The influence of organizational defensive actions on learning of information and communication technology – An attitude study in Hong Kong

The adoption of information and communication technology (ICT) can improve the organizations’ competitive advantage. Learning of ICT is also essential for organizational survival. However, organizational defensive patterns, including skilled incompetence, organizational defensive routines and fancy footwork, hinder the high level learning in all organizations. This paper investigated the influence of organizational defensive patterns by means of an attitude survey of 200 engineering employees at two different Hong Kong transport companies. Each employee completed a short attitude scale which asked them to indicate the influence of three defensive actions (skilled incompetence, organizational defensive routines, and fancy footwork) on the learning of information and communication technology (ICT) in their respective organizations, in terms of whether the particular defensive action had a ‘major’ (4) ‘moderate’ (3) ‘minor’(2) or ‘no’ (1) influence. The three mean scores (each just below 3.0) suggest that the employees felt that each action had a moderate influence on the learning of ICT. The findings show that the engineering staff in two transport corporations have the same perception of influence of skilled incompetence, defensive routines and fancy footwork on learning of ICT. The findings also indicate that skilled incompetence, defensive routines and fancy footwork are positively associated with each other in two transport corporations.