Influences of Organizational Culture on Learning in Public Agencies

This article examines an underappreciated influence on organizational learning: the culture of the organization. Because organization culture informs the sense making and interpretation of the kinds of ambiguities seen in puzzling data, problematic situations, uncertain program technologies, and obscure links between problems and it may be useful to consider some particular ways that culture guides learning. Culture provides a reservoir of organizational meanings against which results, experience, and performance data are interpreted and inquiries about changes in procedures and program technologies can proceed. The more equivocal the data or technologies, the more influence the culture is likely to have in shaping the course of learning. The examples given in the article suggest this pattern and offer a basis for a model of the influences that culture has on learning in public organizations.