Timing and Emotions in Learning Practice Adoption

Abstract

Reflecting on past performance is perceived as the core activity enhancing organizational learning because it helps organization members improve their cognitive understandings. Yet, reflection could also trigger emotional reactions that may influence organization members’ subsequent actions. In this paper, we integrate such emotional mechanisms into current theories of organizational learning, building on a five-year qualitative study of a management consulting firm. Our model shows how reflection influences organization members’ appraisals that generate emotions. Reflection changes organization members’ thinking about their skills and actions, which triggers emotional reactions that may either support or inhibit subsequent actions. The timing of reflection, in particular, influences their appraisals of controllability. When reflection is performed after a project, appraisals of low controllability lead to low-arousal emotions that inhibit future action and undermine future learning. In contrast, reflection performed during or before a project generates appraisals of high controllability that lead to high-arousal emotions and benefit future actions and learning. Hence, the timing of reflection substantially shapes the emotional effects of reflection and influences whether reflection benefits organizational learning.