Renegotiating Spheres of Obligation: The Role of Hierarchy in Organizational Learning

To achieve organization-wide goals, sometimes multiple local groups must synchronize their learning activities. This paper uses an ethnographic study of a cancer treatment center to develop theory on organizational learning by identifying a process that helped synchronize learning across many local and interdependent groups by taking advantage of hierarchy. Change agents—in this case, consultants—identified the managers of the various groups that would need to change for an organization-wide goal to be achieved, and they met with each manager to renegotiate his or her formal obligations. Through the renegotiation process, the managers came to better understand the organization-wide goal, and the change agents better understood each group’s work. After the managers understood and accepted their renegotiated obligations, they changed how they administered resources and expectations in their groups, and the members of their respective groups adapted their practices in response. This process illustrates how the obligations associated with hierarchical positions can be renegotiated in ways that develop improved understanding and, when changed, can shape local activities to favor new goals.