Formal and Informal Facilitators of Learning Capability : The Moderating Effect of Learning Climate

Organizations need to put in practice the most favourable conditions to facilitate learning capability. There are not clear answers about how these facilitators support and develop a learning capability. The different ways of thinking about learning in organizations distinguish two kinds of learning facilitators: formal and informal facilitators. In this paper, we suggest that organizations undertake both types of learning facilitators, but considering that informal facilitators may act as potential moderators of the effects of formal ones. We have focused on one comprehensive informal facilitator, the learning climate, and four formal facilitators: environmental scanning, strategic planning, performance measurement, and information technologies. The proposed hypotheses are tested through the analysis of surveys collected from Spanish Companies and using a structural equation model (SEM). Results show that learning climate may act as a strengthener moderator of the effects of scanning and IT on learning capability. Implications, limitations and future research are discussed