Analyzing the Effective Factors in Organizational Learning: A Meta-Analysis of the Current Literature

1.Introduction Given the adaptation of development to organizations, technological changes, and the necessity of increasing the quality of services, organizational learning is regarded as one of the most important factors concerning organizational innovations. Therefore, exploring and explaining the effective factors in organizational learning are of similar importance due to the significance of organizational learning’s influence on the development of organizations within today’s ever-changing environment. However, with relatively numerous studies conducted in the past few decades as well as the increased number of scientific research in the areas related to the subject of organizational learning in the country, the scientific community is facing extensive and accumulated information on the effective factors in organizational learning. Nevertheless, there are very few collaborative, joint studies in which an abstract, extract, and the results of the conducted research in the area of organizational learning are presented to researchers in an organized, practical manner. Therefore, in this study it is attempted to provide a precise, thorough examination of the existing research in the area of organizational learning in order to present their abstracts and results systematically.
2. Theoretical Framework
A considerable number of effective factors in organizational learning were identified through studying several models on this subject. In the majority of these models, similar instances were introduced as effective factors in organizational learning which can be classified into three levels of individual, collective, and organizational. However, there are no organizational learning models or theories that are accepted by everyone. As a result, the identification of the effective factors in organizational learning within the learner organization in a comprehensive model framework is the main necessity of such organizations, and the absence of an integrated, all-inclusive model involving the whole effective individual, collective and organizational factors in organizational learning is considered as a theoretical gap in this area.
3.Methodology The method used in the present study is meta-analysis. In this method, the background of the subject undergoes a systematic review in order to specify the effect of one variable on another one in previous studies. Similar to cross-sectional inquiries, the sample population of the present study includes research results instead of individuals. The total sample of this study includes all articles on organizational learning published in valid journals of the Ministry of Science, Research and Technology from 2005 to the end of the second half of 2016 and finally 39 articles with the intended criteria were selected.
4.Results The results of our systematic reviews showed that all 39 studies had been conducted through a descriptive-analytical method, and 46% of these studies were conducted by three researchers. The questionnaires designed by the authors as well as the NIF questionnaire were among the most used with 37% and 15.5%, respectively. The most investigated variable was related to intellectual capital as well as organizational culture, both of which were examined in the research hypotheses seven times.
The results of meta-analysis also showed that the relationship between organizational intelligence and learning, which was investigated in four articles, was equal to 0.76, which is positive and significant. The relationship between intellectual capital and organizational learning in seven hypotheses were found to be 0.74, both positive and significant. The relationship between the empowerment of staff and organizational learning in three studies was equal to 0.64. According to the results, the relationship between transformative leadership and organizational learning in four hypotheses was almost 0.61, both positive and significant. The results of meta-analysis on seven studies presented a relationship between organizational culture and learning equal to 0.61, which was both positive and significant. Furthermore, the relationship between knowledge management and organizational learning in three hypotheses was equal to 0.57, both positive and significant.
5.Conclusion The results of the study showed that variables including intellectual capital and organizational learning were of great effect (more than 0.7) on organizational learning, which is in line with the previous theories in this area. Haber (1991) states that organizational learning occurs when an organization acquires the required knowledge; this means that the main requirement for organizational learning is the knowledge created or acquired by the staff. As a result, such a requirement is intellectual capital which has positive and significant effect on organizational learning. The results of the study also demonstrate a positive and significant relationship between organizational intelligence and learning. In the literature on organizational intelligence, the link between the learning process and organizational intelligence is pointed out theoretically. According to this literature, an intelligent organization is basically one that is capable of learning. Consequently, the variables of organizational intelligence and intellectual capital are theories at the organizational level which have a direct relationship with organizational learning.