Adaptation and validation of the Organizational Learning Mechanism Scale (OLMS)

Abstract

The purpose hereof is to adapt the Organizational Learning Mechanism Scale (OLMS), which deals with organizations’ actions to create procedures and practices for knowledge acquisition, storage, sharing, and use. The adaptation of this scale was based on the validation of the scale for the Brazilian context, and on a theme-related literature review. The adapted scale was submitted for semantic and theoretical validation by judges and for the application of a pilot test in a small sample. The data of 268 public servants who work in military and civil organizations were collected through electronic means. Once the recommended prior analyses were conducted, we performed a factorial analysis, identifying 3 factors: Internal Acquisition Mechanisms (11 items and α = 0.924), Codification and Control Mechanisms (8 items and α = 0.899), and External Acquisition Mechanism (3 items and α = 0.726), which explain a total variance of 62.20%, results that were superior to those found in the first adaptation of the OLMS. The final results point to an instrument with good statistical parameters and which is responsible for a great amount of the construct’s variance, indicating new directions for the execution of new research.