This paper differs from previous examinations of organizational learning in that it is broader in scope and more evaluative of the literatures. Four constructs related to organizational learning knowledge acquisition, information distribution, information interpretation, and organizational memory are articulated, and the literatures related to each are described and critiqued.

The literature on knowledge acquisition is voluminous and multi-faceted, and so the knowledge acquisition construct is portrayed here as consisting of five subconstructs or subprocesses: 1 drawing on knowledge available at the organization's birth, 2 learning from experience, 3 learning by observing other organizations, 4 grafting on to itself components that possess knowledge needed but not possessed by the organization, and 5 noticing or searching for information about the organization's environment and performance. Examination of the related literatures indicates that much has been learned about learning from experience, but also that there is a lack of cumulative work and a lack of integration of work from different research groups. Similarly, much has been learned about organizational search, but there is a lack of conceptual work, and there is a lack of both cumulative work and syntheses with which to create a more mature literature. Congenital learning, vicarious learning, and grafting are information acquisition subprocesses about which relatively little has been learned.

The literature concerning information distribution is rich and mature, but an aspect of information distribution that is central to an organization's benefitting from its learning, namely how units that possess information and units that need this information can find each other quickly and with a high likelihood, is unexplored. Information interpretation, as an organizational process, rather than an individual process, requires empirical work for further advancement. Organizational memory is much in need of systematic investigation, particularly by those whose special concerns are improving organizational learning and decision making.

https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdfplus/2634941.pdf

Organizational Learning: The Contributing Processes and the Literatures

Well-being : the foundations of hedonic psychology

A framework for understanding the etiology of organizational behavior is presented. The framework is based on theory and research from interactional psychology, vocational psychology, I/O psychology, and organizational theory. The framework proposes that organizations are functions of the kinds of people they contain and, further, that the people there are functions of an attraction-selection-attrition (ASA) cycle. The ASA cycle is proposed as an alternative model for understanding organizations and the causes of the structures, processes, and technology of organizations. First, the ASA framework is developed through a series of propositions. Then some implications of the model are outlined, including (1) the difficulty of bringing about change in organizations, (2) the utility of personality and interest measures for understanding organizational behavior, (3) the genesis of organizational climate and culture, (4) the importance of recruitment, and (5) the need for person-based theories of leadership and job attitudes. It is concluded that contemporary I/O psychology is overly dominated by situationist theories of the behavior of organizations and the people in them.

The people make the place

Previous research on organizational commitment has typically not focused on the underlying dimensions of psychological attachment to the organization. Results of two studies using university employees (N = 82) and students (N = 162) suggest that psychological attachment may be predicated on compliance, identification, and internalization (e.g., Kelman, 19S8). Identification and internalization are positively related to prosocial behaviors and negatively related to turnover. Internalization is predictive of financial donations to a fund-raising campaign. Overall, the results suggest the importance of clearly specifying the underlying dimensions of commitment using notions of psychological attachment and the various forms such attachment can take. In the past decade, the construct of organizational commitment has occupied a prominent place in organizational behavior research (Mowday, Porter, & Steers, 1982; Salancik, 1977; Staw & Ross, 1978). Unfortunately, as Morrow (1983, p. 486) has pointed out, "the growth in commitment related concepts has not been accompanied by a careful segmentation of commitment's theoretical domain in terms of intended meaning of each concept or the concepts' relationships among each other." By her count, there are over 25 commitment-related concepts and measures. Staw (1977), for instance, has noted that the value of commitment as a separate construct distinct from other psychological concepts such as motivation, involvement, or behavioral intention remains to be demonstrated. What is needed are theoretical and operational definitions that clearly differentiate commitment and its components from other re

Organizational commitment and psychological attachment: The effects of compliance, identification, and internalization on prosocial behavior.

A review is presented of the book “Heuristics and Biases: The Psychology of Intuitive Judgment,” edited by Thomas Gilovich, Dale Griffin, and Daniel Kahneman.

Heuristics and Biases: The Psychology of Intuitive Judgment

Most recent debates on the determinants of job attitudes have concentrated on situational theories, stressing external influences such as job design and social information processing. In contrast, this research examines the dispositional argument that job attitudes are rather consistent within individuals, showing stability both over time and across situations. To test this notion, longitudinal data on job satisfaction were analyzed from a national sample of over 5,000 middle-aged men. Results showed significant stability of attitudes over a 5-year time period and significant cross-situational consistency when individuals changed employers and/or occupations. Prior attitudes were also a stronger predictor of subsequent job satisfaction than either changes in pay or the social status of one's job. The implications of these results for developing dispositional theories of work behavior are discussed, along with possible implications for popular situational theories such as job design and social information processing.

Stability in the Midst of Change: A Dispositional Approach to Job Attitudes

Behavior in escalation situations: Antecedents, prototypes, and solutions.

March 1978, volume 23 Subjects in an experimental simulation played the role of a decision maker in the World Bank. This simulation was designed to tap some variables relevant for policy situations and to compare specific predictions derived from six psychological theories. Subjects were asked to allocate resources to one of several courses of action and their commitment was measured following a financial setback. Causal information pertaining to the financial setback was experimentally manipulated as was prior success or failure experience. The results showed that individuals may process information differently after a failure as opposed to a success experience, and that this differential processing may account for differences in commitment to policy decisions.

Commitment to a Policy Decision: A Multi-Theoretical Perspective.

Commitment in an experimenting society: A study of the attribution of leadership from administrative scenarios.

The authors gratefully acknowledge the assistance of the librarians at Simon Fraser University, the University of British Columbia, the Vancouver Public Library, and the archivist at the Expo 86 offices. The authors would also like to express appreciation to Nick Steadman, Ian Mulgrew, Mark Wexler, several Expo 86 staff members who preferred not to be cited by name, and ASO's associate editor and anonymous reviewers. This paper examines British Columbia's decision to host a world's fair (Expo 86) in Vancouver. Despite rapidly increasing deficit projections (from a $6-million projected loss in 1978 to over a $300-million projected loss in 1985), the provincial government remained steadfast in its plans to hold Expo. Expo is therefore a visible and prototypical example of the escalation of commitment, a phenomenon subject to extensive laboratory research in recent years. By examining the Expo case in some detail, this study provides field grounding for previous investigations of escalation. The case not only illustrates the frequently studied processes of self-justification and biased information processing but also highlights the potential importance of institutional explanations of escalation. New theory is proposed that integrates determinants of escalation from several levels of analysis over time. It is proposed that escalation starts with project and psychological forces but can evolve over time into a more structurally determined phenomenon.*

Jerry Ross

Papers

Stability in the Midst of Change: A Dispositional Approach to Job Attitudes

Behavior in escalation situations: Antecedents, prototypes, and solutions.

Commitment to a Policy Decision: A Multi-Theoretical Perspective.

Commitment in an experimenting society: A study of the attribution of leadership from administrative scenarios.

Expo 86: An Escalation Prototype.