Identifying and managing persisting tensions affecting strategic learning from projects

While research recognises that strategic learning from projects helps build organisation-wide knowledge capabilities, learning from projects still remains fragmented and is often prematurely discontinued. Although research demonstrated that persisting tensions affect project-based organising, little is known about specific tensions affecting strategic learning from projects. A single, in-depth case study in a multinational food processing and packaging corporation is used to explore paradoxical tensions affecting strategic learning from projects. The study uncovered three persisting learning tensions: project/organisational identity, short-/long-term-orientation and standardisation/flexibility. Seven strategies are proposed, supported by the empirical data, to respond to these tensions