Abstract
Purpose. Gaining advantage through learning is a popular strategy in private sector organizations. This study explores the impact of individual learning styles on organizational learning as it applies to gender, education, staff position, and tenure. Specifically, it explores the impact of learning styles on learning organization perceptions of the University of Arizona library staff. Theoretical framework. This study relies on the work of Kolb and others in order to measure the impact of individual learning on organizational learning by measuring the perceptions of Senge's learning organization with respect to individual learning styles. The locus of this study affirms the impact of learning style on learning organization perceptions. Methodology. Organization members completed the Learning Style Inventory to determine individual learning styles and an Organization Design Survey to determine learning organization perceptions. Variables used were gender, education, staff position, and tenure. For this quasi-experimental study, the researcher used basic statistical descriptives (frequencies), analysis of variance (ANOVA), F-test, and t-test of difference for independent samples. Findings. When individuals are considered by learning styles, it is found that (1) learning styles impacted learning organization perceptions although different populations may have different relationships; (2) in the aggregate, the assimilator learning style was the most frequently observed learning style in the original and related research populations; (3) in the aggregate, systems thinking was the most strongly perceived discipline in the original and related research populations; and (4) both organizations accepted the null hypothesis concerning relationships between learning style and gender, education, staff position, and tenure. Conclusions and recommendations. This study showed that individual learning style at the micro level has an impact on organizational learning at the macro level. The results support previous work suggesting relationships between learning style and occupation and organization environment. It also indicates a relationship between organization perceptions and tenure. It is suggested that a better understanding of individual learning styles should be considered when developing strategies for organizational learning.