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ID: 185261

Relevance and Presumed Innocence of Learning: a Reply to Soeters and Talbot and Fischer / Hasselbladh, Hans; Ydén, Karl

Ydén, Karl	Journal Article
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Summary/Abstract

Responding to Soeters and Talbot and Fischer, we clarify our position that learning in military organizations is highly contingent on established organizational frameworks, vocabularies, and understandings and constrained by existing power relations. The danger present in military operations increases the importance of minimizing internal frictions and constrains local experimentation and the application of different solutions. Thus, while there is learning in military organizations, the latter are less prone than large, civilian organizations to venture into the use of new and unproven solutions. The present debate about learning in military organization reflects the different basic assumptions about formal organizations in management studies as opposed to the field of organizational sociology.

Key Words

Power ; Learning ; Military organizations ; Hierarchy

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ID: 173122

Why military organizations are cautious about learning? / Hasselbladh, Hans

Hasselbladh, Hans	Journal Article
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Summary/Abstract

This article argues that military organizations display a more rigorous form of collective sensemaking than ordinary bureaucratic organizations. Military organizing is predicated on the rigorous modes of thinking and acting that follow from the particular military propensity to impose order on chaos. This trait is antithetical to modern notions of “the learning organization,” in which exploring variety and experimenting and testing out unproven methods are central. We identify two sets of structural conditions that constitute the sociocognitive landscape of military organizations and discuss how the military logic of action might be enacted in different sociocultural contexts. Our framework is brought to bear on recent research on international military missions, and in the concluding section, we summarize our arguments and discuss their wider implications in terms of trade-offs between adaptability and other capabilities in the design of military forces.

Key Words

Military Organization ; International Missions ; Learning Organizations ; Military Logic Of Action

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