Online ISSN 1347-4456 Print ISSN 1347-4464

ABAS: Annals ofBusiness Administrative
ScienceVol. 1, No. 2, July 2002

ANDO, Fumie

25

The real relationship between organizational culture and organizational learning

Book Review

HELLER, Daniel A.

35

Probing a 'prepared organization': Reading Takahiro Fujimoto's The Evolution of a
Manufacturing System at Toyota, winner of the 2002 Japan Academy Prize

http://www.gbrc.jp© 2002 Global Business Research CenterAnnals of Business Administrative ScienceVol. 1, No. 2, July 2002

CHIEF EDITOR

Junjiro Shintaku

University of TokyoEDITORIAL BOARD

Makoto Abe
University of Tokyo
Takahiro Fujimoto University of Tokyo
Makoto Kasuya
University of Tokyo
Hotaka Katahira
University of Tokyo
Nobuo Takahashi University of Tokyo
Technical Editor: Maki Nishida, Global Business Research Center

Annals of Business Administrative Science is published quarterly in January, April,
July, and October, by Global Business Research Center, Marunouchi, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo,
JAPAN. http://www.gbrc.jp

Annals of Business Administrative Science Vol.1, No.2 (July 2002)

The Real Relationship Between
Organizational Culture and Organizational Learning
Fumie ANDO
School of Business Administration, Nanzan University
E-mail:fumiea@nanzan-u.ac.jp

Abstract: Many recent efforts argue that organizational culture is the key of excellent
organizational learning. This article discusses the “real” relationship between
organizational culture and organizational learning. By analyzing questionnaire survey
data, it was found that: (1) organizational culture merely had indirect influences overorganizational learning, however, (2) there was a much more important factor inlearning process, that is, a “Navigation Map in the organization.” The Navigation Map
forming is facilitated by the desirable organizational culture: especially theparadoxical culture which succeeds to be balanced between opposite features
simultaneously.
Keyword: organizational learning, navigation map in the organization, paradoxical
culture1. Theoretical Backgroundor factors in realizing successful organizational

During the 1990s, the study of organizational

learning processes.

learning has become one of the hottest topics among

One of the essential factors is organizational

researchers and practitioners (Crossan & Guatto,

culture. A famous researcher in organizational

1996;

Successful

culture, Schein (1984) argues that organizationalorganizational learning can lead organization to theculture is the pattern of basic assumptions thatcompetitive advantage by acquiring new andorganization has developed in learning: Therefore it

necessary knowledge, competences and values.

can give effects to the quality of organizational

Many researchers have examined the key elements

learning. When organization has unsuitable basic

Easterby-Smith,1997).

25

Andosituationsorganizational learning is based on individual“anxiety-avoidance situations”—it is difficult tolearning by organizational member and that eachrealize the radical learning which can lead

member’s learning level is various even if all

innovation. By contrast, when organization is in themembers are under the same organizational culture.

“positive problem-solving situations,” the possibility

Otherwise, there are some cases that organizationalof big success will increase.

members

assumptions—Scheincalled

the

begin

to

behaveactively,

thoughResearchers of organizational learning alsoorganizational culture does not seem to change.

accept that there is a close relationship between

These disproofs suggest that there is no directorganizational learning and organizational culture.

relationship between culture and learning.

Argyris & Schon (1978, 1996) divide organizational

Hypothesis 1: There will be no direct relationshipbetween organizational culture and organizational
learning.

learning processes into two types. One is single-loop
learning that organization detects and corrects errors
so as to maintain the existed theory-in-use. The otherOn the other hand, we cannot ignore theis double-loop learning that organization inquires

accumulated research results that organizational

into the theory-in-use itself. According to them,culture is the key factor in organizational learning.

single-loop learning tends to occur under the O-I

Then, this paper focuses on the third but importantsystem, and double-loop learning tends to appear

element that connects culture and learning. For

under the O-II system. O-I system is very similar to

example, Senge (1990) insists that people actively

Schein’s anxiety-avoidance situation

and O-IIand energetically do learning when there is a force

system is very close to his positive problem-solving

called “creative tension” which is generated bysituation. Nevis, DiBella and Gould (1995) also

keeping both a personal vision and a clear picture ofpoint out that open and supportive climate for trying

current reality. Nevis et al. (1995) indicate thatnew things is one of ten facilitating factors in thehaving shared perception of a gap between actual

successful learning organization. Among academics

and desired state of performance is important for theand practitioners, it seems to reach the consensus

learning organization. People can feel or understandthat the better organizational culture will leadsuch tensions and gaps through both self-reflection

organization to more desirable or higher-leveland open communication with other members

learning processes.

