| Modern businesses are adopting learning organizational practices as a competitive tool in today's competitive marketplace. Toyota, one of the largest corporations worldwide, has proclaimed itself a learning organization for years. However, while many companies and researchers speak of such organizations and define them in various terms, it is often difficult to reconcile the theoretical constructs with the day-to-day realities in which we work.; This study was designed to examine such a place, literally the place in which I live and work. My goals were to better define the learning organization within a context which had meaning to me and to the organization which my family owns and operates. Our organization is much smaller than the Toyota's of the world, but it has many things in common. In particular, it is an organization made up of many people, all of whom must collaborate, communicate, and interact to create products and services which made available in the marketplace. After seven months of struggling with the IRB about conducting the study at my family's business, I was left with no other alternative than moving the setting of my study. The company targeted for study was similar to ours (both companies are manufacturing companies, both are run by families, and both have 2 geographically separate plants).; An aluminum extrusion manufacturer in Canada was selected for study. Thirty-eight employees representing various levels of the company voluntarily participated in a series of interviews. The interviews were crafted to focus on the learning capabilities and mechanisms used to bring about changes within the company. A total of sixteen multi-part questions were put to the participants. The following research questions were addressed: (1) Within the organizational structure of a small family business, are there differences in the schematic map representations across participant clusters? (2) Among clusters of learners are there motivators that can be identified to encourage the practice of a learning organization? and (3) What are the steps needed to develop a small family business into a learning organization?; The 1102 natural language responses given by the participants were then coded into a total of 24 standard language terms. The lengthy coding process took into account not simply the concepts used, but also the 926 links that were generated between (among) those concepts. Various levels of company personnel were configured into five participant clusters (upper management, middle management, supervisory, support staff, and plant employees). Comparisons were made within the clusters, as well as between the clusters. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)... |
