Abstract / Excerpt:

This research investigated the success factors of a learning organization focused on government hospitals in Thailand in terms of learning environment, participation in policy making, empowerment, leadership and organizational structure, learning strategy with the group, individual learning, use of information, and links with the external environment in relation to organizational competitive advantage. It further explored and analyzed the relationships between these factors and level of competitive advantage of hospitals in Thailand with respect to: efficiency, quality, innovation and customer responsiveness. Using questionnaire, the data were collected from members of 45 government hospitals in Bangkok. The results turned out to confirm that all 6 groups of factors could help government hospitals in Bangkok become a learning organization. There is a significant relationship between the success factors of a learning organization and competitive advantage in terms of efficiency, quality, innovation, and customer responsiveness. But somehow, the hospitals have less extent on "Links with external environment because their members share ideas and information only within their teams. They do not have much sharing with customers, suppliers and competitors. Moreover, their members do not take action on collecting useful information from outside the hospitals as part of their job. They don't keep their employees sufficiently informed about external developments. They possessed most of the factors of learning organization specifically on "learning strategy with group", "empowerment", and "use of information". This study also reveals that the different cultures of THai people are not affected by developing learning organization in hospitals and elsewhere since they still penalize and blame their employees for mistakes and give little reward for members' efforts.

This is confirmed in the literature cited that in Thai culture, there is punishment, thereby the employees are afraid to give their opinions or voluntarily share their skills. Learning organizations could help the government hospitals in Bangkok to gain competitive advantage. There is a significant relationship between the success factors of a learning organization and competitive advantage in terms of efficiency, quality, innovation, and customer responsiveness.

Info

Source Institution	Ateneo de Davao University
Unit	Business and Governance
Authors	Samerjai, Chattayaporn.
Page Count	146
Place of Publication	Davao City
Original Publication Date	March 1, 2005
Tags	Dissertations, Management, Organizational Change, Organizational Effectiveness

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