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ORGANIZATIONAL LEARNING: DIMENSIONS FOR A THEORY

Mary M. Crossan (University of Western Ontario)
Henry W. Lane (University of Western Ontario)
Roderick E. White (University of Western Ontario)
Lisa Djurfeldt (University of Western Ontario)

The International Journal of Organizational Analysis

ISSN: 1055-3185

Article publication date: 1 April 1995

2519

Abstract

Organizational learning (OL) is receiving increasing attention from researchers and practitioners alike. In fact, some have suggested that the only sustainable competitive advantage is a firm's ability to learn faster than its competitors. In spite of OL's promise, the field has been slow to evolve. The primary impediments to the development of OL theory are that inconsistent terminology is used for comparable concepts and that different definitions are used to describe the phenomenon. Furthermore, many theorists have neglected to make explicit their underlying assumptions about the phenomenon. Employing an inductive approach, this review surfaces the implicit and explicit assumptions of OL researchers, identifying three key dimensions that differentiate perspectives: (1) unit of analysis—individual, group, organizational, and inter organizational; (2) cognitive/behavioral emphasis; and (3) the learning‐performance relationship.

Citation

Crossan, M.M., Lane, H.W., White, R.E. and Djurfeldt, L. (1995), "ORGANIZATIONAL LEARNING: DIMENSIONS FOR A THEORY", The International Journal of Organizational Analysis, Vol. 3 No. 4, pp. 337-360. https://doi.org/10.1108/eb028835

Publisher

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MCB UP Ltd

Copyright © 1995, MCB UP Limited

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