Organizational Learning: Creating, Retaining and ... (ISBN 0387225811)

A tremendous achievement:
Linda Argote not only summarizes what is know about organizational learning but also integrates her own creative research into the mix. Her research on pizza franchises is legendary, and in this book she shows why. Using innovative methods in shipyards, truck factories, airplane factors, pizza shops, and elsewhere, Argote derives propositions and puts them to the test. I particularly liked her discussion of organizational memory and forgetting. What a great notion -- organizations CAN forget things! -- and Argote shows just how quickly that can happen. This book belongs on the shelf of every scholar and manager interested in how organizations learn (and forget).

Excellent for both teaching and research:
To my knowledge, Linda Argote presents the first multi-level treatment of organizational knowledge and learning. Other authors seem to have chosen to focus their analyses on either knowledge or learning - or, limited their assessments to the individual, group, or organizational level of analysis. Organizational Learning: Creating, Retaining and Transferring Knowledge provides a more comprehensive and integrative approach. Some authors would argue that knowledge and learning are modern discoveries. Prof. Argote provides an evenhanded assessment of what is new, and what is supported by decades of past research. I believe this book is appropriate for anyone wanting to understand the basis of our beliefs regarding organizational knowledge and learning. I have just finished using this book as background for a paper on knowledge and virtual teams. I also will be using sections in my MBA course on Organizational Design.