Learning from Crisis: A Framework of Management, Learning and Implementation in Response to Crises

This study deals with the relationship between organizational flexibility, crisis response and learning. As a point of departure we use previous research from the field of crisis management which tells us that experience can shape crisis responses in two ways: as a way of repeating former routines or as a precondition for improvisation. Based on an abductive study we argue that the mandates of top-managerial teams, where we differentiate between centralized and decentralized, are closely connected to the way organizations learn – in behavioral or cognitive modes. Our findings from two case studies show how the decentralized managerial group learned in a behavioral fashion by creating new formal policies and structures, while organizational members in the centralized managerial group relied on individual cognitive structures as a way of 'storing' lessons learned. The study ends by discussing the findings from a crisis management perspective, where we propose that the two modes of learning profoundly affect the crucial issue of flexibility in organizational crisis response.