Organizational learning and performance improvement in civil engineering design firms

Learning rapidly and competently has become a pre-eminent strategy for improving organizational performance in the new knowledge era. Improving dynamic learning capability is an exclusive strategy for corporate success in construction industry. Thus engineering design firms should implement OL to accomplish a state of readiness for change and develop a competence to respond and identify future business potentials. This study aims to analyze the relationship between organizational learning (OL) and performance improvement (PI) in civil engineering design firms of Turkish construction industry. OL structure in engineering design firms incorporates five constructs: organizational environment, strategy development and implementation, supportive leadership, leveraging knowledge, and learning capability. The empirical data was collected through a questionnaire survey conducted to engineering design firms registered to the Turkish Chamber of Civil Engineers. The hypothesized model relationships were tested using Structural Equation Modeling (SEM). The results show that each of the variables has a different role and significant positive impact on the OL process and organizational PI. The variables “Supportive leadership” and “Learning capability” proved to be strongly significant and positively related to organizational performance in engineering design firms. In engineering design firms, supportive leadership is needed in order to establish a participative cultural environment that helps design a new form of organization which emphasizes learning, flexibility, and rapid response. Learning capability is the potential to explore and exploit knowledge through learning flows that make possible the development, evolution and use of knowledge stocks enacting engineering design firms and their members to add value to the design business.