How Organizations Learn: Post-flight Reviews in an F-16 Fighter Squadron
- 6 June 2006
- journal article
- Published by SAGE Publications in Organization Studies
- Vol. 27 (8), 1069-1089
- https://doi.org/10.1177/0170840606064567
Abstract
We present an in-depth analysis of post-flight reviews in a fighter aircraft squadron of the Israel Defense Force Air Force. Our findings demonstrate how organizations can learn non-metaphorically and highlight the dynamics of learning in a central organizational learning mechanism in this type of after-action review. They also show that learning in the post-flight reviews is a multi-layered process of retrospective sense-making, detection and correction of error, social comparison, social control, socialization, and bonding, where lessons-learned pertain to different domains and different levels — individual, unit, and Force-wide. The process is facilitated by five values specified by the multi-facet model (Lipshitz, Popper and Friedman 2002), and the assumption that learning through critical examination of one's own experience is the key to improvement.This publication has 25 references indexed in Scilit:
- Managing the Risk of Learning: Psychological Safety in Work TeamsPublished by Wiley ,2003
- After-Action Reviews: Linking Reflection and Planning in a Learning PracticeReflections: The SoL Journal, 2001
- Seeing Organizational Learning: A `Cultural' ViewOrganization, 2000
- Psychological Safety and Learning Behavior in Work TeamsAdministrative Science Quarterly, 1999
- Disciplines of Organizational Learning: Contributions and CritiquesHuman Relations, 1997
- Learning from Mistakes is Easier Said Than Done: Group and Organizational Influences on the Detection and Correction of Human ErrorThe Journal of Applied Behavioral Science, 1996
- Organizational learning research profileJournal of Organizational Change Management, 1996
- Incident Reviews in High-Hazard Industries: Sense Making and Learning Under Ambiguity and AccountabilityIndustrial & Environmental Crisis Quarterly, 1995
- When people ask "why" questions, and the heuristics of attributional search.Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 1981
- A Theory of Social Comparison ProcessesHuman Relations, 1954