The Association of organizational learning with environment, and organizational performance: Research on perceptions of hotel managers

THE ASSOCIATION OF ORGANIZATIONAL LEARNING WITH ENVIRONMENT,AND ORGANIZATIONAL PERFORMANCE: RESEARCH ON PERCEPTIONS OFHOTEL MANAGERSABSTRACTA growing body of theoretical and empirical literature suggests that an organization?sability to survive in the constantly changing environment depends largely on its ability tolearn. A number of authors specifically accentuate organizational learning as the source ofcompetitive advantage.This dissertation sought to extend the understanding about the relationship betweenorganizational learning and environment on one hand, and the relationship betweenorganizational learning and organizational performance on the other. The main researchquestion of the dissertation is simply: `Why organizations learn at different levels??. In thisregard, the dissertation reviews past literature, suggests hypotheses, develops measures to testhypotheses, and conducts a field research to validate the relations anticipated by hypotheses.Drawing upon existing literature it is possible to suggest that environment isconceptualized as a factor that triggers learning in organizations. Organizational learning isalso posited to be associated with organizational performance and treated as a variable thathas positive effects on performance. However, very few empirical research on therelationships between organizational learning, environmet and performance has beenconducted.The literature review presented in the first two sections of the study includes subjects asorganizational learning and learning organization concepts, learning styles of organizations,organizational learning process, measurement of organizational learning, organizationallearning and senior managers; environment, environmental dimensions, measurement ofenvironmental perceptions, relation between organizational learning and environment;organizational performance of hotel firms and the impact of organizational learning onperformance.A survey with a sample frame including top management team members of hotel firmswas conducted in five star hotels in Antalya region. A self-reported questionnaire wascanvassed to senior managers of hotels and 106 usable questionnaires returned. Thequestionnaire was designed to measure the managerial perceptions relating to four differentresearch variables. These were the complexity of external environment, the dynamism ofexternal environment, organizational learning capacity of firms, and organizationalperformance of firms, respectively.Two perspectives were adopted for statistical evaluation of the data collected throughsurvey. According to the first perspective, the individual perceptions of managers are treatedas unit of analysis. Within the the first perspective t tests, one-way analysis of variance,Pearson Product Moment Correlation, and linear regression analyses were employed to testthe hypotheses of research. First four hypotheses are related to the relationship betweenenvironmental perceptions of managers and organizational learning, and the last hypothesisconcerns the relation between organizational learning and organizational performance. Theresults of analyses support all these five hypotheses at the unit of analysis of managerialperceptions. More specifically, it was identified that organizational learning is associated withboth perceptions of environmental complexity and dynamism. Additionally, it is also revealedthat perception of the state of environment (simple and stable, simple but dynamic, complexbut stable, complex and dynamic) impacts organizational learning, and organizationallearning influences performance positively.In respect of the second perspective, the unit of analysis is individual hotel firms andnon-parametric tests including Mann Witney U and Kruskal Wallis are utilized to testresearch hypotheses. The results of these analyses indicate that only the first hypothesis whichconcerns the relationship between environmental complexity and organizational learning, andthe fifth hypothesis which associates organizational learning with organizational performanceare statistically significant. However, the second hypothesis that relates environmentaldynamism and organizational learning, and the third and fourth hypotheses claiming that thestate of environment impacts learning in the context of organizations are not supported by theresults of statistical analyses.Understanding about the relationship between organizational learning and environmenton one hand, and organizational learning and performance on the other is accomplished bythis study. More specifically, it may be claimed that this study had three contributions to therelated literature. First, the findings suggested that external environment can be treated as avariable that triggers organizational learning. Second, the study supported the idea thatorganizational learning is a factor that positively impacts performance, and to monitor theperformance of hotel firms a balanced approach that involves both financial and non-financialperformance indicators should be adopted. Finally, it introduced three valid and reliable scalesthat measure managerial perceptions relating to environmental complexity and dynamism,organizational learning, and organizational performance of hotel firms. In accordance with theinsights gained trough the research it is suggested for further research that in the context ofhotel firms organizational learning may be associated with the profiles of firms, and in thecontext of different industries the relations among organizational learning, environmentalperceptions, and organizational performance may be scrutinized. Thus, further research iswarranted to advance the understanding gained through this study both in the theoretical andpractical perspectives.