The Relevance and Presumed Innocence of Learning: A Reply to Soeters and Talbot and Fischer

• DOI: 10.1177/0095327X211001572
• Published date: 01 April 2022
• Date: 01 April 2022
• Author: Karl Ydén,Hans Hasselbladh
• Subject Matter: Commentaries

https://doi.org/10.1177/0095327X211001572

Armed Forces & Society

2022, Vol. 48(2) 493 –498

© The Author(s) 2021

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DOI: 10.1177/0095327X211001572

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Commentary

The Relevance and

Presumed Innocence

of Learning: A Reply

to Soeters and Talbot

and Fischer

Hans Hasselbladh

1

and Karl Yd ´

en

2

Abstract

Responding to Soeters and Talbot and Fischer, we clarify our position that learning

in military organizations is highly contingent on established organizational frame-

works, vocabularies, and understandings and constrained by existing power rela-

tions. The danger present in military operations increases the importance of

minimizing internal frictions and constrains local experimentation and the applica-

tion of different solutions. Thus, while there is learning in military organizations, the

latter are less prone than large, civilian organizations to venture into the use of new

and unproven solutions. The present debate about learning in military organization

reflects the different basic assumptions about formal organizations in management

studies as opposed to the field of organizational sociology.

Keywords

learning, military organizations, hierarchy, power

Our recent article in Armed Forces & Society has caught the attention of at least a

few eminent readers: Soeters (2020) and Talbot and Fischer (2021). We welcome

this interest in the subject matter from accomplished military scholars, and we would

like to take this opportunity to clarify our position further.

1

O

¨rebro University, Sweden

2

Department of Applied IT, University of Gothenburg, Sweden

Corresponding Author:

Hans Hasselbladh, O

¨rebro University, SE-701 82 O

¨rebro, Sweden.

Email: hans.hasselbladh@oru.se; hans.hasselbladh@gmail.com