How to measure an organization’s learning ability: the facilitating factors ‐ part II

Abstract

The objective of this article is to gain an understanding of what are the key characteristics of learning organizations, how they develop, how to measure organizational learning, and where does one start if a learning organization is to be created. This article views the organization as a learning system and focuses on three key characteristics of a learning organization. They are the learning process, the learning orientation, and the facilitating factors within the organization. The interrelationship as well as the details of these topics are described in detail. The purpose here is to understand how an organization learns, what it does well, what it does poorly, and where should it be improved. To do this, the major focus will be placed upon the facilitating factors, process, and conclusion. For an organization to become a learning organization it is critical that both a measurement methodology and communications medium be formalized. The communications medium proposed here will be an organizational learning model, and the measurement technique will be a survey instrument described within learning orientations. This article will develop a model against which a desired state can be defined for an organization within a specific industry and a survey instrument which examines actual behaviours displayed in the organization.

Citation

Appelbaum, S.H. and Reichart, W. (1998), "How to measure an organization’s learning ability: the facilitating factors ‐ part II", Journal of Workplace Learning, Vol. 10 No. 1, pp. 15-28. https://doi.org/10.1108/13665629810370012