Why do so many organizations fail to learn? According to Schein,
organizational learning failures may be caused, not by
resistance to change, human nature, or poor leadership, but by
the lack of communication among three “cultures.” The culture of
operators evolves locally in an organization or unit and is
based on human interaction. Operators may use their learning
ability to thwart management’s efforts to improve productivity.
The engineering culture represents the design elements of the
technology underlying the organization and how the technology is
to be used. Engineers, whose reference group is outside the
organization, share common educational, work, and job
experiences. They are preoccupied with designing humans out of
systems rather than into them. The executive culture revolves
around maintaining an organization’s financial health and deals
with boards, investors, and capital markets. As executives,
whose reference group is also outside the organization, are
promoted, they become more impersonal, se