In short
A staff survey of how well an organization learns, in seven areas. Use it to judge whether the company can absorb a new way of working.
For whoever runs the assessment: an HR or operations lead, an internal project team, or an outside consultant.
What it measures
The questionnaire describes an organization’s learning culture in seven areas. It asks how far the organization helps its people to learn, to share what they know and to put it to use.
AI changes tasks faster than job descriptions. A company that learns well has a better base for that.
How to use it
- Settle the licence first. See below.
- Ask a broad sample of staff, not managers only.
- Look at the weakest of the seven areas, and start there.
- Do not compare your score with results from another country. That combined study found that national culture changes how the scores relate to results.
What it does not measure
- Anything about AI. It describes the ground AI lands on, not the reaction to AI.
- Individual teams. Results describe the organization. Teams inside it can differ widely.
How it was tested
- A German version with 21 questions was tested on 856 employees of craft companies. The seven areas appeared as expected, and the result was stable across groups of staff.
- A study that combined the results of studies that used the questionnaire found that higher scores go with better organizational performance and more positive staff attitudes. The strength of the link with performance varied with national culture.
A Polish version was published in 2017.
Licence and access
The licence is not established. Write to the authors before you use or translate the questionnaire.
Alternatives
Other assessments with a similar job, and when to prefer each.
- Do people in this team speak up, or stay silent? Composite measure of psychological safety (observation and survey) Prefer it when you want to see behaviour in team meetings, with an open licence. A trained observer and the team’s members · One observed team meeting, plus a 19-question survey Free to use and adapt
- Where do people feel unsafe to speak up: in the organization, the team or one-to-one? Perception of Psychological Safety scale (PPS) Prefer it when you want a short, openly licensed survey of psychological safety. Each employee · 14 questions Free to use and adapt
The details
- Testing
- A 21-question German version was tested on 856 employees and the seven-part structure held. A study that combined the results of many studies found that scores go with better organizational results and staff attitudes.
- Looks at
- Organization
- How the answers are collected
- A survey answered by staff about their organization.
- Length
- 21 questions in the version tested in Germany. The length of other versions is not established.
- Cost
- Not established
- Licence
- Not establishedThe terms for reuse are not established. Ask the authors before you use, translate or adapt the questionnaire.
- Languages
- English, German, Polish
- By
- Marsick and Watkins
Sources
- Kortsch and Kauffeld (2019). Validation of a German Version of the Dimensions of the Learning Organization Questionnaire (DLOQ) in German Craft Companies. Zeitschrift für Arbeits- und Organisationspsychologie A&O. doi:10.1026/0932-4089/a000282
- Ju, Lee, Park and Yoon (2021). A Meta-Analytic Review of the Relationship Between Learning Organization and Organizational Performance and Employee Attitudes: Using the Dimensions of Learning Organization Questionnaire. Human Resource Development Review. doi:10.1177/1534484320987363
Related studies on this site
- Fear of losing a job to AI and the hiding of knowledge Kim and Kim (2024). How artificial intelligence-induced job insecurity shapes knowledge dynamics: the mitigating role of artificial intelligence self-efficacy. Journal of Innovation & Knowledge, 9(4), 100590.
- Shadow learning: how surgical trainees lost their way to learn Beane (2018). Shadow Learning: Building Robotic Surgical Skill When Approved Means Fail. Administrative Science Quarterly, 64(1), 87–123.