THE CONTINGENT ROLE OF CONFLICT IN ORGANIZATIONAL LEARNING

Abstract

Most theoretical studies in organizational learning assume that individuals undergo identical learning processes regardless of how knowledge is distributed in organizations. However, the knowledge gap between a focal actor and learning target may cause conflict and hamper knowledge transfer. I raise the following questions: (1) How does conflict affect performance in organizational learning and (2) what moderates the effect of conflict in organizational learning. Using computational modeling, I found that while conflict has a negative impact on learning performance in simple environments, it has a positive impact in complex environments.