Developing guiding principles: An organizational learning perspective
Journal
Journal of Organizational Change Management
ISSN
0953-4814
ISSN-Digital
1758-7816
Type
journal article
Date Issued
2007
Author(s)
Abstract
Guiding principles are knowledge structures that call to mind collective narratives with emotional content, and are articulated and used heuristically to guide decision-making in organizations. In this paper, we draw on the organizational learning literature to explore how 1) guiding principles become integrated in management teams through discursive processes of social learning, and 2) how process techniques from the realm of organizational learning can be used to facilitate the development of guiding principles. We propose that guiding principle development may be facilitated using process techniques similar to those proposed for integrating organizational learning, namely: dialogical processes involving processes of inquiry, divergence and convergence. We explore our theoretical findings through use of an illustrative case study of guiding principles development in a European telecommunications firm.
Language
English
Keywords
strategy
guiding principles
heuristics
organizational learning
dialogue
HSG Classification
contribution to scientific community
Refereed
Yes
Publisher
Emerald
Publisher place
Bradford
Volume
20
Number
6
Start page
813
End page
828
Pages
16
Subject(s)
Division(s)
Eprints ID
31451