How Organizations Learn: Post-flight Reviews in an F-16 Fighter Squadron
Neta Ron, Raanan Lipshitz, Micha Popper
Organization Studies · 2006 · Volume 27 · Issue 8
Abstract
We present an in-depth analysis of post-flight reviews in a fighter aircraft squadron of the Israel Defense Force Air Force. Our findings demonstrate how organizations can learn non-metaphorically and highlight the dynamics of learning in a central organizational learning mechanism in this type of after-action review. They also show that learning in the post-flight reviews is a multi-layered process of retrospective sense-making, detection and correction of error, social comparison, social control, socialization, and bonding, where lessons-learned pertain to different domains and different levels — individual, unit, and Force-wide. The process is facilitated by five values specified by the multi-facet model (Lipshitz, Popper and Friedman 2002), and the assumption that learning through critical examination of one's own experience is the key to improvement.
Keywords
organizational learning mechanisms, after-action reviews, learning culture, learning from experience
Enable JavaScript for citation tools and additional paper interactions.