Knowledge Workers and Organizational Learning

Abstract

There has been much recent interest in organizational learning in the academic management literature and in the business press. This issue is especially salient in firms that operate in rapidly changing environments and that rely on knowledge workers to make decisions in the face of high uncertainty. Much of the organizational learning literature is based on an organization-as-brain metaphor and on characteristics of individual learning. This paper uses an organization-as-culture metaphor to examine how knowledge workers in biotechnology firms talk about organizational learning. Using content analysis of in-depth interviews with 44 managers, scientists and technicians at four biotechnology firms in Massachusetts, we analyze their responses to two questions: how does your organization learn and what interferes with your organization's ability to learn? Key themes that emerged for the first question were piecing together a puzzle, acquiring and absorbing information and expertise, and mixing and communicating. Key themes that emerged for the second question were meeting aggressive deadlines, problems in vertical communication, and growing pains and the desire for structure. We discuss each of these themes in more detail and examine the implications for tensions in the organizational learning narratives between science and survival.