Group and Organizational Learning

The goal of this chapter is to set the stage for readers of the Handbook. After providing our definitions of group and organizational learning, we discuss factors that stimulated prior interest in these phenomena. Next, we outline a broad conceptual framework for analyzing group and organizational learning (Argote & Miron-Spektor, 2011) that highlights important themes in the chapters that make up the volume. We devote the bulk of our effort to summarizing these chapters, with the goal of identifying theoretically significant similarities and differences between them. In so doing, we first discuss contributions dealing with processes of group and organizational learning and then focus on those involving contextual influences on learning. We conclude by noting important themes in current efforts to understand group and organizational learning and by suggesting promising directions for future theoretical development and empirical research.

Organizational Learning and Multiteam Systems

Multiteam systems consist of two or more teams, each of which pursues subordinate team goals, while working interdependently with at least one other team toward a superordinate goal. Many teams work in these larger organizational systems, where oft-cited challenges involve learning processes within and between teams. This chapter brings a learning perspective to multiteam systems and a multiteam system perspective to organizational learning. Several classic illustrations of organizational learning—for example, the Challenger and Columbia disasters—actually point to failures in organizational learning processes within and between teams. We offer the focus on intrateam knowledge creation and retention and interteam knowledge transfer as a useful starting point for thinking about how to conceptually and operationally define learning in multiteam systems. Furthermore, we think leadership structures and multiteam emergent states are particularly valuable drivers of learning.

Team Training in the Organizational Context

Many formal and informal units at various levels provide a heterogeneous organizational context for team training. Consolidating and adapting newly acquired knowledge and skills needs time and resources, encouragement, and feedback. It also requires supportive messages that are consistent over time, across sources, and in terms of content (e.g., general value statements as compared to specific messages). Our chapter focuses on “transfer climate,” characterized by transfer-related cues and consequences, supportive behaviors, and opportunities to perform. Discussing structural aspects, we emphasize aligning messages and actions with the goal of supporting transfer. Next we discuss the role of episodes, which unfold over time and give meaning to trainings. Finally, we discuss configurations, that is, specific constellations of influences not captured by studying the contribution of individual variables; we advocate focusing more strongly on the trainee perspective; and we emphasize fairness and appreciation as an overarching issue that may be decisive for transfer success.

Team Reflexivity

Many teams face the problem of process loss, or suboptimal functioning, with sometimes serious consequences, such as medical errors. Team reflexivity—a deliberate process of discussing team goals, processes, or outcomes—can aid in optimizing team performance. In the current chapter, we build on a conceptualization of teams as information-processing systems and highlight reflexivity as a critical information processing activity. Specifically, we describe the relationship of team reflexivity to team and organizational learning and emphasize the dynamic, self-regulatory process aspect of team reflexivity as well as the role of goal setting. Furthermore, we describe the antecedents and outcomes of team reflexivity, the role of motivated information processing, the important role of team reflexivity in problem identification and problem solving, and how team reflexivity can be stimulated. Finally, we discuss the implications of our review and identify avenues for future research.

A Social Identity Model for Education

Much of the research on individual attainment in educational settings has focused on individual differences. This chapter sets out the role of groups and group processes. After reviewing evidence for the role of social comparison in the classroom, and theory and research on ethnic group differences, we consider the impact of category memberships, stereotypes, and threat on educational performance. We introduce social identity theory and explain its relevance to educational outcomes. We then offer an integrative social identity model for education (SIME) that incorporates three elements of education research: social comparison, stereotypes, and identity. The model provides a more comprehensive perspective on the role of intergroup and intragroup relations and indicates how (and which) group memberships can present barriers to, or reveal new horizons for, performance and achievement. We describe how these elements may work together in practice and conclude by considering prospects and approaches for future research.

Organizational Learning and Organizational Improvisation

Organizational learning and organizational improvisation are distinct constructs, but the two processes intertwine in important ways. First, improvisational episodes can lead to long-term group/organizational learning when organizations selectively retain improvised action patterns, or when they learn the process of improvisation itself. Such postimprovisation learning can but also may not generate valid/useful learning. Still, unresolved questions remain, such as when does it lead to unexpected discovery, distinct forms of myopic learning, the emergence of unplanned identities, and improvisational competency traps? This chapter reviews evidence that learning can also occur during improvisational action streams, as when organizations draw on real-time information and long-term organizational memory while they improvise. Finally, this chapter highlights two underexplored learning issues: How does the organization create the nugget or template for the novel part of an improvised design? What is the role of short-term memory during improvisation? The chapter advocates that tackling the intersection of improvisation and learning will advance both areas.

Psychological Foundations of Group and Organizational Learning

The study of learning started in the late 19th century with the comparative approach to learning of animals and humans. In the early 20th century, American psychologists moved to study observable behavior, culminating in the approach known as behaviorism. They dismissed the work by European psychologists who studied the ways humans and animals reason and think. The behavioristic approach spawned a stream of research in mathematical models of learning that were based on the notions of stochastic learning and reinforcement. The 1950s brought the cognitive revolution that reinstated the study of the mind as a major topic of research by psychologists, linguists, anthropologists, computer scientists, neuroscientists, and philosophers. More recently, cognitive science connected with neuroscience, computer science, and artificial intelligence

Information Sharing Within Groups in Organizations

Information sharing is essential for learning and performance in groups and organizations. This chapter examines factors that either encourage or discourage information sharing, particularly during group meetings convened for the purpose of solving a problem or making a decision. Such purposes are usually best served when members share with one another the task-relevant information they hold that others in the group do not possess (i.e., uniquely held information). Yet meetings are often dominated by discussion of information that most members already know (i.e., commonly held information), to the relative exclusion of their uniquely held information. We examine in some detail the information sampling process that gives rise to this phenomenon, and we consider a range of situational and motivational factors that moderate it, including features of the information held, the task performed, and the group performing it. Finally, we offer recommendations for how information sharing during group meetings might be improved.

Learning in Virtual Teams

This chapter reviews and integrates the latest research on team learning and virtual teams to understand the challenges associated with how team members learn and improve performance when working across distance. Team learning is defined as changes in a team’s knowledge and performance as a function of members gaining experiences of working with one another. This chapter presents an integrative framework that links challenges in virtual teams (lack of informal, spontaneous communication, lack of social presence, lack of common ground, reduced team cohesion and identification, lack of trust, lack of shared knowledge and understanding) to four key team learning processes (knowledge acquisition, sharing, storage, and retrieval). Three remedies are proposed to overcome the challenges through a strong shared identity, the choice of effective collaboration technologies, and timely teamwork interventions.

Team Training in Organizations

Taking into account the increasing level of importance that organizations place on teamwork, understanding the core components of team training programs is more critical than ever. The present chapter begins by introducing the key concepts and operational definitions surrounding team training. Next, team training elements are organized in terms of where they occur over the course of training, beginning with what matters before (e.g., training needs analysis), then during (e.g., design and delivery elements), and finally after (e.g., sustainment) training takes place. This organizational structure is referred to as the lifespan of team training. Examples of preexisting science-based team training programs that have been regarded as highly effective are provided to paint a clearer picture of what these programs look like in terms of design and delivery. Lessons learned from previous training efforts and future directions are also discussed.