The Relationship Between Learning Organization Practices and Performance of Private Companies in Dubai

Organizational learning is a principal tool in achieving long-term survival and sustainable competitive advantage of an enterprise. There is considerable debate regarding the importance of organizational learning and its impact on the performance and competitive advantage of the organization. The purpose of this research is to study the relationship of the various learning organization concepts practices and their correlation to performance in private companies in Dubai. In this study, we used a survey research design, with the organization as the unit of analysis. In the study, we used a convenience sample of private companies based in the Emirate of Dubai, UAE. The target population was managers at all levels: general management, operations, administration, human resources, marketing sales, and technical head. In this study we obtained 155 (N) respondents in the final sample with complete data. Measuring learning orientation has been framed in the literature by constructs described by Watkins and Marsick (1993; 1999). The learning orientation and dimensions were measured using the scale (Dimensions of the Learning Organization Questionnaire-DLOQ) originally designed by Watkins and Marsick (1999). Based on the findings, we can conclude that there is positive correlation between the majority of the dimensions of the learning organization and performance in private companies in Dubai with respect to the Learning Organization Dimensions which we measured using the DLOQ