KDI 산업·기업경제연구부와 KDI 정책대학원이 공동 주최하는 2008년도 제13회 산업기업전략 세미나를 아래와 같이 개최합니다. 관심있는 분들의 많은 참여를 바랍니다.

• 발표자: 이제호 교수 (KAIST 경영대학)
• 주제: Balancing Exploration and Exploitation through Structural Design: The Isolation of Subgroups and Organizational Learning
• 장소: KDI School 201호
• 시간: 2008년 11월 14일(금) 2:00 ~

Balancing Exploration and Exploitation through Structural Design:
The Isolation of Subgroups and Organization Learning

 Abstract

The classic tradeoff between exploration and exploitation in organizational learning has attracted vigorous attention by researchers over the last two decades. Despite this attention, however, the question of how firms can better maintain the balance of exploration and exploitation remains unresolved. Drawing on a wide range of research on population and organization structure, we argue that an organization divided into semi-isolated subgroups may help strike this balance. We simulate such an organization, systematically varying the interaction pattern between individuals to explore how the degree of subgroup isolation and inter-group connectivity influences organizational learning. We also test this model with a range of contingency variables highlighted in the management research. We find that moderate levels of cross-group linking led to the highest equilibrium performance by enabling superior ideas to diffuse across groups without reducing organizational diversity too quickly. This finding is remarkably resilient to a wide range of variance in factors such as problem complexity, environmental dynamism, and personnel turnover.