ORGANIZATIONAL LEARNING AND ORGANIZATIONAL PERFORMANCE IN THE NIGERIAN BANKING SECTOR

ABSTRACT

The current study investigated organizational learning and organizational performance in banking sector. The research effort was based mainly at ascertaining the extent at which the seven dimension of organizational learning as proposed by Watkins and Marsick (1993), impacted on performance within the banking sector. More so, it attempt to identify what specific dimension have the most impact on performance. The res was guided by seven research questions and seven hypothesis in line with the seven dimensions of organizational learning. A descriptive statistics was employed with the utilization of and administration of structured questionnaire. The questionnaire was partly adapted from the “dimensions of the Learning organization questionnaire" (DLOQ) developed by Santos and Yammarino (2004); and the reliability was statistically tested via the Cronbach's Alpha with a resultant value >7 in all the dimensions measured. The study population comprised staffs and employees of selected commercial banks within the Benin metropolis. A sample of 398 respondents were randomly selected from a population of 95,888 via the taro yamanes’s sample size determination formulae; of which only a 318 questionnaire of all 398 distributed was retrieved and used for the analysis. Data obtained in the study were analyzed using simple frequency, percentage and descriptive mean; while the linear regression model and bivirate correlation were utilized in testing the stated hypothesis, via Spss version 21. Findings in the study revealed among other things that a strong and positive relationship exists between organizational learning and organizational performance in banking sectors. More so, the regression output indicated varying degree of relationship among all seven dimensions of organizational learning. Inquiry and dialogue, team learning, and empowerment and collaboration were found to be significant predictors of organizational performance among the dimensions (p-value <5). The study thus concluded that; organizational learning is vital to a firm’s growth and survival in a highly competitive business environment fraught with diverse uncertainties. Hence, it was suggested amongst others that organizations should prioritize the development of a culture that values and promotes continuous learning at all levels; while also prioritizing the development of key dimensions of organizational learning that were identified as having the most significant impact on performance.