The impact of organizational learning on corporate environmentalism with the moderating effect of industry type

While numerous previous research studies focused on topics on organizational learning and corporate sustainability as separate areas of interest, there is a lack of literature investigating the intersection of those two subjects so far especially in Turkish context. This research study is concerned with the question of how organizations can benefit from organizational learning in their efforts toward sustainable development. More precisely, how organizational learning can help increase environmental awareness of managers and other organizational members in organizations, and what kind of organizational learning mechanisms can facilitate organizations' efforts to shift into more proactive environmental strategies? This study investigates the relationships between organizational learning (OL) and corporate environmentalism (CE) from the perspective of organizational members in business companies in Turkish context. The concept of organizational member covers members of the management at all levels as well as employees and professionals working for the company. OL dimensions are identified as learning stocks and learning flows as proposed by Crossan & Hulland (1997), and CE dimensions are environmental orientation and environmental strategy focus as theorized by Banerjee (1995). This study also investigates the moderation effect of industry type on the relationship between OL and CE in Turkish business context. The research data was gathered by an online survey system. Since the research was conducted in Turkey, the original instruments in English were translated into Turkish. Data were collected from professional organizational members who are actively working in private companies, and who can evaluate their companies' organizational learning and corporate environmentalism practices based on their perceptions. A confirmatory analysis technique was used to evaluate the validity and reliability of the instruments translated into Turkish. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was utilized to analyze the degree of correlation between learning stocks and flows and the dimensions of corporate environmentalism in organizations. SPSS 18.0 and Amos 21.0 were used as statistical tools. This study found that learning stocks and learning flows both had a positive impact on environmental orientation in Turkish corporate setting. However, neither of the organizational learning dimensions, i.e. learning stocks and learning flows, was found to have a significant relationship with environmental strategy focus. But, this study found a significant positive relationship between environmental orientation and environmental strategy focus. Findings of the study also indicated that a positive relationship between learning flows and learning stocks in Turkish context. Another finding of the study was that length of work experience has a significant positive relationship with learning flows. Finally, this study also aimed at testing whether the relationships that were hypothesized in the SEM model are moderated by the industry type -high or moderate environmental impact sector (Banerjee et al., 2003). However, the final results, obtained with the use of structural equation modeling, indicated that no relationship was moderated by industry type in the Turkish context. Based on these results, the study concludes that organizational learning is crucial in raising the environmental awareness of organizational participants and degree of consciousness of companies toward environmental stakeholders in organizations. Furthermore, organizational learning is necessary to motivate companies to follow proactive environmental strategies in Turkish context. The shift into proactive environmental strategy focus requires companies to revise or renew their design processes, products, information and communication systems, and strategies. Since this endeavor requires creative ideas and solutions rather than existing and ready-made ones, management should focus on learning activities that improve their organizational participants' mental models towards sustainability issues, and emphasize shared learning to allow organization members to see the link between environmental issues and their company operations.