This study examines factors affecting organisational learning during crises by comparing a healthcare organization and a construction service organization. Our goal was to identify differences and similarities between the two organizations in organisational learning for resilience in order to support crisis preparedness in society.
Our qualitative study consists of case studies of the Finnish National Blood Establishment, Finnish Red Cross Blood Service (FRCBS), and public enterprise Stara (Stara), a construction service provider for the City of Helsinki. We followed the organisations throughout the COVID-19 pandemic years 2020–2022 through repeat interviews and as participant researchers within management.
Differences were observed in the nature of contradictions with the environment, reflecting the tightness of bonds within the organisations respective organisational networks. The experiences with remote work and personal coping were similar for specialist-level employees in the two organisations.
Our research was focused on office workers even though many of them had close contact with the floor level. We did not address the employees with mainly operative or physical tasks. The number of interviewed persons was limited, which may restrict the diversity of views in our material.
Our results demonstrate the uniformity of organisational learning processes in healthcare and construction service organisations during a prolonged crisis. This supports the idea that, in crisis situations, healthcare leaders should benchmark best practices with other sectors of society.
