Is there a relationship between employee perceptions of organizational learning practices and employee performance?

Abstract

It has been assumed that organizational learning will lead to improved organizational performance. Thus, the purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between organizational learning (OL) practices as perceived by the employee, and employee performance as assessed by supervisors. Measures of organizational learning derived from Senge's (1990) conceptualization were used in a survey of 172 employees (male and female; mean age 38.5 yrs) and 71 supervisors (male and female; mean age 38 yrs) from six not-for-profit organizations. The employees worked in a variety of jobs, from receptionist to counselor. In hierarchical regression analyses, the only OL practice that predicted supervisors' ratings of employee overall job performance was individual management of mental models. The other organizational learning practices--systems thinking, shared vision, personal mastery, and team learning--were not predictive of overall job performance. Personal mastery did not predict performance, perhaps due to the type of jobs the participants held. None of the organizational practices predicted contextual performance. This may also reflect the jobs and organizations included in the study. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2013 APA, all rights reserved)