Construct of organizational learning structure model
Research purpose
To further explore the structure of organizational learning of Chinese companies, we conducted a large-scale survey with the 37-item questionnaire finalized after the pre-test, and we analyzed the survey data through multivariate statistical analysis.
Methodology
Subjects
A total of 1800 questionnaires were distributed to 43 companies in nine cities (Beijing, Guangzhou. Qingdao, Shanghai, Jinan, Yantai, Chengdu, Shijiazhuang and Tangshan), and 982 valid questionnaires were recovered, with an effective rate of 55%. A total of 614 questionnaires from 80% of the top 33 companies were randomly selected for exploratory factor analysis. The basic information of the subjects is shown in Table 2.1.
Table 2.1 Basic information of the subjects (N =614)
|
Variable |
Category |
Number |
Percentage |
|
Nature of company |
State-owned companies |
375 |
61.1 |
|
Private companies |
117 |
19.1 |
|
|
Companies in three forms of ventures—Sino-foreign joint ventures, cooperative business and exclusively foreign-funded company |
63 |
10.3 |
|
|
Other |
59 |
9.6 |
|
|
Scale of company |
50-99 |
43 |
7.0 |
|
100-499 |
190 |
30.9 |
|
|
500-999 |
56 |
9.1 |
|
|
1000-1999 |
127 |
20.7 |
|
|
2000-4999 |
62 |
10.1 |
|
|
Above 5000 |
136 |
22.1 |
|
|
Development stage of company |
Start-up |
38 |
6.2 |
|
Growing |
225 |
36.6 |
|
|
Mature |
123 |
20.0 |
|
|
Re-innovation |
228 |
37.1 |
|
|
Position |
General staff |
386 |
62.9 |
|
Front-line managers |
136 |
22.1 |
|
|
Middle-level management |
68 |
11.1 |
|
|
Senior management |
11 |
1.8 |
|
|
None |
13 |
2.1 |
|
|
Level of literacy |
Middle school |
44 |
7.2 |
|
Junior college |
202 |
32.9 |
|
|
Undergraduate college |
304 |
49.5 |
|
|
Master |
48 |
7.8 |
|
|
Doctor |
2 |
0.3 |
|
|
None |
14 |
2.3 |
Measure
The 37-item organizational learning questionnaire was put into use. We use the Likert five-point scale to measure and evaluate the learning behaviors of different levels of companies from "1—completely inconsistent” to "5—completely consistent” in ascending order, which are: "completely inconsistent,” "relatively inconsistent ” “not sure,” "relatively consistent” and "completely consistent” respectively.
Statistical method
We adopted SPSS 10.0 for the explorative factor analysis and other analysis.
Research procedure
All investigations were completed in a relatively concentrated period of time. In some of the investigations, investigators answered specific questions on the spot; proxy investigators were also hired to conduct some investigations, and the procedures and precautions were made clear to them beforehand. It was required that the investigated employees should come from multiple departments at all levels of a company, and an average of 40 employees in each company were interviewed. The respondents did not need to provide their names and company, and only the investigators needed to know the name of the company.
