Resistance to Innovation Among US Drug Abuse Treatment Providers: When Organizational Knowledge Interferes With Organizational Learning

Organizational learning is generally considered the basis for organizational knowledge. However, psychologists have known for decades that prior knowledge can often interfere with the acquisition of new knowledge. 2 “You cannot teach an old dog new tricks.” as the saying goes. Organizational development professionals help organizations learn new, more efficient or effective business practices that will eventually become part of an organization’s knowledge base. Methods for overcoming resistance to change have been well studied at the individual, organizational, and even corporate levels, and the effect of changes in work structure, compensation, performance management, etc., seem to be fairly well understood. This paper discusses a somewhat more challenging, and less-studied phenomena -resistance to innovation at an field’s level. Specifically, the drug abuse treatment field in the United States (US) will serve as the focal point for reviewing a case in which organizational knowledge seems to be interfering with organizational learning.