Influential Factors in Organizational Member Learning : Empirical Study of Organizations in Thailand

Abstract

This research attempts to determine the direct influential effect a change project has on the learning outcomes of organizational members. The cognitive change of organizational members can be classified as their cognitive understanding of a change project (the What of change) and cognitive understanding of the change implementation process (the How of change) . On the other hand, their behavioral change is viewed straightforwardly as the cooperative behavior exhibited during a change project. In this study, the possible influential factors are derived from the organizational learning and change management literature and the empirical analysis is based on primary data obtained from a questionnaire survey administered to the employees of four large corporations in Thailand. The results reveal that if employees believe that a change project will have adverse impacts on them, the negative perception may strongly hinder their cognitive understanding of the What part of the change project and slightly inhibit cooperative behavior. On the other hand, the perception of a positive impact induces cooperative behavior and both the abovementioned aspects of cognitive understanding among the employees to a similar degree. In addition, awareness of the necessity of organizational learning positively influences the understanding of the What of change and strongly induces behavioral learning among organizational members.