Learning to improvise, improvising to learn - A process of responding to complex environments

This paper extends recent work on improvisation by focusing on the role of information flows and the action-leaming interaction as an organization responds to a changeable environment and/or to a crisis. Novelty, speed and coherence are presented as dimensions of improvisation and we show how environmental factors influence the effectiveness of these. A typology of improvisation is offered that suggests that improvisational skills can themselves be learned with more effective improvisation resulting. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Inc. All rights reserved.