Learning by Doing Something Else: Variation, Relatedness, and the Learning Curve

Schilling, Melissa A.; Vidal, Patricia G.; Ployhart, Robert E.; Marangoni, Alexandre

doi:10.1287/mnsc.49.1.39.12750

Cited by 388 publications

(318 citation statements)

References 63 publications

(84 reference statements)

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“…As with productivity, we also believe that context switching has an inverted-U-shaped relationship with individual learning driven by the competing mechanisms of increased information variety and decreased integration time. In terms of the positive effects of MTM-driven context switching, variety may be "life's very spice" (Cowper, 1968(Cowper, /1785), but variety is also a critical component of individual learning (Schilling, Vidal, Ployhart, & Marangoni, 2003;Wiersma, 2007). For learning to occur, an individual must access new information and then integrate it into his or her existing base of knowMultiple Team Membership 14 ledge.…”

Section: Proposition 1a Context Switching Mediates the Effects Of Mtmentioning

confidence: 99%

Multiple Team Membership: A Theoretical Model of its Effects on Productivity and Learning for Individuals and Teams.

O’Leary

Mortensen²,

Woolley

2011

Academy of Management Review

183

288

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While organizations strive to manage the time and attention of workers effectively, the practice of asking workers to contribute to multiple teams simultaneously can result in the opposite. We present a model of the effects of multiple team membership (MTM) on learning and productivity via the mediating processes of individual context switching, team temporal misalignment, and intra-organizational connectivity. These effects are curvilinear, with learning and productivity peaking at moderate levels of these mediating processes.Electronic copy available at: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1474336 do -Manager (Authors, 2007) Over the last century, the primary approach to organizing has shifted from individual work in hierarchical structures, to more team-based work in hierarchical structures, to teambased work in matrix structures, and ultimately to team-based work in multi-team systems (Hatch & Cunliffe, 2006;Hobday, 2000;Malone, 2004;Marks, Dechurch, Mathieu, Panzer, & Alonso, 2005;Scott & Davis, 2006). As these changes have taken place, an increasing amount of responsibility has shifted to individual employees -responsibility for managing their own learning, allocating their own time, and focusing their own attention. This is especially true when employees are members of multiple teams concurrently, with no one manager aware of each employee's full portfolio of work or team commitments. In such situations, individuals may make decisions (about their time, attention, information, etc.) that are completely rational for them, but that do not result in optimal productivity and learning at the team and organizational levels (Schelling, 1978). Conversely, without complete knowledge of individuals' multiple team commitments, teams, managers, and organizations may make reasonable team-and organizationallevel decisions that have very problematic effects for individuals. In this paper, we address this theoretical and practical tension regarding the allocation of time and attention, as well as the flow of information, when people are simultaneously members of multiple teams.Based on our own survey data and surveys by other scholars (Lu, Wynn, Chudoba., & Watson-Manheim, 2003;Martin & Bal, 2006) (Zika-Viktorsson, Sundstrom, & Engwall, 2006). Some surveys place the percent of knowledge workers who are members of more than one team as high as 94.9 percent (Martin & Bal, 2006) and in at least one company (Intel), 28% are on five or more (Lu et al., 2003). In addition, a wide variety of scholars and practitioners have mentioned the commonality of MTM. For example, Gonzalez and Mark's (2005: 143-4) comment is typical: "In fields as diverse as finance, software development, consulting, and academia, we are finding that it is commonplace that information workers are involved in multiple collaborations that occur in parallel. This demands that individuals enact specific efforts to coordinate, manage and track those collaborations." MTM seems especially common (and particularly challenging) in information technology (e.g., Bas...

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Section: Proposition 1a Context Switching Mediates the Effects Of Mtmentioning

confidence: 99%

Multiple Team Membership: A Theoretical Model of its Effects on Productivity and Learning for Individuals and Teams.

