The effectiveness of collective retrospection as a mechanism of organizational learning
Article Abstract:
Retrospective reviews of projects have been proposed as mechanisms for organizational learning, and there is the possibility that in a collective setting some of the cognitive limitations associated with individuals' retrospections can be mitigated. In a qualitative analysis of retrospective reviews held in three design organizations, evidence emerged both of successes and failures in the extent to which reviews led to convincing explanations of events and remedies for future projects. The review processes showed that individuals could successful correct errors in others' beliefs and that in the organizational setting they were sensitive to hindsight bias. They also showed that simulation was an important mechanism by which remedies could be tested, and surrogate experiences added to be concrete experiences of the project under review. However, the information available to the participants often was not diagnostic, the participants' interpretation of events tended to be ahistorical, and their explanations were overly specific. (Reprinted by permission of the publisher.)
Publication Name: Journal of Applied Behavioral Science
Subject: Social sciences
ISSN: 0021-8863
Year: 1999
User Contributions:
Comment about this article or add new information about this topic:
Stakeholder collaboration and innovation: a study of public policy initiation at the state level
Article Abstract:
A field study was conducted to determine whether diverse, competing stakeholders in a domain can use collaboration to intentionally initiate innovative public policy affecting that domain. The subjects consisted of 61 participants representing 24 stakeholder groups gathered by a U.S. governor that met regularly from 1985 to 1987 to develop a "visionary proposal" for the state's public education. The authors sought to differentiate the substance of collaboration from its result and devised a sociological concept of collaboration with five elements: transmutational purpose, explicit and voluntary membership, organization, interactive process, and temporal property. The results reveal that the stakeholders did collaborate to initiate public policy. The results also show that the collaboration was associated with innovation as hypothesized and that this innovation was incremental rather than radical in nature. (Reprinted by permissiion of the publisher.)
Publication Name: Journal of Applied Behavioral Science
Subject: Social sciences
ISSN: 0021-8863
Year: 1991
User Contributions:
Comment about this article or add new information about this topic:
- Abstracts: The role of affective traits and affective stats in disputants' motivation and behavior during episodes of organizational conflict
- Abstracts: Affirmative action programs: an organizational justice perspective. Recipient and observer reactions to discipline: are managers experiencing wishful thinking?
- Abstracts: Power, situation, and leaders' effectiveness: an organizational field study. An Estimate of Variance Due to Traits in Leadership
- Abstracts: Power, situation, and leaders' effectiveness: an organizational field study. part 2 Plea bargaining by prosecutors and defense attorneys: a decision theory approach
- Abstracts: Beyond imitation: complex behavioral and affective linkages resulting from exposure to leadership training models