would make methodical, intensive analysis and long-term planning very difficult (Fredrickson, 1986; Simon, 1947); very low levels might make it unnecessary. Disagreement about goals among executives would place political obstacles in the way of comprehensive rational analysis (Grandori, 1984; March & Olsen, 1976).

H2: Synthetic learning will be most common where there is: a) much uncertainty about means, and b) modest conflict about goals.

The above hypothesis is especially speculative. Synthetic learning is a mysterious process that may be called upon when there is a need to pull things together in a new way. It may thus be particularly likely when there is growing uncertainty about means (Senge, 1990). In addition, conditions of moderate goal conflict may create dissonance and thereby motivate high level re-appraisals of an organization's overall orientation. Intense goal conflicts, however, might cause severe tensions that distract managers and thus impede creative synthesis (Thompson & Tuden, 1959).

H3: Experimental learning will be most common where there is high uncertainty about means.

Experimentation is an incremental process that reduces cognitive overload under conditions of means uncertainty. It allows the gradual exploration of complex environments and permits learning to take place locally (March & Simon, 1958; March, 1991). Because it is decentralized, experimentation can occur even if there are goal conflicts; these, however, are by no means intrinsic to the experimental mode (Cyert & March, 1963; Grandori, 1984).

H4: Interactive learning will be most common where there is: a) much uncertainty about means, b) much conflict about goals, and c) significant organizational complexity.

Interactive learning occurs when it has to: when a high level of uncertainty forces decision making down to lower levels, and where much goal conflict engenders fragmented parochial perspectives (Cyert & March, 1963; Grandori, 1984; Lindblom, 1959; Thompson & Tuden, 1959). These conditions are especially common in large, complex organizations that act as political force fields.

H5: Structural learning will be most common where there is: a) little uncertainty about means, and b) little conflict about goals.