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Understanding Organisational Adaptation

Author

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  • James G. March

    (Stanford University, Faculty of Sociology 71 Cubberley Building, Stanford, CA 94305-3096, USA)

Abstract

Recent enthusiasms have emphasised particularly ideas of “learning organisations”, calling attention both to the ways organisations learn and to the possibilities for improving organisational intelligence through increasing the rate and precision of learning. These enthusiasms have often encouraged the too easy assumption that learning processes necessarily lead to organisational improvement. The usefulness of learning as an instrument of organisational intelligence has to be demonstrated, not assumed. Adaptive processes such as learning are not guaranteed to reach or sustain a global maximum on an outcome surface. In order for proposals for “learning organisations” to be more than vague wishes for improvement, learning must be defined in terms of some specific process and the conditions under which that process does or does not lead to improvement must be established. This essay is built around six simple propositions, a kind of catechism for consideration of learning as an instrument of intelligence.

Suggested Citation

  • James G. March, 2003. "Understanding Organisational Adaptation," Society and Economy, Akadémiai Kiadó, Hungary, vol. 25(1), pages 1-10, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:aka:soceco:v:25:y:2003:i:1:p:1-10
    Note: The text of the article was presented as a talk given at the Budapest University of Economic Sciences and Public Administration on April 2, 2003, on the occasion of conferring the Honorary Professorship on the author. The lecture is based on research supported by the Spencer Foundation.
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    Cited by:

    1. Hart E. Posen & Daniel A. Levinthal, 2012. "Chasing a Moving Target: Exploitation and Exploration in Dynamic Environments," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 58(3), pages 587-601, March.
    2. Li Pernegger, 2021. "Effects of the state’s informal practices on organisational capability and social inclusion: Three cases of city governance in Johannesburg," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 58(6), pages 1193-1210, May.
    3. Darmani, Anna & Niesten, Eva & Hekkert, Marko, 2014. "Which Investors Drive the Development of Wind Energy?," INDEK Working Paper Series 2014/8, Royal Institute of Technology, Department of Industrial Economics and Management.
    4. Mile Katic & Renu Agarwal, 2018. "The Flexibility Paradox: Achieving Ambidexterity in High-Variety, Low-Volume Manufacturing," Global Journal of Flexible Systems Management, Springer;Global Institute of Flexible Systems Management, vol. 19(1), pages 69-86, March.
    5. Torben J. Andersen & Richard A. Bettis, 2015. "Exploring longitudinal risk-return relationships," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 36(8), pages 1135-1145, August.
    6. Boris Groysberg & Linda-Eling Lee, 2009. "Hiring Stars and Their Colleagues: Exploration and Exploitation in Professional Service Firms," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 20(4), pages 740-758, August.
    7. Daniella Laureiro‐Martínez & Stefano Brusoni, 2018. "Cognitive flexibility and adaptive decision‐making: Evidence from a laboratory study of expert decision makers," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 39(4), pages 1031-1058, April.
    8. Steve J. Bickley & Benno Torgler, 2020. "A Systematic Approach to Safety Incidents in Public Health – Applying the Human Factors Analysis and Classification System to COVID-19," CREMA Working Paper Series 2020-13, Center for Research in Economics, Management and the Arts (CREMA).
    9. Károly Balaton, 2015. "The Effect of Enterprise Strategies Employed During the Crisis on the Growth Options of Companies," Theory Methodology Practice (TMP), Faculty of Economics, University of Miskolc, vol. 11(01), pages 3-9.
    10. Daniella Laureiro-Martínez & Stefano Brusoni & Nicola Canessa & Maurizio Zollo, 2015. "Understanding the exploration–exploitation dilemma: An fMRI study of attention control and decision-making performance," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 36(3), pages 319-338, March.

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