In 1995 a Federal Government Report, Enterprising Nation: Renewing
Australia?s Managers to Meet the Challenges of the Asia-Pacific Century (Karpin,
1995) was published. One of the key themes of this report was that "The "learning
organisation" will be standard philosophy for many Australian enterprises and a
major way they cope with change and turbulence. Managers will create conditions
conducive to learning for both individuals and the enterprise as a whole, within and
between groups, across individual business units and between enterprises and their
external environments."
There is a dearth of published literature internationally, not only on clubs and
the degree to which they are learning organizations but organizations in general. A
systematic search of the literature identified only one published report in which there
was an in-depth exploration of an organization to determine if it was a learning
organization. Therefore, this study has a dual purpose. Firstly, it provides an in-depth
study of a specific industry; and secondly it helps to fill a knowledge gap in the study
of organizations.
This study has used as its theoretical framework Marquardt?s (2002) learning
organization model to determine the extent to which the characteristics of the learning
organization are perceived to apply to a group of clubs in a regional area of Australia.
The study has used a survey method utilising the Learning Organization Profile (LOP)
questionnaire developed by Marquardt (1996) and validated by Griego, Geroy and
Wright (2000) and interviews with the CEOs and Human Resource Managers from
four clubs. The LOP was distributed to permanent staff working in these clubs
resulting in 36% of the LOPs being returned.
Statistical analysis of the returned LOPs indicated that the clubs had not adopted
the characteristics of the learning organization to any great extent. The clubs divided
into two groups. The perceptions of staff from two clubs were that the clubs had
adopted learning organization characteristics to a minor extent. The perceptions of
staff from the other two clubs was that the two clubs had adopted learning
organization characteristics to a moderate extent. In all cases the pattern of
perceptions of staff represented differences of degree rather than fundamental
differences.
When the data obtained from the managers were examined, managers
perceptions were that the clubs had adopted the characteristics of a learning
organization to a moderate extent. These results compare favourably with the results
of the Byers study (1999), which found that the perceptions of senior managers in
Australian organizations were that the characteristics of a learning organization
applied to a moderate extent. The perceptions of non-managers were that the
characteristics applied to a minor extent. Statistical analysis of the data indicated that
there were no significant differences between managers and non-managers, with the
differences being in the degree rather than there being any fundamental differences.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ADTP/202621 |
| Date | January 2008 |
| Creators | McCaffrey, John, n/a |
| Publisher | University of Canberra. n/a |
| Source Sets | Australiasian Digital Theses Program |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Rights | ), Copyright John McCaffrey |
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