International organizations (IOs) need to learn from their mistakes in order to improve their performance. Over the past decades, IOs have therefore invested significantly in building a professional learning infrastructure. However, as recent studies show, many IOs still struggle to learn from their mistakes. Why do IOs not learn despite all these formal learning processes and tools? I argue that the internal “criticism culture”—the way IOs deal with criticism from their own employees—is an overlooked but crucial variable that can help us explain the lack of learning in IOs. To illustrate this argument, I draw on an in-depth case study of the UN Secretariat and more than 50 interviews with UN staff members. First, I show that the internal criticism culture in the UN Secretariat’s Peace and Security Pillar is repressive and self-restrained. Second, I demonstrate that this criticism culture leads to a double blockade that prevents the organization’s formal learning infrastructure from performing as intended: UN employees do not dare to voice criticism in official formats, and “learning products” are glossed over as they move up the ranks. As a consequence, the IO lacks a necessary stimulus for learning, which results in performance problems.

中文翻译：

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为什么国际组织不学习：异议压制是 IO 功能障碍的根源


国际组织 （IO） 需要从错误中吸取教训，以提高其绩效。因此，在过去的几十年里，IO 在构建专业学习基础设施方面进行了大量投资。然而，正如最近的研究表明，许多 IO 仍然难以从错误中吸取教训。为什么尽管有所有这些正式的学习过程和工具，IO 仍然不学习？我认为，内部的“批评文化”——IO 处理自己员工批评的方式——是一个被忽视但至关重要的变量，可以帮助我们解释 IO 缺乏学习。为了说明这一论点，我引用了联合国秘书处的深入案例研究和对联合国工作人员的 50 多次采访。首先，我表明联合国秘书处和平与安全支柱的内部批评文化是压制和自我克制的。其次，我证明了这种批评文化导致了双重封锁，阻止了该组织的正式学习基础设施按预期运行：联合国雇员不敢以官方形式发表批评，而“学习产品”在他们晋升时被掩盖了。因此，IO 缺乏必要的学习刺激，从而导致性能问题。