Twenty-first International Conference on Knowledge, Culture, and Change in Organizations

Abstract

As a result of strategic direction from multiple recent U.S. national security strategies, countries across all regions have been training, exercising, integrating, and operating together in ways that few would have predicted three decades ago. That collaboration has been especially evident among maritime services, both Navy and Coast Guard, and the world’s waterways have remained relatively safe from conflict. The study presents evidence that organizational learning (OL) within the U.S. maritime services (both Navy and Coast Guard) and between partner countries is at least part of the reason for that success. The researcher conducted a qualitative study using Marsick’s and Watkins’ (1999) OL framework to explore: How do U.S. Navy and Coast Guard officers describe how they learn and work cooperatively with their foreign navy counterparts? The study found that OL does enable maritime security cooperation between partner countries and that OL itself is enabled through collaborative activities, communicative activities, organizational elements, human relationships, technology, formal and informal training and education-related activities, and work practices. The findings suggested a rich array of launch points for future study in both theory and practice, and five ideas for improving international maritime security cooperation through organizational learning.