Phases and Mechanisms of Organizational Learning in a Higher Learning Institute

In a world driven by knowledge, skilled human resources constitute a key success factor for the growth and development of any country. Higher educational institutions, being a major provider and facilitator of human resources having knowledge, skills and abilities, need to be ‘smart’ and ‘intelligent’ institutions that know how to learn and fruitfully integrate appropriate pedagogical practices. Since higher educational institutions are entities designed to create, utilize, retain and disseminate knowledge, the concept of organizational learning needs to be methodologically mapped and studied. The study was conducted at a University with 108 respondents using stratified simple random sampling. A reliable and valid instrument Organizational Learning Diagnostics (OLD) was adopted for data collection. The results indicated that Potential for Learning Index (POLI) was highest at the innovation phase, followed by the implementation phase and then stabilization phase. The mechanism of competency building was highest at the university level, followed by experimentation, and the least score was for temporary systems. Correlations for organizational phases/mechanisms indicated that the greater the use of the mechanisms, the stronger will the learning be, leading to more effectiveness of the innovative programs and strategies at the university level. The Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) results indicated significant differences between demographics and POLI and the phases