John Denton: Organisational Learning and Effectiveness. - Review - book review

1998, London: Routledge. 237 pages.

The title of this book denotes something about its main ambition: to explore the linkages between organizational learning processes and their relation to organizational effectiveness. This is indeed a compelling issue that should warrant the interest of both scholars and practitioners. As anyone acquainted with organizational learning would agree, this task is extremely difficult. What organizations learn today may certainly contribute to their current activities. Organizations learn to refine their current capabilities; they exploit their existing knowledge; they learn to focus their activities on certain domains; they learn what brings success and failure. In short, they increase their current effectiveness by learning to attend to certain tasks, and to ignore others. At the same time, however, the very same learning processes contribute to an increased simple-mindedness, and a concomitant inability to explore new opportunities. What may be effective activities in the short term, may turn out to be highly i neffective in the long run. The balance between exploiting present domains, through a focused and stable learning, and exploring new opportunities through innovation and experimentation, is equally important to organizational learning. Unfortunately, this balance is very hard, if not impossible, to attain. Any scholarly work on organizational learning and effectiveness ought to focus on this problem.

Organizational learning is indeed a concept that has gained widespread interest, not only among scholars, but also among practitioners. John Denton's book, based on his Ph.D. thesis, should be seen as an articulation of such an interest. The main aim of the book is neither to develop further theories of how organizations may learn, nor merely to describe organizational learning processes. Rather, it seeks to satisfy a potential curiosity among practitioners as to whether or not organizational learning is a concept worth taking into consideration. Put simply: Does the concept of organizational learning contribute to increased performance, effectiveness, competitive advantage and profitability in the business for which I am responsible? Denton concludes his book by saying: 'Organizational learning prioritizes the creation and acquisition of new knowledge, and emphasizes the role of people in the creation and utilization of that knowledge. In this sense, organizational learning represents an important route to c ompetitive advantage' (p. 206).

The author concludes by providing 'genuinely detailed accounts of organizational learning within five major manufacturing companies' (p. 207), buttressed with a theoretical discussion that supports the idea that organizational learning involves 'improving actions through better knowledge and understanding' (Fiol and Lyles, in Denton, p. 16). The case studies of five companies, together with an extensive survey, are the heart of the book. In the analysis of the cases, the author constructs an index that rates the companies according to an 'ideal model of best practice'. This, he claims, shows which organizational characteristics are important in order to reap the fruits of organizational learning: 'By considering the performance of each case company, we were able to show that those companies which came closest to the ideal of the learning organization were also the highest performers' (p. 119). For example, a flexible structure, a blame-free culture and external awareness are regarded as crucial properties of organzational learning in order to enhance effectiveness. The highlight of the book is the chapter entitled 'The usefulness of organisational learning'. Here, Denton presents a model that pictures a learning process emanating from a 'new behaviour [that] is superior to the organization's original behaviour' (p. 159).

John Denton's book is rich in information, ideas, thoughts and conclusions on organizational learning. He spans over a wide spectrum of theories and has conducted an ambitious empirical study, including both qualitative and quantitative moments. He is clearly a person well acquainted with the problems and opportunities that practitioners face, and the potential usefulness of the ideas of organizational learning from that perspective. Even though the book is broad, the purpose is clear: Does organizational learning contribute to increased effectiveness? The author's main conclusion that this is the case, is, however, questionable in many respects. First, his use of both the survey and case-study data lacks scientific rigour in some respects. His interpretation of the case studies would have benefited from a more critical stance to what is said by the managers that he interviewed. For example, the quotation by one of the respondents that 'if you don't become global, forget it' (p. 33) is regarded as evidence th at the business environment is increasingly competitive, which in turn calls for a need for organizational learning in order to remain effective. Such conclusions are common in the book. Likewise, the evidence presented from the survey sometimes remains obscure, for example, the alleged linkage that 'a learning organization can cope more effectively with rapid change' (p. 28). Not only is the coupling between learning and effectiveness not explicitly established, but the evidence itself is questionable. Do not all organizations, including families, neighbourhoods, companies, states, etc. learn and thereby cope with change? Second, the literature used in supporting his thesis is certainly written by scholars, but for practitioners. In that regard, this literature tends to take the positive couplings between organizational learning and effectiveness for granted, adding to an exaggeratedly positive attitude to the potentials of increasing effectiveness through learning. Third, the very linkage between organizati onal learning and effectiveness is problematic. What are the specific learning processes that contribute to specific increases in effectiveness? What is meant by superior performance? How is that measured? Such questions are certainly discussed in their more general form, but remain unanswered for the specific study. Fourth, the author fails to confront the fundamental problem of learning, as discussed in the introduction of this review. Indeed, the author is aware of the potential conflict between short-term and long-term effectiveness, but avoids giving it any thorough consideration.