Charities, organisational learning and market orientation: A suggested measure of the propensity to behave as a learning organisation

Abstract

Although there exists an extensive literature concerning the factors that facilitate or inhibit organisational learning; scant attention has been devoted to the development of valid and reliable measures of the extents to which organisations actually exhibit propensities to learn. This paper introduces such an instrument (LEONORA ‐ LEarning OrgaNisation ORientAtion indicator) which the author applied to a sample of 291 organisations in a sector (large UK charities) wherein substantial numbers of learning organisations might reasonably be expected to be found. Results indicated that the proposed 26‐item scale is best represented by a factor structure comprising five distinct groupings of variables, involving: market and competitor research; innovation and the ability to accommodate change; teamwork and shared values; information generation and dissemination; and employee training. Overall the findings suggest that charities displaying the essential features of learning organisations have outperformed their rivals over recent years.