Organizational Learning in Agricultural Faculties of Tehran Province

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Abstract

In the current turbulent environment, sustainable organizational success cannot be achieved without considering organizational learning. Due to the global pressures, higher education institutions including agriculture colleges should turn to learning organizations to face the challenges ahead. Hence, the purpose of this descriptive correlational study is to investigate organizational learning and the influential factors in agricultural faculties in the province of Tehran. The statistical population consisted of 100 faculty members in College of Agriculture and Natural Resources of Tehran University, Abureyhan University College of Agriculture, Colleges of Agriculture of Tarbiat Moddares University and Shahed University. To collect data, a questionnaire was developed and pre tested. The validity of the instrument was confirmed by experts and its reliability was assessed through Cronbach’s Alpha. Results revealed that with respect to all contextual factors (i.e. shared vision, systematic thinking, organization learning culture, flexible organizational structure, personal and professional development, and transformational leadership) and process factor (organizational learning) the current status and the moderate/average level differ significantly. The results of correlation analysis showed that there exists a positive correlation between organizational learning and all of the contextual factors. The results of multiple regressions revealed that three contextual factors i.e. transformational leadership, systematic thinking, and flexible organizational structure play the most significant role in explaining the organizational learning variance, respectively.

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