3. Information Interpretation
Daft and Weick (1984) define interpretation as "the process through which information
is given meaning" (p. 294), and also as "the process of translating events and
developing shared understandings and conceptual schemes" (p. 286). Do these
definitions imply that, if all organizational units develop a common interpretation
about an item of information, then more organization learning has occurred? Or has
more organizational learning occurred if all units interpret the information differently?
In other words, should organizational learning be defined in terms of the
commonality of interpretation, or should it be defined in terms of the variety of
interpretations held by the organization's various units? It seems reasonable to
conclude that more learning has occurred when more and more varied interpretations
have been developed, because such development changes the range of the organization's
potential behaviors, and this is congruent with the definition of learning. It also
seems reasonable to conclude that more learning has occurred when more of the
organization's units understand the nature of the various interpretations held by
other units. For example, more complete understanding can either enhance cooperation
and thus increase the range of potential behaviors, or can inhibit cooperation
and thus decrease the range of potential behaviors. In either case, more complete
understanding leads to a change in the range of potential behaviors, i.e., to organizational
learning.
There seems to have been little systematic study of the development of shared
understanding among organizational units about particular events or items of information,
but these has been some, and there are related literatures. For reviews of
related literatures, see Isabella's (1990) review of the cognitive aspects of interpretation
in organizations and her study of the temporal nature of interpretation, Jablin's
(1984, 1987) reviews of socialization of new members, and Sproull's (1981) review of
the role of face-to-face communication in constructing and maintaining interpretations
of situations. Dutton, Fahey, and Narayanan (1983) provide a rich conceptual
description of interpretation in the context of development of corporate strategy.
How organizations develop interpretations of history from scattered and unique
experiences is explained by March, Sproull, and Tamaz (this issue).
It seems likely that the extent of shared interpretation of new information is
affected by (1) the uniformity of prior cognitive maps possessed by the organizational
units, (2) the uniformity of the framing of the information as it is communicated, (3)
the richness of the media used to convey the information, (4) the information load on
the interpreting units, and (5) the amount of unlearning that might be necessary
before a new interpretation could be generated. Other variables may also be determinants
of shared interpretations (Bartunek 1984; Milliken 1990), but these five either
follow from our earlier discussions or have been singled out in the literature as
especially relevant. Each is discussed below.