Improving Organizational Productivity through Improved Learning Transfer, Organizational Learning and Organizational Culture

AINDRILA CHATTERJEE

The focus of my research is on the intangible factors that can improve organizational productivity by studying some of the factors that can affect the output elasticity of labor. It is seen from existing literature that two of the most important factors that impact productivity are organizational culture and human resource management (HRM) practices. My research tries to bring the two aspects together by focusing on a particular aspect of HRM practice, organizational learning (emphasizing on learning transfer) and organizational culture and their interplay on organizational performance.

I build on the following streams of existing literature:

• The Socialization-Externalization-Combination-Internalization (SECI) model of knowledge creation

• Learning Transfer System Inventory (LTSI) which is an instrument which diagnoses the factors affecting transfer of learning.

• Competing Values Framework (CVF) which is used to understand organizational culture and measure it using an instrument called Organizational Culture Assessment Instrument (OCAI)

I study learning transfer, its association with knowledge creation and how it is impacted by organizational culture. I also study the impact organizational culture has on improving productivity through efficiency and finally what needs to go into designing a robust OL&D framework that can improve and impact productivity.

I conclude that learning transfer, organizational learning and organizational culture impact productivity. In today’s highly dynamic environment, it is important to have a nuanced understanding about the intangible influencers of organizational performance for organizations to have competitive advantage. Profitability is caused by both effectiveness and efficiency. I focus on the efficiency aspect and show how some of the intangible factors can be moderated to increase efficiency and subsequently productivity. Schematically, it can be represented as shown in Figure 1.