Learning: What and How? An Empirical Study of Adjustments in Workplace Organization Structure

Abstract

In this paper we seek to understand how firms learn about what adjustments they need to make in their organization structure at the workplace level. We define four organizational systems: traditional (the simplest system), high-performance (the most complex system), decision-making oriented, and financial-incentives oriented (intermediate complexity). We analyze (1) the effects of learning-by-doing on adoption of more or less complex systems, (2) the shape of the performance-experience learning curves associated with different systems, (3) the match between perceived organizational capabilities and the choice of systems, (4) the influence of other firms‘ systems and performance on a firm‘s adjustment decisions, and (5) the effect of a firm‘s location on its decisions. JEL classification: D83, L25, M54Learning-by-doing, Matching, Social learning, Vicarious Learning, Organizational Adjustments, Human Resources