This Article Full Text (PDF) References Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Citation Map Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Saved Citations Download to citation manager Request Permissions Request Reprints Add to My Marked Citations Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via Google Scholar Citing Articles via Scopus Google Scholar Articles by Romme, A. G. L. Search for Related Content Social Bookmarking                         What's this?

Organizational Learning, Circularity and Double-Linking

Maastricht University

In recent writings on organizational learning an interesting debate between proponents of team learning and those defending hierarchy as an essential condition for learning has developed. Here it is argued that teams appear to be the key learning units in organizations, but hierarchies are necessary to store and accumulate important learning results. Thus, in larger organizations teams must be integrated into some kind of hierarchy. Several authors have dealt with the problem of combining the benefits of both hierarchical and team-like structures. Attempts by Likert and Ackoff to combine the benefits of both hierarchical and team structures are based on the ideas of circularity and the (single) linking pin. A further elaboration of these solutions involves the idea of double-linking, as it is used in several Dutch organizations. Double-linking between teams provides the kind of vertical linkages which support and safeguard upward as well as downward information processing. As such, through the principle of double-linking organizations may become reflexive learning organizations.

Management Learning, Vol. 28, No. 2, 149-160 (1997)
DOI: 10.1177/1350507697282004


CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter    What's this?

This article has been cited by other articles:

				J. Trullen and J. M. Bartunek What a Design Approach Offers to Organization Development Journal of Applied Behavioral Science, March 1, 2007; 43(1): 23 - 40. [Abstract] [PDF]

				A. G. L. Romme Making a Difference: Organization as Design Organization Science, September 1, 2003; 14(5): 558 - 573. [Abstract] [PDF]

				D. Jankowicz From `Learning Organization' to `Adaptive Organization' Management Learning, December 1, 2000; 31(4): 471 - 490. [Abstract] [PDF]

				A. M. Mazen, M. C. Jones, and G. K. Sergenian Transforming the Class into a Learning Organization Management Learning, June 1, 2000; 31(2): 147 - 161. [Abstract] [PDF]