The Need for Multi-Level Learning 19
American Management Association
www.amanet.org
that learning from project experience can be perceived as a waste of time
by employees and managers alike.
It may be no surprise, then, that previous researchers have noted “time
pressures” as a signi cant barrier to learning from past project experi-
ences (Disterer, 2002; Keegan & Turner, 2001; Schindler & Eppler, 2003;
Zedtwitz, 2003). In A. Keegan and J. R. Turner’s study of 19 project- based
rms, for example, the authors found that it was “common throughout
the study for respondents to list impressive practices in place to facilitate
organizational learning, and then at the very end to state they do not work,
or are not used, because of the time pressures on those people whose
learning is the focus of these systems” (p. 91).
DEFENSIVE ROUTINES
Indeed, it may not be simply a lack of time that limits systematic learn-
ing, but rather defensive routines that arise from red- light learning. Chris
Argyris (1995) describes organizational defensive routines as “any action,
policy, or practice that prevents organizational participants from experi-
encing embarrassment or threat and, at the same time, prevents them
from discovering the causes of the embarrassment or threat” (pp. 20–22).
“Face- saving” is one such defensive routine, the rules of which Argyris de-
scribes as follows: “When encountering embarrassment or threat, bypass
it and cover up the bypass.”
Other researchers have found the symptoms of defensive routines in
a number of studies, often taking the form of project members’ fear of
publicly airing mistakes or pointing the nger at other team members
(Disterer, 2002; Prencipe & Tell, 2001; Schindler & Eppler, 2003; Zedt-
witz, 2003). In interviews of 27 R&D managers from 13 multinational
companies, for example, Maximilian Zedtwitz (2002) found that public
feedback among team members in postproject reviews is “softened and
rendered ine ective” for the sake of smooth cooperation among sta
members on future projects. Moreover, he found that project members
also feared acknowledging issues related to their own performance that
might be considered mistakes or failures for fear of embarrassment or
threat to their career.