Organisational learning style, competencies and learning systems in small,UK manufacturing firms

Organisational learning is increasingly being mentioned in the literature a s a mechanism for assisting the market performance of smad firms. There exi sts, however, limited empirical evidence on either the benefits conferred b y organisational learning and the learning systems utilised to manage the p rocess. A survey of small UK manufacturing firms was undertaken to acquire data on whether a relationship exists between learning style and the compet encies exhibited by organisations. The survey also sought to determine the nature of learning systems used by small manufacturing firms. The results s uggest that as firms move from a lower-level to a higher-level learning sty le, this is accompanied by competence enhancement that can contribute to im proving organisational capability. It also appears that a higher-level lear ning style is accompanied by the adoption of a more formalised learning sys tem inside the organisation. The implications of these findings are discuss ed and proposals presented on the needs for further research.