The Relationship Between the Learning Organization Concept and Firms’ Financial Performance: An Empirical Assessment (Ellinger, Ellinger, Yang, Howton

This is a great, down-to-earth article!
It made me to consider again: what are my goals for the participants in my classes? is my objective to equip them to perform their jobs well or is it something much greater? in order to keep fostering their learning I must keep validating the effect on the bottom line.

It is so important because how HR affects the bottom line via performance is crucial to so much more than just job security. People choose HR as a profession usually because they care about people, want to make a difference, enjoy learning.
Yet some of those same skills that make accountants great (meticulousness, ability to affect the bottom line) are needed to validate the outcome of HR.

Watkins and Marsick’s Dimensions of the Learning Organization Questionnaire (DLOQ)
is an instrument with 7 dimensions representing the 7 action imperatives. The DLOQ asks respondents for perceptual assessments of various measures associated with financial performance and knowledge performance.


The seven complementary action imperatives are:
Create continuous learning opportunities
Promote inquiry and dialogue
Encourage collaboration and team learning
Establish systems to capture and share learning
Empower people toward a collective vision
Connect the organization to its environment
Use leaders who model and support learning at the individual, team and organizational levels

3 leverage points emphasized by Watkins & Marsick:
systems-level, continuous learning; 2) that is created in order to create and manage knowledge outcomes; 3) which lead to improvement in the organization’s performance, and ultimately its value, as measured through both financial assets and non-financial intellectual capital.

A major research challenge is to establish the relationships between characteristics of the learning organization and organizational performance.

The theoretical framework guiding this research was the Watkins & Marsick concept;
A learning organization learns continuously and transforms itself.

This exploratory research “suggests” a positive association