Organizational learning: modeling an intervention in a foster care system

This paper maps the organizational learning processes in a policy intervention program. A state department of social services designed an intervention for local agencies and implemented it with a university. A closer observation of patterns detected organizational learning in local agencies by the increase in the penetration rate-a ratio of federal to state funding. An organizational learning model is constructed to understand the organizational learning process in this particular instance. The model includes learning modes and the roles that the policy knowledge instigators had played in the process. Each mode and role is defined and the model is refined based on in-depth interviews with participants in the learning process.