The effect of organizational commitment on organizational learning

Abstract

Although past research has pointed out the importance of the relationship between organizational commitment and organizational learning, there is little consensus regarding how they are influenced by one another. In the present research, we attempted (1) to differentiate two components of organizational learning (i.e., single-loop and double-loop learning) and (2) to figure out the effect of organizational commitment, especially “organizational identification” (one of the two sub-factors of the affective commitment) on each of the two components. We conducted an empirical study using mail survey data randomly sampled in Tokyo. As we predicted, organizational learning behaviors consisted of two discriminating components. We also found that organizational identification had a positive effect on single-loop learning but no significant effect on double-loop learning. Furthermore, emotional attachment to the organization (the other sub-factor of the affective commitment) had no significant effect on organizational learning. The result suggests that organizational identification plays an important role to promote organizational learning, whereas emotional attachment does not.