Organizational learning in smaller manufacturing firms.
Spicer, David P. Sadler-Smith, E.
Spicer, David P.
Sadler-Smith, E.
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2006
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Abstract
This article describes the development and validation of a measure of a firm's organizational learning orientation and considers the relationships between this and firm performance. The measure assesses owner-managers¿ perceptions of their organizations¿ orientation to learning in terms of higherorder (active) and lower-order (passive) levels of learning. Its development is a response to the criticisms that organizational learning research is beset by a paucity of valid and reliable measures to assess the ways in which organizations engage in learning at the collective level (Tsang, 1997). Data are presented from a number of samples of small- and medium-sized enterprises in the UK that indicate that the organizational learning orientation measure exhibits acceptable reliability and validity. Furthermore, a number of relationships between organizational learning and financial and non-financial performance were observed. The implications of the findings for research, policy and the management of learning within organizations are discussed.
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Spicer, D.P. and Sadler-Smith, E. (2006). Organizational learning in smaller manufacturing firms. International Small Business Journal. Vol. 24, No. 2, pp. 133-158.
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