THE EFFECT OF BRIDGING TIES AMONG CONFLICTING CLIQUES IN ORGANIZATIONAL LEARNING

Abstract

This paper explores how learning performance change when conflicting knowledge, beliefs or ideas combine and engage inside the same organization. A large body of literature on organizational learning have emphasized the importance of diverse knowledge to maintain learning and organizational performance. Despite the vast research, previous studies have assumed that members inside an organization share a common objective function. This assumption caused researchers to overlook the impact of conflicting knowledge and undermine the cost of learning. Using computer simulation, two cliques with incompatible payoff function that have various interconnection rate were devised. The model demonstrates a contradictory role of inter-clique ties as the bridge for transferring group specific knowledge that foster performance and as the route for contaminated knowledge that incur learning cost and interrupt superior learning performance.