title: Testing a measure of organizational learning capacity and readiness for transformational change in human services.
abstract: Transformative organizational change requires organizational learning capacity, which we define in terms of (1) internal and (2) external organizational systems alignment, and promoting a culture of learning, including (3) an emphasis on exploration and information, (4) open communication, (5) staff empowerment, and (6) support for professional development. We shortened and adapted Watkins and Marsick's Dimensions of Learning Organizations Questionnaire into a new 16-item Organizational Learning Capacity Scale (OLCS) geared more toward nonprofit organizations. The OLCS and its subscales measuring each of the above 6 dimensions are unusually reliable for their brevity. ANOVAs for the OLCS and subscales clearly and consistently confirmed extensive participant observations and other qualitative data from four nonprofit human service organizations and one local human service funding organization.
authors.affiliation: Center for Community Studies, Peabody College of Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee 37203, USA. Kimberly.d.bess@vanderbilt.edu
authors.forename: Kimberly D
authors.initials: KD
authors.lastname: Bess
authors.forename: Douglas D
authors.initials: DD
authors.lastname: Perkins
authors.forename: Diana L
authors.initials: DL
authors.lastname: McCown
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007858:Learning; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015279:Organizational Culture; D009936:Organizational Innovation; D009939:Organizations, Nonprofit / Q000458:organization & administration*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014481:United States; D055815:Young Adult