Organizational Learning during Advanced System Development: Opportunities and Obstacles

Abstract:

Higher-order organizational learning occurs when a company adopts new principles, assumptions, and paradigms, which often turn into competitive advantage. Systems development and implementation offer an opportunity for higher-order organizational learning that is rarely exploited. Advanced information systems, in particular expert systems (ES) and executive information systems (EIS), provide ample opportunities for higher-order organizational learning if the development process is structured in certain ways. This work includes an analysis of three organizations in terms of project outcomes, organizational learning outcomes, and organizational performance. On the basis of these assessments, five critical success factors are identified that may contribute to organizational learning during advanced system development. The relationships between these factors and organizational outcomes are summarized in a preliminary model that can form the basis for future research. The work closes with some recommendations for ways information systems managers can encourage higher-order organizational learning during advanced system development.

Key Words and Phrases:

• advanced information systems
• executive support systems
• expert systems
• information systems development
• organizational learning
• sociotechnical design

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Eric W. Stein

Eric W. Stein is Associate Professor of Management Science and Information Systems at The Pennsylvania State University, and teaches in the Master of Management program at the Great Valley campus in Malvern, PA. Dr. Stein holds a B.A. from Amherst College and received his Ph.D. in 1989 from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. His research interests are organizational memory and learning, human expertise, and expert systems. His papers have appeared in several refereed journals including Information Systems Research, Journal of Management Information Systems, and Expert Systems: Research and Applications. He has presented research at the Academy of Management, the International Conference on Information Systems (ICIS), the Hawaii International Conference on Systems Science (HICSS), and specialized conferences in artificial intelligence and business.

Betty Vandenbosch

Betty Vandenbosch is the Lewis-Progressive Assistant Professor in the Management Information and Decision Systems Department of the Weatherhead School of Management at Case Western Reserve University. She holds a Ph.D. from the Western Business School at the University of Western Ontario. Dr. Vandenbosch has presented papers at various national and international conferences and has published in Accounting, Management and Information Technologies, Information Systems Journal, and Journal of Management Information Systems. She also has several years experience as a management consultant and continues to consult to several organizations on management information issues. Her current research interests focus on executive information and the impact of technology on individual and organizational learning.