Exploring the Dynamics of Organizational Learning

May 1, 2013

Organizational learning – the processes whereby organizations change and evolve over time in light of new information – is the subject of recent research by Matthew Hora and colleague Anne-Barrie Hunter. Findings from a qualitative case study of how 20 STEM faculty at a large, public research university drew upon their institution’s “organizational memory,” or the total sum of information that is encoded, stored, and transmitted within the institution, while planning courses uncovered common behaviors among the faculty. Most faculty relied upon repositories of information such as individual memory, cultural norms, organizational procedures, role obligations, human resources, artifacts such as teaching notes and slides, and external archives.  Old lecture notes in particular played an important role in faculty planning, as these artifacts were habitually retrieved and updated prior to a new semester or class period. 

These findings are important in light of attempts to encourage faculty to draw upon pedagogical best practices when planning and teaching their courses, because the adoption or rejection of these innovations are strongly influenced by their preexisting habitual behaviors.  Efforts at the study site to catalogue newly developed curricula in an easily accessible format such as binders or folders containing lecture notes, slides, clicker questions, and other pertinent materials, represent a what Hora and Hunter deemed a promising approach to pedagogical change that builds upon these existing practices, though some degree of adaptation is inevitable as new faculty begin teaching a course.  Precisely how educators make curricular decisions in naturalistic situations is complicated and has not been sufficiently studied, and additional research using organizational learning theory on such behavior could be used to help inform the design and implementation of more locally attuned interventions, Hora and Hunter concluded.