Remaking transportation organizations for the 21st century: Consortia and the value of organizational learning

The US faces a number of important issues in the way it organizes and manages transportation facilities and services. A key issue is how to create organizations that pay attention to customers and focus on results and performance. However, these two organizational characteristics are often difficult to achieve in formal organizations like governments, which are bound by requirements for procedural integrity. This paper examines a way out of this dilemma: transportation organizations can participate in voluntary consortia, which may offer more flexibility and adaptability and facilitate organizational learning. To gain new insights into the potential benefits of voluntary consortia this paper examines two case studies of transportation-related voluntary consortia, taking an organizational learning perspective. It concludes that although further research is needed, consortia may offer many benefits, including their ability to provide a quick, low-threat response to changing conditions.