Organisational learning and the organisational link: The problem of conflict, political equilibrium and truce

Abstract

This article addresses the issue of organisational learning. The starting point for the analysis is the definition of organisational learning proposed by Levitt and March (1988) in terms of the transformation of an organisation's rou- tines. This definition leads to a focus on the 'organisational link' or the way in which individual routines and various learning processes are coordinated, thus assuring a degree of organisational coherence. In comparing the different organisa- tional theories of Simon (1947), March and Simon (1958), Cyert and March (1963) and Nelson and Winter (1982), it is demonstrated that those authors that place pri- mary emphasis on the organisation as an processor of information tend to down- play the importance of the social, relational and political dimensions of organisation behaviour. Recognition of the dual nature of the organisational link and of the importance of political determinants leads to the conclusion that individ- ual processes of learning and inference should to be analytically distinguished from 'learning' in the sense of a transformation in the organisation's routines.