Organisational Learning in Public and Private Educational Institutes: Views of Teaching and Non-teaching Staff

Abstract

This study was aimed at assessment of the extent to which the public sector organizations are responding to the challenges to stiff competition resulting due to globalization. The assessment of their learning potential and mechanisms adopted by them for the target of continuous improvement in all spheres of activity would indicate whether they are responding to the need of the present times and making the necessary changes in their structure and organizational culture for gearing the system towards optimum productivity. Literature reveals fewer such studies in educational sector. Therefore a comparative study of Organizational Learning in Public and Private Educational organizations was undertaken. Both public and private National Technological Institutes of repute were covered in the study. The organizational variables such as year of establishment, accreditation and affiliation, status (Deemed University), infrastructure and facilities, faculty and student strength, Industry Interface, Placement and so on were matched while selecting the Institutes for the study. Both groups - teaching and non-teaching employees constituted the sample of the study. A total of 320 respondents constituted the sample with 40 members from each group. The Learning Organization Process Survey (Pareek, 2002) was the tool used for data collection. Results indicated that the nature and extent of organizational learning was significantly different in public and private organizations. Nature of staff, i.e. whether teaching or non-teaching, was not found to be a significant factor so far as perception of extent of organizational learning was concerned. However, qualitative