O’Leary

Mortensen²,

Woolley

2011

Academy of Management Review

183

288

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…The use of more learning processes in sequences may therefore let firms acquire quality information while also allowing for speed in action. Overall, while many studies portray a view where greater performance from learning stems from enlarging the number (Anand & Khanna, 2000;Argote, 1999) or variety (Hayward, 2002;Schilling, Vidal, Ployhart, & Marangoni, 2003) Second, since critical examination of cause/effect relationships and the creation of new knowledge is severely reduced when individuals come to rely only on trial-and-error learning, performance also seems to decrease as executives become more influenced by psychological proclivities that push them to attribute the causes of negative outcomes to external factors (Weiner, 1985 …”

Section: Consultant As One Vp Stated "[Consultant] Has Been Workingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Learning Sequences: Their Existence, Effect, and Evolution

Bingham

Davis

2012

AMJ

211

172

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Much is known about the importance of learning and some of the distinct learning processes that organizations use (e.g., trial-and-error learning, vicarious learning, experimental learning and improvisational learning). Yet surprisingly little is known about whether these processes combine over time in ordered ways since most research on learning explores one particular process. Using theory elaboration and theory building methods and data on the accumulated country entries of entrepreneurial firms, we address this gap. Our core contribution is an emergent theoretical framework that develops the concept of learning sequences. We find that learning sequences exist and are influenced by initial conditions. We also find that learning sequences evolve in fundamentally distinct ways over time and with repeated use. Finally, data show how different learning sequences differentially effect performance, both in the shorter-term as well as in the longer-term, suggesting that it matters which learning processes are used and when. Overall, our findings on learning sequences have important implications for learning theory, international entrepreneurship, and the growing literature on process management.

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“…Thus, specialization may aid learning by limiting cognitive interference (Sarason and Pierce 1996). 3 While specialization offers a number of learning benefits, recent work suggests that variety in task experience may enhance the rate of learning (Schilling et al 2003). Completing multiple, related tasks offers a number of potential benefits.…”

Section: Focal and Related Experience At The Individual Levelmentioning

confidence: 99%

Accumulating a Portfolio of Experience: The Effect of Focal and Related Experience on Surgeon Performance

Staats

2012

M&SOM

112

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One key driver of improvement in surgical outcomes is a surgeon's prior experience. However, research notes that not all experience provides equal value for performance. How, then, should surgeons accumulate experience to improve quality outcomes? In this paper, we investigate the differential effects of focal and related (i.e., tasks similar to, but not identical to, the focal task) experience. We open up the black box of the volume-outcome relationship by going beyond just dividing experience into focal and related categories, but also considering how subtasks and context (i.e., the organization in which the work takes place) affect performance. To understand these issues, we assemble a novel data set on 71 cardiothoracic surgeons who performed more than 6,500 procedures during a period of 10 years after the introduction of a breakthrough surgical procedure. We find that, as compared to related experience, surgeon focal experience has a greater effect on surgeon performance. We also demonstrate that subtask experience has different, nonlinear performance relationships for focal and related experience. Finally, we find that focal experience is more firm specific than related experience and that nonfirm experience reduces the learning rate for both focal and related experience. We discuss implications of our findings for healthcare delivery and operations management. AcknowledgmentsWe thank Rob Huckman, Gary Pisano, the associate editor, and the anonymous reviewers for helpful comments on earlier drafts of this paper. All errors remain our own. Experience Accumulation & Surgeon Performance-1 - Accumulating a Portfolio of Experience: The Effect of Focal and Related Experience on Surgeon PerformanceOne key driver of improvement in surgical outcomes is a surgeon's prior experience. However, research notes that not all experience provides equal value for performance. How then should surgeons accumulate experience to improve quality outcomes? In this paper we investigate the differential effects of focal and related (i.e., tasks similar to, but not identical to, the focal task) experience. We open up the black box of the volume-outcome relationship by going beyond just dividing experience into focal and related categories, but also considering how sub-tasks, and context (i.e., the organization in which the work takes place) affect performance. To understand these issues, we assemble a novel data set on 71 cardiothoracic surgeons who performed over 6,500 procedures during a period of 10 years since the introduction of a breakthrough surgical procedure. We find that as compared to related experience, surgeon focal experience has a greater effect on surgeon performance. We also demonstrate that sub-task experience has different, non-linear performance relationships for focal and related experience. Finally, we find that focal experience is more firm-specific than related experience and that non-firm experience reduces the learning rate for both focal and related experience. We discuss implications of our findin...

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Learning by Doing Something Else: Variation, Relatedness, and the Learning Curve

Cited by 388 publications

References 63 publications

Multiple Team Membership: A Theoretical Model of its Effects on Productivity and Learning for Individuals and Teams.

Multiple Team Membership: A Theoretical Model of its Effects on Productivity and Learning for Individuals and Teams.

Learning Sequences: Their Existence, Effect, and Evolution

Accumulating a Portfolio of Experience: The Effect of Focal and Related Experience on Surgeon Performance

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