ABSTRACT
This chapter considers three case studies briefly: Microsoft, Berlei and Patricks. While Microsoft may often be thought of as the epitome of an 'intelligent' organization, the company has a reputation for unreliable products. The chapter argues a particular case for organization studies that situates itself within a classical tradition of sociology stretching from Max Weber, through C. Wright Mills, to the present. The employees of Australia appear to be trapped between the globalizing pressures of intelligent organization and the resistant responses of traditional labourism. The Berlei Bra workers felt victim to the former. The chapter contrasts exploratory with exploitative learning, in order to argue for the importance of both, not just the latter. Learning may introduce behavioural change through trial and error, where actions are checked against their outcomes in order to make subsequent adjustments to the actions. The model of exploitative learning emerges, initially, from the classical management school of Taylor.
