Organizational design as a learning enabler: A fuzzy-set approach

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Abstract

In the literature on organizational learning, very few empirical studies attempt to show how organizational design can enable or hinder learning in organizations. This study uses a fuzzy-set technique (fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis: fsQCA) as an initial approach to analyzing different design variables and how they affect organizational learning. The results prove that the mechanical structures are suitable for organizational learning, especially in large companies. Furthermore, qualified workers should have autonomy to learn.

Introduction

Even though the processes and outcomes of learning in organizations receive much attention from researchers, the study of organizational design as an enabler of learning requires further investigation. Empirical studies that analyze the design variables aiming to engender learning are uncommon. The objective of this study is to analyze whether the different elements of organizational design, such as complexity, centralization, and formalization influence or enable learning within the organizational environment by using fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA).

Although researchers use a broad variety of statistical techniques, those techniques correspond to two main categories: those using a large sample and those using a much smaller sample. Studies in each category use quantitative or qualitative methods, respectively, whereas few studies use a mixed methodology. Fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) is a relatively recent technique, particularly suitable for studies comprising small to medium-sized sample because of the difficulties in obtaining large samples of firms willing to share relevant internal information.

The study contains the following sections: following the introduction, the first section provides a description of the variables for exploration such as organizational learning, whereas the second section examines the causal conditions that compose the basic elements of organizational design. The third section describes the method for the fuzzy-set analysis (fsQCA), and the study concludes with an interpretation of the results and the subsequent conclusions.

Section snippets

The influence of organizational design on learning

During the last decades, many studies focus on learning. The term “learning” from an organizational perspective refers to the development of the relationship between past events and the efficiency of current and future ones (Fiol & Lyles, 1985). These changes must be long lasting and, as Lyles (1988) highlights, learning is the result of actions and changes in the state of knowledge. Learning in organizations is a collective phenomenon that relates to the acquisition and creation of competences

Empirical analysis

Researchers start using qualitative comparative analysis (QCA) at the end of the 1980s and the start of the 1990s (Berg-Schlosser, De Meur, Rihoux, & Ragin, 2009). QCA is a particularly interesting technique for management analysis where sample sizes are small. This type of technique allows an in-depth analysis of how causal conditions contribute to a particular result and builds on a configurational understanding of how a combination of causes leads to the same series of results, and more

Necessary conditions and functional equivalents

This section shows whether any of the causal conditions is a necessary condition for the outcome. A condition is necessary when the outcome constitutes a subset of the cases of that causal condition (Ragin, C. C., 2006, Schneider, M. R., et al., 2010). To gauge the degree to which observations comply with the strict rule the use of consistency measures is necessary in fsQCA. A consistency score of “1” indicates that the combination of causal conditions complies with the rule in all cases.

Discussion

Learning in organizations occurs more easily in larger-sized firms because of the greater variety of knowledge, procedures, tasks, technologies, and even products or business transactions from which firms can learn. In addition, the typology of problems the organization must solve is much larger, which creates more opportunities for learning. Large firms are often extremely complex, which does not discard the introduction of more transversal coordination mechanisms that can eliminate

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    The authors thank Norat Roig-Tierno, Polytechnic University of Valencia, and Consolación Adame-Sanchez, University of Valencia, for their careful reading and suggestions.

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