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William H. Starbuck

Bio: William H. Starbuck is an academic researcher from University of Oregon. The author has contributed to research in topics: Organizational learning & Organizational architecture. The author has an hindex of 47, co-authored 148 publications receiving 14298 citations. Previous affiliations of William H. Starbuck include University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee & International Institute of Minnesota.


Papers
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TL;DR: Knowledge intensive firms (KIFs) specialize in expertise, especially esoteric knowledge that few other firms possess as mentioned in this paper, and their ability to satisfy clients depends on the close relations that some of KIFs' personnel develop with specific clients.
Abstract: Knowledge-intensive firms (KIFs) specialize in expertise, especially esoteric knowledge that few other firms possess. KIFs must keep their knowledge up-to-date, so they need to learn continually. However, their ability to satisfy clients depends on the close relations that some of KIFs' personnel develop with specific clients.

1,406 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Knowledge intensive firms (KIFs) specialize in expertise, especially esoteric knowledge that few other firms possess as mentioned in this paper, and their ability to satisfy clients depends on the close relations that some of KIFs' personnel develop with specific clients.
Abstract: Knowledge-intensive firms (KIFs) specialize in expertise, especially esoteric knowledge that few other firms possess. KIFs must keep their knowledge up-to-date, so they need to learn continually. However, their ability to satisfy clients depends on the close relations that some of KIFs' personnel develop with specific clients.

1,225 citations

Posted Content
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors describe how an organization can meet social and technological changes and reap advantage from them by forming a self-designing organization, where those who perform activities take primary responsibility for learning and for inventing new methods and nonparticipant designers restrict themselves to a catalytic role.
Abstract: This article prescribes how an organization can meet social and technological changes and reap advantage from them. Long-term viability maximizes in a self-designing organization, in which those who perform activities take primary responsibility for learning and for inventing new methods, and in which nonparticipant designers restrict themselves to a catalytic role. Designers can form such an organization by putting together processes, the generators of behaviors. Although complex interactions among processes make designers’ forecasts unreliable, people can mitigate serious future problems by keeping processes dynamically balanced. Six aphorisms caricature the desired balance: Cooperation requires minimal consensus; Satisfaction rests upon minimal contentment; Wealth arises from minimal affluence; Goals merit minimal faith; Improvement depends on minimal consistency; Wisdom demands minimal rationality.

814 citations

Posted Content
TL;DR: In this article, the authors describe some influences on the perceptual filtering processes that executives use as they observe and try to understand their environments, which may not help executives who are living amid current events.
Abstract: Retrospective explanations of past events encourage academics to overstate the contributions of executives and the benefits of accurate perceptions or careful analyses. Because retrospective analyses oversimplify the connections between behaviors and outcomes, prescriptions derived from retrospective understanding may not help executives who are living amid current events. The paper describes some influences on the perceptual filtering processes that executives use as they observe and try to understand their environments.

753 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors suggest ways in which top managers can help themselves learn to avoid crisis through continuous unlearning, and suggest ways to help themselves to learn from crisis situations.
Abstract: Crises force organizations to replace top managers, so top managers should try to avoid crises through continuous unlearning. The authors suggest ways in which top managers can help themselves unlearn.

749 citations


Cited by
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TL;DR: Ajzen, 1985, 1987, this article reviewed the theory of planned behavior and some unresolved issues and concluded that the theory is well supported by empirical evidence and that intention to perform behaviors of different kinds can be predicted with high accuracy from attitudes toward the behavior, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control; and these intentions, together with perceptions of behavioral control, account for considerable variance in actual behavior.

65,095 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the authors present a model that incorporates this overall argument in the form of a series of hypothesized relationships between different dimensions of social capital and the main mechanisms and proces.
Abstract: Scholars of the theory of the firm have begun to emphasize the sources and conditions of what has been described as “the organizational advantage,” rather than focus on the causes and consequences of market failure. Typically, researchers see such organizational advantage as accruing from the particular capabilities organizations have for creating and sharing knowledge. In this article we seek to contribute to this body of work by developing the following arguments: (1) social capital facilitates the creation of new intellectual capital; (2) organizations, as institutional settings, are conducive to the development of high levels of social capital; and (3) it is because of their more dense social capital that firms, within certain limits, have an advantage over markets in creating and sharing intellectual capital. We present a model that incorporates this overall argument in the form of a series of hypothesized relationships between different dimensions of social capital and the main mechanisms and proces...

15,365 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
John Seely Brown1, Paul Duguid
TL;DR: Work, learning, and innovation in the context of actual communities and actual practices are discussed in this paper, where it is argued that the conventional descriptions of jobs mask not only the ways people work, but also significant learning and innovation generated in the informal communities-of-practice in which they work.
Abstract: Recent ethnographic studies of workplace practices indicate that the ways people actually work usually differ fundamentally from the ways organizations describe that work in manuals, training programs, organizational charts, and job descriptions. Nevertheless, organizations tend to rely on the latter in their attempts to understand and improve work practice. We examine one such study. We then relate its conclusions to compatible investigations of learning and of innovation to argue that conventional descriptions of jobs mask not only the ways people work, but also significant learning and innovation generated in the informal communities-of-practice in which they work. By reassessing work, learning, and innovation in the context of actual communities and actual practices, we suggest that the connections between these three become apparent. With a unified view of working, learning, and innovating, it should be possible to reconceive of and redesign organizations to improve all three.

8,227 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The literature on knowledge acquisition is voluminous and multi-faceted as mentioned in this paper, and so the knowledge acquisition construct is portrayed 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 environment and performance.
Abstract: 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.

8,041 citations