Towards a learning organization? Employee perceptions

Abstract

Purpose -The purpose of this research is to explore employee perceptions of the development of a learning culture in a medium-sized manufacturing company that was aspiring to become a learning organization. Design/methodology/approach -The research comprised an extended interview with the company's Organizational Development Manager, a validated questionnaire on the learning organization with a cross-section of 80 staff, and semi-structured interviews with a stratified sample of 20 employees. Findings -The company was using learning to develop its competitive edge, and employees were at various stages of understanding and acceptance of the need for learning and competence development on the job to sustain and develop the company. A tension was detected between the company's objectives and the aspirations of some employees, but the majority appeared to accept the overt learning policy as good for them and the company. Research limitations/implications -Through circumstances, the sample of employees included a fairly high proportion already involved in training, so there was potential for some positive bias towards training and a learning culture. Nevertheless, the study provides some pointers for involving employees in the development of an organization that values learning and for resolving possible tensions between institutional objectives and individual aspirations. Originality/value -As well as adding empirical data to the theory-dominated literature on learning organizations, this study contributes towards a better understanding of the perceptions of employees in the development of a learning organization, rather than from the organizational or management perspectives that tend to dominate the literature.

An investigation into agile learning processes and knowledge sharing practices to prevent identity theft in the online retail organisations

“…CY is not focusing on enhancing the knowledge of individual staff for ID theft issues and their prevention, and how to share such knowledge. The literature illustrates that training is a learning opportunity to enhance technological skills for computer usage and KS (Hortovanyi and Ferincz, 2015), and therefore, organisations offer various training opportunities to their employees to keep their knowledge current (Dymock and McCarthy, 2006;Jones et al, 2013) for ID theft prevention. Consequently, organisations should design a comprehensive ICT training programme to educate their staff to share ID theft prevention knowledge effectively.…”

The impact of a learning culture on organisational change in regional SMEs

“…However, an effective learning culture empowers employees, encouraging them to consider others in the organisation when planning their work (Aksu and Ozdemir, 2005). Employee involvement in an organisational learning culture promotes cooperation at an intellectual level (Stonehouse and Pemberton, 1999), and leads to the utilisation of learning from all employees to increase organisational performance and to facilitate competitive advantage (Dymock and McCarthy, 2006;Yeo, 2005).…”

“…Some of the processes in developing a learning culture include generating dialogue with colleagues, encouraging a teamwork orientation, providing training, and rewarding employees (Aksu and Ozdemir, 2005). At the individual level, leadership support can have a strategic impact, by encouraging personal mastery of learning that in turn contributes to improved organisational performance (Dymock and McCarthy, 2006). Managerial involvement can further capitalise on individual abilities by allowing capable staff a greater degree of decentralised decision-making (Antonacopoulou and Chiva, 2007).…”

The Implementation of Learning Organization Elements and Their Impact towards Organizational Performance amongst NPOs in Singapore

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