(Argyris, 1994; Argyris & Schon, 1978; Nevis et al.,Now, we must consider whether the relationship

1995; Senge, 1990). In other words, people can do it

between culture and learning is direct or not. Surely,

better under the better organizational culture.

the better organizational culture facilitates active
organizational

learning.

But

we

know

Hypothesis 2: There will be the third element thatconnects
organizational
culture
and

that
26

Organizational Culture and Organizational Learning
challenging new jobs?
C2: Is adopting the corporate culture more
importantthandevelopingyourown
individuality?
C3: Is avoiding failure considered more important
than improving performance through trial anderror?

organizational learning. It will be positive
association with both organizational culture andorganizational learning processes.
In the academic interviews the author had
before, corporate managers often said that theyneeded the person who understood both corporate
vision and his or her actual state as well: who had his

Otherwise, the degree that each organizationalor her own “map” which let the person know where

member actively does learning was measured withto go or what to do. By using managers’ words

three items below:

above,

this

paper

calledthethirdelement

L1: Do you constantly seek improved way of
doing your jobs better than the others?
L2: Do you do your job in the way you wantregardless of the way it was done in the past?
L3: Do you go out of your way to do new jobs
before they are assigned to some sections?

“Navigation Map in the organization” (Ando, 2001).
Like a car navigation system, each Navigation Map
shows each organizational member the informationthat you are here, that your goal is there, and that thisis the path you can reach that goal.

In order to measure the degree that eachorganizational member forms his or her Navigation

2．Method and Measures

Map, this paper also used three items below:

To test these hypotheses, this paper analyzed

M1: As you work on your job, do you continuallykeep in mind the policies of top management?
M2: Are you able to see the desirable shape whichyour company will take in the 21st century?
M3: Are your job targets clearly specified by yoursuperiors?

questionnaire survey data statistically. The survey
which is called Japan Productivity Center survey 99(JPC 99) was conducted to cover four Japanesecompanies from September to October 1999. JPC
surveys were mainly conducted by Professor Nobuo
Takahashi of University of Tokyo almost every year.

The responses were recorded on two-point. If

It is he who has written all items of thisan answer is yes, it was rated at one. On the otherquestionnaire survey. The questionnaires were sent

hand, if an answer is no, it was rated at zero. As C2

to 881 employees in total and 790 respondents send

and C3 were reverse items, yes-answer was rated at

it back. A usable response rate was 89.9 percent.

zero and no-answer was rated at one as for these twoitems.

The degree that organization has desirable

At first, these nine items were assessed byorganizational culture was measured with three items

factor analysis with orthogonal varimax rotation. As

below:

shown in Table 1, this paper can produce a

C1: Is the atmosphere one which welcomes
27

Ando
Table 1. Results of Factor Analysis for Culture, Learning and Navigation Map
Factor 1 (Culture: IDC)

Factor 2 (Learning: IAL)

Factor 3 (Navigation Map: INM)

C1

0.738

-0.007

0.226

C2
C3
L1
L2
L3
M1
M2
M3

0.774
0.710
0.017
-0.0490.193-0.026
0.008
0.351

0.040
0.128
0.734
0.818
0.530
0.144
0.162
-0.0550.018-0.0720.165-0.060
0.184
0.773
0.738
0.477

* The three factors together explain 54% of the variance.
* Loadings over .45 are shown.

Table 2. Pearson Product Moment Correlations and Descriptive Statistics
Variables

Mean

s.d.

