Team learning trade-offs
Subtitle: when improving one critical dimension of performance inhibits another
By: Richard M.J. Bohmer, Ann B. Winslow, Amy C. Edmondson, Gary P. Pisano
Contributors: Winslow, Anne B.; Edmondson, Amy C.; Pisano, Gary P.; Harvard Business School. Division of Research
Series: Working paper / Division of Research, Harvard Business School -- 05-047; Working paper (Harvard Business School. Division of Research) -- 05-047
Publisher: Division of Research, Harvard Business School
Published: 2005
Place of publication: Boston
Language: eng
Number of pages: 32
Description: Learning curve research has found that rates of learning can vary across similar settings, such that cumulative experience is a necessary but insufficient predictor of learning curve slope. One explanation for this is that how the learning process is managed affects rates of learning. We investigate an additional possibility: by pursuing two dimensions of performance improvement simultaneously, effort invested in one may inhibit learning rate in the other. Using a sample of sixteen academic and community hospitals adopting a new surgical technology, we demonstrate a tradeoff in rates of learning on two dimensions-efficiency and technical difficulty-providing support for our proposed explanation of learning curve heterogeneity.
Notes: "October 28, 2004"--Added t.p.

Includes bibliographical references.