Organizational Structure and Organizational Learning: The Moderating Role of Organizational Defensive Routines.

Abstract

Literature on organizational learning shows that even firms who self-perceive themselves to have appropriate organizational structures still fail to generate appropriate learning outcomes. In this paper we claim that one of the neglected key factors explaining learning failures are organizational defensive routines (ODRs). Drawing on the literature, our theoretical inference is that high levels of ODRs can negatively moderate the relationship between organizational structures and organizational learning. To test this moderation hypothesis, the study employs hierarchical regression analysis on a sample of 358 respondents from various industries in the UK. The result confirms that formalization negatively affects organizational learning, and the effect of formalization on organizational learning is negatively moderated by ODRs regardless of organizational age, size and sector.