The relationship between learning organization and organizational effectiveness in Allameh Tabatabai University

Dissertation for Master's Degree in Educational Management

Abstract

The present research was conducted with the purpose of determining the relationship between the learning organization and organizational effectiveness in Allameh Tabatabai University in 2013-2014 using the correlation method. The statistical population of this research is all the administrative staff of the faculties of literature, economics, management, psychology and educational sciences, law and political sciences and social sciences, which is a total of 303 people. The statistical sample of the present study was obtained based on Morgan's table of 170 people. In this research, proportional stratified sampling method was used. Research information was obtained by using two questionnaires of the learning organization of Vick and Leon and organizational effectiveness made by Hoy and his colleagues. The reliability of both questionnaires was calculated based on Cronbach's alpha formula of 0.94 and 0.87 respectively. Pearson's correlation test, stepwise multiple regression and one-way analysis of variance were used to analyze the data. The results of the Pearson correlation test showed that there is a positive and significant relationship between the learning organization and organizational effectiveness. Also, based on the step-by-step multiple regression test, it was determined that among the five components of the learning organization, three components of innovation, implementation, and program are able to predict the variable of organizational effectiveness, and the results of the one-way analysis of variance test showed that there is no significant difference between different faculties in terms of the dimension of the learning organization, but there is a difference between the different faculties in terms of the attitude of employees towards organizational effectiveness.

Keywords: learning organization, organizational effectiveness, innovation, university.

Introduction

"Today's managers are experiencing a period in which the real capital of organizations is knowledge and intelligence. In our era, other organizations are not proud of their abundance of production, financial reserves and increased human resources, but the growth of organizations is dependent on their intelligent capital and knowledge. The basis of wealth creation in today's economy is knowledge and expertise. The future heralds a revolution that will be driven by Human thoughts originate. Undoubtedly, the present age is the age of organizations, and the custodians of these organizations are humans, who, by having at their disposal the greatest source of power, which is thinking, can create the causes of excellence, movement and growth of organizations. In today's fast-paced environment full of evolution and competition, what leads to the competitive advantage of organizations is quality, creative and dynamic human resources. Therefore, in today's era, knowledge-based human resources are considered as the most important capability of the organization in gaining competitive advantage as well as the main intangible assets, and employees should be considered as the golden key to improve the quality and productivity of all organizational processes" (Tabarsa and Ahdian, 2016). Managing organizations today is a very complex matter and the solutions that were used to manage organizations in the past have lost their effectiveness in the current knowledge-based economy century (Liao et al. colleagues [1], 2010) as Peter Drucker claimed in the book "Managing the Future" that "now knowledge is the key" and knowledge is the main source of competition for individuals and in general for the organization (Daneshfard and Bahramzadeh, 2015). The possibility of achieving strategic management capability in the 21st century is for organizations that have understood that their survival depends on the ability to capture intelligence, cleverness, and intelligence, transfer it to usable knowledge, and quickly disseminate it at organizational levels (Sharifzadeh, 2007). Meanwhile, the model of learning organizations is suitable for organizations that seek to rationalize organizational structures and processes in order to accelerate the responsiveness, effectiveness and efficiency of management (Qorbanizadeh and Mashbaki, 2015). For the first time in the journal of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, in an article titled "Transformation of Organizations", this scientific restructuring was called the learning organization (Abkanar, 2016). The learning organization is the best structure in a world where change and transformation are increasing day by day and all organizations are on the verge of globalization. This type of organization teaches its employees to learn how to learn to perform best as creative elements in the face of change. In fact, in these types of organizations, human resources are considered as the most important assets and key elements of the organization, and people are the focus of attention and importance. This type of structure is one of the effective approaches and mechanisms in organizations, especially educational organizations, including universities.Educational organizations are the mother of other organizations and a vital institution in the development process of any country. Universities play an important role in training specialized human resources for other organizations and are responsible for the transfer of cultural, social, unity and social cohesion in the society. Therefore, compared to other organizations, this organization is more exposed to the sensitivity and judgment of the society, and it can only respond to the needs and expectations of the society and adapt itself to environmental changes when the university becomes a learner.

Statement of the problem

Today, the rapid changes and transformations of environmental factors have increased the level of complexity and ambiguity, and the continued successful existence of organizations has faced serious challenges. In such a situation, organizations must learn to operate successfully in an environment full of permanent mergers, rapid technological developments, extensive social changes, and increasing competition in order to increase organizational capabilities (Garvin [2], 2000). The first trend affecting management is the increasing growth of changes caused by global competition. Organizations need to adapt more quickly to new conditions in order to do things in a great way. The second trend is the fundamental change in organizational technology. Traditional organizations were designed in such a way that they could use technology based on mechanical devices, in which case they could use physical resources with high efficiency, the environmental factor was stable and stable, and they had mass production. But new organizations operate based on modern knowledge, and this means that they must be planned in such a way that they can use new ideas and information, and the employees become experts in one of the basic fields. Instead of trying to increase efficiency, each member of the organization must continuously learn new things and be able to identify and solve problems in their field and territory (Daft[3], translated by Parsaian and Arabi, 2013). In 1990, Peter Sange's book called The Fifth Principle: The Art and Practice of the Learning Organization brought up and introduced the issue of organizational learning and the learning organization in an impressive way, to the extent that organizations turned their eyes and perspectives towards this nascent debate. Managers paid special attention to this modern method to expand their organizations and referred to it as a strategy or the so-called "magic solution" (Riblo and Gomes [5], 2008). The learning organization is a highly effective and competitive organization, because it has the ability to produce new products and gather experience well, so it is creative and can transfer knowledge to solve problems quickly (Geh [6], 2003).  There is no method for sustainable organizational success without organizational learning, therefore creating a learning organization is the first and most important strategic measure to achieve high organizational quality and excellence in Iranian companies, organizations and institutions (Sengeh et al., translated by Akbari and Soltani, 2015). So it seems that organizations need to provide a space in order to become a learning organization in order to have organizational effectiveness. Therefore, striving for organizational effectiveness is a common feature of all organizations (Hall[7], 2016). Contemporary management scholars often emphasize the effectiveness that is created by acquiring, developing and applying new knowledge and believe that the acquisition of new knowledge depends on how organizations evolve and leadership activities and adapt to changing organizational conditions (Elrich and Brookbank[8], 2005). Research shows that universities are institutions that have special opportunities to match the ideas and activities of the learning organization (Hodkinson [9], 2006). A review of researches and researches conducted in organizational and academic environments shows that researches have been conducted in the field of learning organization and it shows that learning organizations, compared to other organizations, have a greater ability to deal with changes (Sebahanijad et al., 2015). But in fact, the evidence indicates that there is no research that directly shows the relationship between the learning organization and its role in organizational effectiveness in universities. On the other hand, with great accuracy in the conducted researches, we can see that there is a possibility of a relationship between the above two variables.