Perception of learning culture, concerns about the innovation, and their influence on use of an on-going innovation in the Malaysian public sector

The purpose of this study was to determine the relationship between organizational members' perception of learning culture and concerns about the innovation, and the influence of these factors on their use of one innovation (ISO 9000) in the Malaysian public sector.;Watkins & Marsick's (1993, 1996) Dimensions of the Learning Organization Questionnaire was used to measure the learning culture. Hall & Hord's (1987) Stages of Concern Questionnaire was used to determine individuals' concerns about the innovation. The "Use of the innovation" construct was developed based on Hall & Hord's concept of Level of Use. A Bahasa Melayu version of these instruments was validated and is available for future research. The context of the study was Malaysian public sector organizations that had implemented ISO 9000, an international quality certification system. It involved 628 people from 11 government agencies.;The study found that perception of learning culture had a greater explanatory power (R2 = 31.5) than did concerns about the innovation (R 2 = 10.6). Together these two sets of variables explained 36.3% of the variance in use of the innovation. The study found that people at the "self" stages of concern reported lower levels of use of the innovation than did people at the "impact" stages of concern. It also found that concerns about the innovation differed by organizational hierarchy. People at higher levels in the organizations were more concerned about the impact of the innovation on the organization whereas people at the lower levels were more concerned about themselves.;This study tested the proposed model across the 11 organizations. On an individual organizational basis, the regression analyses showed that the model was able to explain the variance in use of the innovation (adjusted R2 ranged from .282 to .855). However, a comparison of regression weights across the organizations showed that the combination of variables that explained the use of innovation varied radically from organization to organization. This calls attention to the fact that while one can conceive and test models of organizational change, one cannot make generalizations based on studies of single organizations or case studies. Theories that try to relate variables to explain organizational innovation implementation should be tested across organizations and must take into account organizational context. Otherwise, they could lead to inaccurate conclusions.