1

2

1. IDC (Culture)

0.84

0.65

------------

2. IAL (Learning)

1.21

0.55

0.117**------

3. INM (Navigation Map)

1.08

0.58

0.194***

0.246***(* p<0.05, ** p<0.01, *** p<0.001)

three-factor solution. This solution is consistent withcorrelation matrix and descriptive statistics for thethe idea that is proposed as three measurements

indexes. The correlation between IDC and IAL

above. Then, three items that consist of each of the(0.117) is both positive and significant at thethree factors (organizational culture, learning activity

0.01-level. That is, desirable organizational culturein the organization and Navigation Map forming)

has a positive relationship with organizational

were assessed with principal component analysis bylearning.

turns. In all three factors, each eigenvalue of the first

Although the result is consistent with pastprinciple factor is over 1. Therefore, this paper calledstudiesthese three first principle factors “Index of Desirable

organizational culture, the correlation coefficient

Culture (IDC),” “Index of Actively Learning (IAL) ”

between them is not so high as have been expected.

and “Index of Navigation Map (INM)” by turns. In

Rather, Table 2 shows that the Navigation Map

testing hypotheses above, this paper used these three

Forming has much closer and stronger relationshipindexes.

with organizational learning. In spite of this result,

on

both

organizational

learning

andpast research has insisted that culture is a key of

3. Results

successful organizational learning. To investigate theTable 2 contains the Pearson product moment

causes of this inconsistency, these three factors were28

Organizational Culture and Organizational Learning
Figure 1. Result of Path Analysis of Three Factors
IMN(Navi-Map)
0.194***

0.246***→0.224***IAL

IDL(Culture )0.117**→0.073*（Learning）(* p<0.05, ** p<0.01, *** p<0.001)

4. Paradoxical Culture for Navigationassessed by path analysis.

Map Forming

As a result of path analysis, the outcome wassurprising. As shown in Figure 1, the direct path

As stated above, the desirable organizational culture

from IDC to IAL is not significant at 0.01-levelhas an influence on Navigation Map Forming. In thisthough the correlation between them is significant.

paper, the desirable organizational culture means

On the other hand, the path from IDC to IAL by way

Schein’s positive problem-solving situation, theof INM is still significant at 0.01-level. This result

atmosphere which welcomes challenging new jobs,

shows that organizational culture has an indirect

the organization which encourages its members to

relationship rather than a direct relationship with

develop each personality, and so on. However, whenorganizational learning processes. It also shows that,considering the desirable organizational culture fromas expected, much more important factor ofanother aspect, we may say that it is the paradoxicalorganizational learning is Navigation Map formed byculture. The paradoxical culture is defined as beingorganizational members. In sum, the desirable

successful in fulfilling apparently opposite featuresorganizational

simultaneously,

culturefacilitatesorganizationalforexample,cooperation

andcompetition.

members to form each Navigation Map, and then,the members who have fully-forming Navigation

Both cooperative and competitive culture are

Map can learn actively in the organization.

useful to actively do learning in the organization.

Hypotheses 1 and 2 were supported.

Argyris & Schon (1978) point that win-lose gamebetween organizational members will be serious
obstacles for successful organizational learning. It
means that non-cooperative culture has bad effects
29

Ando
Table 3. The Result of Response to C4 and C5 and Their Coefficients
Response
C4(cooperation)
C5(competition)

Correlation coefficient

Yes

No

IDC

IAL

IMN

C4

605
(76.9%)
128(16.3%)

182(23.1%)
659(83.7%)

0.120***

0.070+

0.189***------

0.193***

0.102**

0.141***

0.095**(+p<0.1, * p<0.05, ** p<0.01, *** p<0.001)

C5: Is there a strong feeling of competition
between employees at your workplace? (Yes/No)

on organizational learning processes. On the other
hand, they mention that moderate competitive

Table 3 shows the result of responses to both

culture is essential to higher-level learning. Nevis etquestionsal. (1995) also state very similar ideas.

and

the

Pearsonproduct

momentAlthough cooperative culture and competition

correlation coefficients between these two items andculture are apparently opposite to each other, somethree factors. As mentioned above, JPC 99 survey

past researches show that cooperative behavior isdata was gathered from Japanese companies.

compatible with competitive one. According to

Therefore, we can consider that Table 3 shows the

Axelrod (1984), when there is a “nice” relationshiptendency of Japanese firms’ answers to some extent.

