In The Ambiguities of Experience , James G. March asks a deceptively simple question: What is, or should be, the role of experience in creating intelligence, particularly in organizations? Folk wisdom both trumpets the significance of experience and warns of its inadequacies. On one hand, experience is described as the best teacher. On the other hand, experience is described as the teacher of fools, of those unable or unwilling to learn from accumulated knowledge or the teaching of experts. The disagreement between those folk aphorisms reflects profound questions about the human pursuit of intelligence through learning from experience that have long confronted philosophers and social scientists. This book considers the unexpected problems organizations (and the individuals in them) face when they rely on experience to adapt, improve, and survive.

While acknowledging the power of learning from experience and the extensive use of experience as a basis for adaptation and for constructing stories and models of history, this book examines the problems with such learning. March argues that although individuals and organizations are eager to derive intelligence from experience, the inferences stemming from that eagerness are often misguided. The problems lie partly in errors in how people think, but even more so in properties of experience that confound learning from it. 'Experience,' March concludes, 'may possibly be the best teacher, but it is not a particularly good teacher.'

詹姆斯•马奇是斯坦福大学商学院“人力资源管理与经济学”(Jack Steele Parker)名誉教授。马奇在业界最出名的地方是他对决策制定和组织领域的贡献,他写过很多这方面的文章和书,包括他在职业生涯早期写的两本经典著作《组织》和《企业行为理论》。马奇在其他领域也很出色,此外他还是很多协会的理事,比如,“美国科学院”(National Academy of Science)、“美国艺术与科学院”(American Academy of Arts and Sciences)、“美国哲学会”(American Philosophical Society)、“美国公共行政研究院”(National Academy of Public Administration)、“美国教育学会”(National Academy of Education)以及几个海外学会。

马奇生于1928年,很早就成为学术界公认的大师。他在早期职业生涯所写的两本书,一本是与诺贝尔经济学奖得主赫伯特•西蒙于1958年合写的《组织》,另外一本是与理查德•赛尔特于1963年合写的《企业行为理论》,是组织研究的经典之作。马奇于1995年从斯坦福退休,在这之前,他担任过很多学科的教授,比如心理学、政治学、社会学、管理学和教育学。此外,他还是一位诗人,出过8本诗集。

詹姆斯•马奇在实务界没有什么名气,却是管理大师心目中的大师。两位咨询顾问制作了一个管理大师排行榜,然后问上榜的大师们这样一个问题：谁是你们心目中的大师？根据收到的回答,他们又制作了一个“大师的大师”排行榜,发表在2003年12月的《哈佛商业评论》上。马奇排在第二,仅次于彼得•德鲁克。