voluntary workplace collaboration and innovation.4 Figure 5 outlines several vital considerations pertaining to
the functioning of organizations from a social capital perspective.
Strategic Learning
Organizational learning must be understood as a pattern in a stream of decisions. How does strategy form in
organizations? The various types of strategies uncovered in research can be located somewhere between the
ends of a continuum along which real-world strategies lay. The most common might be labeled “planned,”
“entrepreneurial,” “ideological,” “umbrella,” “process,” “unconnected,” “consensus,” and “imposed.” The
results will either be intended or realized. More interestingly, Henry Mintzberg distinguished deliberate
strategies—realized as intended—from emergent strategies—patterns or consistencies realized despite, or in
the absence of, intentions. Figure 6 reveals how strategy formulation that walks on two feet—one deliberate,
the other emergent—can inform strategic learning.5
Work Styles Matrices
Ultimately, learning must be customized to the circumstances of an organization and the work it conducts.
Each organization is different, but the work styles of any organization fall under four models: process, systems,
network, and competence. Figure 7 highlights the characteristics of particular work settings and hints thereby at
the learning needs of each. In brief, the process and systems models correspond to work settings that are routine
4 Ehin, C. 2000. Unleashing Intellectual Capital. Boston: Butterworth-Heinemann.
5 Still, notwithstanding the intuitive sense of Mintzberg’s approach to strategy learning, failing to grasp thoroughly the influence of power
on the strategy-making process can severely inhibit the potential of strategy making as a vehicle of organizational learning. Views of
organizations as cohesive entities are unrealistic and unhelpful, and it is vital to recognize the plethora of interest groups that inevitably
compete to shape an organization’s direction.