where one member or group continues to compete

Yes-respondents to C4 (cooperation) is over 70%.

with others while keeping their cooperation, both ofOn the contrary, yes-respondents to C5 (competition)

them can get higher scores.

is less than 20%. These results correspond withimage of Japanese firms. Table 3 also shows that

Taken together, the compatible culture will belearning

both C4 and C5 are almost correlated with three

processes. Moreover, it will be much useful forfactors: IDC, IAL and IMN. As expected, theNavigation Map Forming because the desirable

correlation coefficient between INM and C4 (C5) isorganizational culture has an effect on organizational

higher than the one between IAL and C4 (C5).

learning by way of members’ Navigation Map. In

Because C4 and C5 are positive correlation with IDC,

order to investigate the relationship between thethey may be alternative measurements of IDC.

usefulfor

successfulorganizational

paradoxical culture and Navigation Map, anotherFor the purpose of investigating the effects of

two items on organizational culture, exactly stating,paradoxical culture on Navigation Map Forming,

workplace culture, were used.

this paper divided respondents into four groups
according to responses to C4 and C5: (1) C4-Yes and

C4: Is there a strong feeling of partnership
between employees at your workplace? (Yes/No)

C5-Yes, (2) C4-No and C5-Yes, (3) C4-Yes and30

Organizational Culture and Organizational Learning
Figure 2. The Comparison of INM & IAL Score Between Four Groups
1.4
1.3
1.2
INM
IAL

1.1
1
0.9
0.8
（１）Coop-Y,
Compet-Y（２）Coop-N,
Compet-Y（３）Coop-Y,
Compet-N（４）Coop-N,
Compet-N

C5-No, and (4) C4-No and C5-No. The number ofmodels procedure (GLM) shows that there is noeach group is 110 (14.0%), 18 (2.3%), 495 (62.9%)

statistically significant difference among three

and 164 (20.8%) samples by turns. The number ofgroups except the paradoxical culture group. It is

the third group is the largest. It seems that sample

between the paradoxical culture group and the otherfirms generally have cooperative culture without

ones that there is a significant difference (F=14.29)

competition. The second largest group is the one thatat 0.01-level.
As shown in Figure 2, the paradoxical culture

have neither cooperative culture nor competitive

group succeeds to get the highest score of IAL as

culture.
Each IMN score average of four groups waswell. As the effect of organizational culture on

calculated and compared. It is shown in Figure 2.

organizational learning is indirect, it is weak in

The highest-score group is the first one that consists

comparison with the case of IMN. These resultsof the respondents who have both cooperative andillustrate that the existence of paradoxical culturecompetitive culture simultaneously. This paper

can facilitate organizational members to form theircalled the first group “paradoxical culture group.”

Navigation Map, and can improve organizational

On the other hand, the third and the fourth groups

learning processes actively as a result of it.

that account for over 80% of JPC 99 survey data
could not get high scores. Of the three groups except

5. Discussion

the paradoxical culture group, the third group, which

The main aim of this paper is to discuss the “real”

has only cooperative culture, is the highest. However,relationship between organizational culture andthe result of analyses of variance with general linear

organizational
31

learning.

And

the

principal

Andoimplications of this study are that (1) organizational

paradoxical

culture has not a direct but an indirect influence overFurthermore, studies on charismatic leadership alsoorganizational

thestate that charismatic leader tends to have someconsensus of past studies, and that (2) there is aparadoxical characteristics. For example, they aremuch more important factor for learning processes,

dreamers and realists, or they are daring and prudent

which

persons (Nadler & Tushman, 1989). Further study ofislearning

named

processes“Navigation

against

Map

in

the

features:consensus

anddiversity.

this issue will be needed.

organization.” All the results here show thatdesirable organizational culture has an effect onorganizational learning

processes

Acknowledgement

by way of

Navigation Map.

This research was funded by Pache I-A of Nanzan

In this paper, at first, the desirable culture meant

University. I would like to thank Japan Productivity

just the one which has desirable aspects according toCenter and Prof. Nobuo Takahashi of University of

past studies on organizational learning; for example,

Tokyo for giving me precious data.

a challenging mind, an open-mind, and a positive
atmosphere of problem-solving. However, in the

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Ando

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