title: Organisational Learning at LAMATA -A qualitative case study
Creators: name: Jose, Olurinu
Publisher: name: University of Liverpool Repository
Year: 2019

description: Title of study: Organisational Learning at LAMATA – A qualitative case study of a transport agency in Lagos Nigeria. Background: LAMATA is a semi-autonomous public transport regulatory authority created by law by the Lagos State Government with financial and technical assistance from the World Bank and French Development Agency (AFD) to develop an integrated public transport system for a city of over 18 million residents. Organisational learning was a critical strategy to improve institutional capacity to resolve the intractable messy problem of public transportation in Lagos State. LAMATA over its years of existence has implemented several organisational learning strategies aimed at improving individual and organisational capacity to take effective action. Aims of the study: This case study explores organisational learning strategies and practices at LAMATA to uncover how learning occurs amongst organisational members to understand the behaviors, practices and systems that enable effective workplace learning. Furthermore, the case study also explores context specific organisational learning facilitators and barriers to effective learning. Methodology: The research adopts a qualitative case study approach to gain insights into the experiences of organisational members at LAMATA generated from the accounts of 26 participants representing different levels within the hierarchy and departments. The research also relied on various documentary data that provided a time series of organisational learning practices. Findings: The research findings demonstrate that organisational learning and knowledge are positively influenced by a focused organisational learning strategy, a leadership commitment to learning at all levels and effective human resource management practices. The findings also show that ineffective organisational culture, organisational structure and process of communication were impediments to organisational learning at LAMATA. As a result of its hybridity status, LAMATA is highly influenced by ‘international best practice’ ideology driven by the World Bank in setting the standard for institutional and sectoral reform. This western-led ideology creates a conflict with Nigeria’s prevailing national culture, which is characterised by a high power distance dimension leading members to struggle with organisational identity and process of managing ultimately negatively affecting organisational learning. Implications: The insights gained from the findings provide a basis to generate feasible recommendation within the organisational context to improve the practice of organisational learning at LAMATA from different dimensions of structure, processes and actions. The most profound contribution of this research relates to the impact of national culture on organisational members as they seek to interpret and apply identity and process that conflict with their cultural conditioning. The ability to solving real world problems do not fit nicely into script-driven solutions and processes and a need to recognise the limitations that are driven by the local context of the organisation. Limitations: The case study is not generalizable because of the unique context of the organisations with research findings dependent on the subjective experiences of people within a bonded system and as an interpretive study does not provide objective truth. The research also fell short in completing the action research cycles, as the researcher could not implement the recommendations.