Development of a Short-Form Learning Organization Survey

Abstract

Despite urgent need for innovation, adaptation, and change in health care, few tools enable researchers or practitioners to assess the extent to which health care facilities perform as learning organizations or the effects of initiatives that require learning. This study's objective was to develop and test a short-form Learning Organization Survey to fill this gap. The authors applied exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis to data from Veterans Health Administration personnel to derive a short-form survey and then conducted further confirmatory factor analysis and factor invariance testing on additional Veterans Health Administration data to evaluate the short form. Results suggest that a 27-item, 7-factor survey (2 environmental factors, 1 on leadership, and 4 on concrete learning processes and practices) reliably measures key features of organizational learning, allowing researchers to evaluate theoretical propositions about organizational learning, its antecedents, and outcomes and enabling managers to assess and enhance organizations' learning capabilities and performance.

Reducing Hospital Errors: Interventions that Build Safety Culture

“…Organizations may learn from frontline workers' complaints about operational problems (157), briefings and debriefings (161), incident reporting systems (86,150), and mortality and morbidity (M&M) conferences (111). Survey measures also provide organizations with opportunities to assess the extent to which they are learning organizations (139) and learn from reported events (46).…”

Using a Theory-Guided Learning Collaborative Model to Improve Implementation of EBPs in a State Children’s Mental Health System: A Pilot Study

“…At the organizational and systems level, LCs have potential to strengthen social networks and interorganizational learning (Bunger et al, 2014; Nembhard, 2012; Palinkas et al, 2011), leverage the influence of key opinion leaders towards improving the implementation climate for innovative practices (Wilson, Berwick, & Cleary, 2004), and foster a public and tanglible commitment from leadership (Wilson et al, 2004). By establishing mutli-disciplinary, cross-hierarchical teams, LCs may also promote increased team effectiveness (Nembhard, 2009), and can potentially build organizations’ capacity for innovation use and continuous improvement (e.g., using data to drive change and promote accountability) (Nembhard, 2012; Singer, Moore, Meterko, & Williams, 2012). …”

Psychological Safety and Appreciation of Differences in Counselor Training Programs: Examining Religion, Spirituality, and Political Beliefs

“…The statements of each subscale are rated on a 7-point Likert-type scale ranging from 1 (highly inaccurate) to 7 (highly accurate), with higher scores representing perceptions of a safer environment (Psychological Safety) and greater appreciation of differences (Appreciation of Differences). In line with previous researchers (Higgins, Ishimaru, Holcombe, & Fowler, 2012;Singer, Moore, Meterko, & Williams, 2012), we adapted the language of the items to reflect the counseling program as the environment under evaluation (by replacing the word unit with program).…”

“…Researchers have noted the face validity of the LOS and reported that item derivation stemmed from decades of organizational research and a conceptual model; however, the dearth of published psychometrics (e.g., internal consistency) is a limitation (Singer et al, 2012). Higgins et al (2012), however, used three of the five Psychological Safety subscale items among a sample of teachers and found a Cronbach's alpha of .83.…”