Universities as Learning Organizations: A Case Study

Abstract

Universities are considered crucial in dissemination of knowledge and information and play a significant role in generation of human capital. Over the years, universities are forced to develop as centres of excellence while catering to the needs of its employees, students and society at large. A university can become a driving force provided it fulfils the aspirations of its stakeholders by adopting innovative techniques and strategies in its processes, structure and importantly in its academic and administrative functioning. It calls for continuous innovation and development in managing change and in facing complex nature of global academic environment. Keeping this in view, the present paper is an attempt to assess the employee perception towards organizational learning practices prevailing in sample select institution namely, the University of Kashmir. The present study targeted 100 teaching personnel from five faculties or schools of the university. Simple random sampling technique was adopted to gather information from the respondents. The data collected were analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics. Results of the study revealed that employees perceived a favourable attitude towards their organizational learning practices. The findings of the study also revealed that female teaching staff had shown more satisfaction level regarding organizational learning as compared to male teaching staff. On the basis of the research findings, it is stressed that learning organization practices prevailing in sample study institution need to be further enriched and improved, which would help in developing a sound and effective academic institution.

Keywords: Learning Organization, Universities, Academic Departments

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