My first focus was to collect data that reflected the facets of a learning organisation. I looked for instances that specifically displayed data related to certain themes and then identified other themes that emerged through data collection, some of which I then explored in interviews. The specific themes were behaviours that were associated with the five learning disciplines of personal mastery, mental models, building shared vision, team learning and systems thinking.
Other themes that were identified as being important were the role of leadership and organisational culture. Sub-themes emerged from the specific themes, for example related to organisational culture, trust and induction emerged as themes; in identifying learning taking place, the type of learning/theory was also identified. The research instruments that were used to gather data for this research question were naturalistic observations, document analysis, questionnaires, and interviews as discussed in Chapter Five.
5 Race of staff members reflect terms used in BBB-EE Act: staff that are Indian, Coloured (Mixed Race)
6.3.1 Observations
I began data collection with observations in order to ‘case the joint’, allow staff to get used to my presence in the environment and for me as researcher to gain an understanding of the culture and how staff interacted and functioned together. These observations took place initially in the open office space and afterwards I observed various meetings. I started with the observations after the staff meeting during which the managing director introduced me to the staff. I collected company documentation while commencing observations.
I observed meetings which served various purposes. I noted behaviours that reflected the learning disciplines, as well as additional themes, in these meetings and in the open office area.
The different types of meetings that I observed were:
• Project meetings – these were held for a project team to plan the way forward for the project; determine and agree on next steps; and allocate work for the next meeting.
These meetings took place frequently on an ad hoc basis determined by the project delivery date and the progress made. The project leader would lead these meetings. The nature of the meetings tended to be collaborative irrespective of the project and the leader. These meetings were held in the boardroom or in one of the meeting rooms.
• Operations meetings – the purpose of these meetings was for the project leader to give feedback to the managing director (who had a dual role of operations director) in terms of progress made towards project deliverables. The director would also provide input concerning the project and team issues. These meetings were generally an hour long and took place in the managing director’s office.
• Staff training – these sessions were held when needed to update existing staff and train new/contract staff on the company methodology concerning the project that they were involved in. These sessions generally lasted two to three hours and were conducted in the boardroom.
• Staff meetings – these meetings were generally held on the second Friday of each month and included addressing office issues, financial updates on company performance, and an information/knowledge sharing session, followed by lunch. These meetings were scheduled in the boardroom from 10h00 to 13h00.
6.3.2 Document analysis
The documentation that I collected and analysed was the company profile, performance appraisals, business and marketing strategy, consulting methodology, and policy statements.
Each document served a different purpose: the company profile was a neatly presented marketing document that was sent to prospective clients; the performance appraisals were a one-page document with different fields used internally for directors/managers to conduct appraisals on a quarterly basis; the business and marketing strategy was an internal document drafted by the directors and shared with the rest of the staff; the consulting methodology was an internal document that was used for training staff, both new and contract staff as they joined the company; and the policy statement was a one-page document on knowledge harvesting and documentation. Each document had a different focus and intention and so it was to be expected that the emphasis placed in the documents would vary. However, in analysing the documentation, I identified phrases relating to the disciplines of a learning organisation, as well as other themes relevant to a learning organisation, such as leadership and sustainability.
6.3.3 Questionnaires
I emailed questionnaires to all staff and ten of the seventeen staff members completed them. The questionnaires were structured with categories related to the learning disciplines and included a general section that covered information concerning the organisational culture and leadership.
The questionnaire consisted of closed and open questions.
Closed questions
The questionnaires included a count for the closed questions and the different categories in order to identify a correlation between the counts and the learning disciplines. Respondents were requested to select a count for the responses as follows:
1 = Strongly agree 2 = Agree
3 = Neither agree nor disagree 4 = Disagree
5 = Strongly disagree
I counted the responses to the various categories and calculated the average of these categories for each respondent. Some statements in the questionnaire were worded in the negative voice (namely statements 11.1; 11.2; 12.1; 12.2; 12.3; 65; 91; 97; 113), that is, the way that these statements were worded indicated the opposite of what should take place in a learning organisation and as such, responses that reflect the appropriate practise of the discipline should
score a ‘disagree’ response, rather than an ‘agree’ response to these statements. The responses to these statements were noted in order to highlight any emerging issues.
Open questions
The open questions were structured according to categories of the learning disciplines and general questions relating to organisational culture and leadership. Themes emerged from the questions and I grouped responses according to these themes which were based on the members’ perceptions of their behaviours and beliefs concerning their company as a learning organisation.
The demographics of the staff who completed the questionnaire are as follows:
Table 6.4: Demographics of questionnaire respondents
Questionnaire respondent
Age Gender Race Length of time with company
Role
A 30-34 Female White 7 years Manager
B 40-44 Male White 7 years + Director
C 25-29 Female White 2-3 years Consultant
D 50+ Male White Less than 2 years Consultant
E 25-29 Female White Less than 2 years Consultant
F 25-29 Female White Less than 2 years Consultant
G 25-29 Female Black 6 months-1 year Administrator
H 20-24 Female White 6 mths-1 year Intern
I 40-44 Female White Less than 6 months Consultant
J 35-39 Female White Less than 6 months Consultant
6.3.4 Interviews
Interviews with the crew were the next port-of-call for gathering data. This interaction with the crew assisted with providing further insights.
I conducted interviews after I had received the questionnaires and collated responses. I interviewed six staff – a director, two managers, two consultants and an intern. Three of the staff had completed the questionnaires while three had not (a manager, a consultant and the intern). I specifically selected the three staff members who had not completed the questionnaire in order to gain the views of more staff in the company.
Various themes emerged through the initial interviews and these were used as a guide for subsequent interviews in order to be systematic in data collection, as discussed in Chapter Five.
The themes that guided the interview, related to the first research question included leadership;
organisational culture; learning organisation and the sub-themes that emerged through observations, namely trust and induction.