Group learning climate and behaviors

Abstract

There is increased recognition by the organizations of the need to restructure work around teams, thus providing opportunities for members to learn from colleagues through dialogue and discussion. In this study, our purpose was to define and to operationalize the group learning climate (GLC) as a predictor of the group learning behavior. We defined and operationalized GLC as a second order latent variable with seven dimensions, in order to obtain content validity, both convergent and discriminant. We tested this hypothesis with a sample of 217 workers who work as a team in an organization that develops software and provides training courses in software use. The structural equation modeling showed that the GLC has a strong correlation with the group learning behavior. Thus, the promotion of the GLC requires that the team realize that they have: management support; enough time to do the work and learn; control over organizational events; the possibility to initiate action and make decisions; opportunities to learn from experts; easy access to information and written guidelines, and a general feeling of satisfaction with the workplace.

Keywords:
Group learning climate; Group learning behavior; Structural equation modeling; Common method bias