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ABSTRACT
Scholars and practitioners have identified transformational leadership and organizational culture as important factors that influence the development of learning organization. Yet, few studies have empirically examined the impact of transformational leadership and organizational culture on learning organization. This study proposes hypotheses to understand the impact of transformational leadership and organizational culture on the development of learning organization. Data was collected from the pharmaceutical sector and a comparison was drawn between India and Nepal. Results indicate transformational leadership and organizational culture have a positive influence in the development of learning organization. The implication of the findings and possible directions for future research are discussed.
Keywords: Learning Organization, Transformational Leadership, Generative and Adaptive Organizational Culture, Pharmaceutical Sector, India and Nepal.
INTRODUCTION
The concept of Learning Organization has received heightened attention from scholars and others in recent years. As per Jones and Hendry (1994) the term "Learning Organization" seems to have been coined around 1988 by Hayes et. al. in the USA and Pedlar et. al. in the UK but the origin of the word in the literature can be traced back to the 1920s. But the concept attracted much attention in the 1990's when Peter Senge (1994) popularized this concept in his landmark book "The Fifth Discipline."
In this era of competitive pressure, learning organization has gained popularity as the capacity for change and improvement is linked with learning and to obtain and sustain competitive advantage, organizations must enhance their learning capability and must be able to learn better and faster from their successes and failures, from within and from outside (Marquardt, 1996).
The extant literature has identified a number of factors that influence the development of learning organization. Fiol & Lyles (1985) suggest that the organization culture, the strategy, organization structure and the environment in which the organization operates influence the development of learning organization. Caudron (1993), Schien (1993), Garvin (1993), Marquardt (1996) have identified the important role culture plays in creating a learning organization.
Senge (1994) has identified a different role for leaders of learning organization. Similarly, many authors have emphasized the important role leadership plays in the development of the learning organization (Johnson, 1998; Prewitt, 2003; Sadler, 2003). The concept of culture is also one of the major variable and essential...