Facilitators of organizational learning in design

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to determine the influence of organizational factors such as leadership commitment, incentives and interaction on learning outcomes defined as performance improvement and organizational climate. Design/methodology/approach – Different aspects of knowledge acquisition, sharing and utilization were examined, related to outcomes. Design professionals in Vietnam construction firms were surveyed. The sample was 339 designers. Findings – The impact of leadership commitment was significantly related to both performance and organizational climate. Incentives were only positively correlated with performance and staff interaction was only positive with organizational climate. The paper is supportive of many conceptual studies in the literature. The results show that each of these factors has a different role and impact on the organizational learning process and outcome. Research limitations/implications – The limitations of this study are that the sample comes from only one industry in a developing country, and it uses an attitudinal survey. Replications of this analysis in other research contexts, industries, countries and organizational characteristics would enhance the generalizability of the findings. Practical implications – From the practical perspective managers who would like to facilitate learning in the organization, improve performance and promote a better organizational climate should demonstrate their commitment to learning, provide incentives to use that learning and use a more collaborative approach. Originality/value – This study provides empirical evidence for the importance of leadership commitment, incentives and staff interaction on the process and outcome of organizational learning.