KNOWLEDGE WORKERS AND ORGANIZATIONAL LEARNING - NARRATIVES FROM BIOTECHNOLOGY

There has been much recent interest in organizational learning in the academic management literature and in the business press. This issue i s especially salient in firms that operate in rapidly changing environ ments and that rely on knowledge workers to make decisions in the face of high uncertainty. Much of the organizational learning literature i s based on an organization-as-brain metaphor and on characteristics of individual learning. This paper uses an organization-as-culture metap hor to examine how knowledge workers in biotechnology firms talk about organizational learning. Using content analysis of in-depth interview s with 44 managers, scientists and technicians at four biotechnology f irms in Massachusetts, we analyze their responses to two questions: ho w does your organization learn and what interferes with your organizat ion's ability to learn? Key themes that emerged for the first question were piecing together a puzzle, acquiring and absorbing information a nd expertise, and mixing and communicating. Key themes that emerged fo r the second question were meeting aggressive deadlines, problems in v ertical communication, and growing pains and the desire for structure. We discuss each of these themes in more detail and examine the implic ations for tensions in the organizational learning narratives between science and survival.