Ideology in Vicarious Learning–Related Communication

Organizations often learn vicariously by observing what other organizations do. Our study examines vicarious learning–related communication through which individuals share their observations with other organizational members. Most students and members of present-day organizations would expect that t...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Organization science (Providence, R.I.) R.I.), 2021-05, Vol.32 (3), p.708-730
Main Authors: Lamberg, Juha-Antti, Luoma, Jukka
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
business history
Capitalism
Communication
Competitiveness
Ideology
Innovations
Interpersonal communication
Learning
Organization development
Organizational behavior
retail industry
strategic management
Vicarious learning
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Organizations often learn vicariously by observing what other organizations do. Our study examines vicarious learning–related communication through which individuals share their observations with other organizational members. Most students and members of present-day organizations would expect that this communication is driven by a prodevelopment logic—that communication serves the purpose of organizational improvement and competitiveness. Our unique historical evidence on learning-related communication over multiple decades shows that the subjective and collective attitude toward prodevelopment communication may be ideologically conditioned. Prodevelopment communication is the norm in capitalist organizations, but competing ideologies may emphasize other goals higher than organizational development. Consequently, increasing challenges to capitalism as the ideological basis of economic organization can have deep impacts on how organizations learn and produce innovations in the future.
ISSN:1047-7039
1526-5455
DOI:10.1287/orsc.2020.1378