“Investigating the relationship among Learning Propensity, Capabilities and Organisational Learning a System Dynamics approach

In today’s highly turbulent economy and increasingly complex organisational environment, continuous change and improvement becomes an absolute necessity for survival and prosperity. Undoubtedly, effective change and improvement can be greatly facilitated by Organisational Learning. In this way, organisations can reach the so much desired sustainable
competitive advantage. This can be realised by transforming them into Learning Organisations that can efficiently and effectively achieve their goals. It is for this reason that it is important to investigate Organisational Learning and the concepts of Learning Style preference, Learning Source preference and Individual Learning Propensity, Individual Learning Capability, Organisational Learning Capability and Learning Organisation. An awareness of these concepts and their understanding with a thorough study of the effects of their interrelations, give us the know-how on learning practices that lead to organisational effectiveness.
This thesis proposes a model on the interrelationship between Individual Learning Propensity, employees’ Individual Learning Capability and Organisational Learning Capability. Such a model would contribute to the assessment of organisations in their efforts to promote a Learning Culture in organisations and become Learning Organisations.
Based on an extensive Literature review, gaps were identified and a conceptual model worth investigating was developed. Based on the conceptual model a cross sectional study was conducted by administering a survey given to employees of different occupational categories in the hotel industry in Cyprus. The results obtained from the survey were analysed through Exploratory Factor Analysis and the model was validated through Confirmatory Factor Analysis, using the IBM software packages SPSS and AMOS.
Following the above, a System Dynamics (SD) model was developed based on Social Learning Theory and Diffusion Theory. Through an experimental procedure between different scenaria on the diffusion of learning among learners in an organisation, the impact of the timing effects of the constituent parts of Individual Learning Propensity, Individual Learning Capability and Organisational Learning Capability, together with additional parameters such as the Learning Infrastructure is studied.
The results of the study reinforce the view that Learning being a precious commodity, can be obtained by employees at the individual level and transferred among employees’ teams into Organisational Learning. Finally, by residing on the infrastructure of the organisations, Learning can push the organisation to qualify as a Learning Organisation, thus giving to it a competitive advantage against its competitors in the Cypriot economy. According to the results of the study there is evidence to support the view that Learning Style preference, Learning Source preference and Individual Learning Propensity of employees in the Cypriot Hotel Industry, positively affect the Individual Learning Capability of employees which in turn
positively affects the Organisational Learning Capability, thus enabling the organisation to reach the status of a Learning Organisation. Further, by applying and improving important parameters such as the Learning infrastructure and e-Learning applications, the Learning Culture can be promoted.