An exploratory study of organizational learning from a performance measurement system: a grounded theory approach

Abstract

Organizational learning from a performance measurement system is typically a complex and dynamic process, but research in this area tends to be more normative or functionalist in orientation, rather than interpretive embedded in the everyday activities of practice and the particular social world examined. To overcome this, a substantive grounded theory about how organizational members learn from performance measures in their everyday working life is developed. Using qualitative data, the study documents how organizational learning from a performance measurement system within a single strategic business unit of an Australian public sector utility entity occurred, thereby, providing a contextualized understanding of organizational learning that is grounded in the everyday world of the particular social world examined. The research findings are complete enough to capture the factors that influenced organizational learning and sufficiently parsimonious to follow and grasp.