Theory: Organizational Learning as a Four-Component Process

In research on the performance of organizations, significant attention has been devoted to examining the factors that make some organizations better learners than others. To better understand the factors that affect terrorist groups’ ability to learn, this study draws on the conceptual and analytical resources provided by the rich body of literature on organizational learning. This chapter reviews concepts and models drawn from that literature. In Chapter Eight, those concepts and models are applied to the results of the case studies of Part I.¹ We have defined organizational learning as a process through which members of a group acquire new