Organizational Learning Process in Slovenian, Croatian, and Malaysian Companies

In our contribution we aim to test differences in the way companies learn in Slovenia, Croatia, and Malaysia. We used the Organizational learning measurement instrument developed and tested by Dimovski (1994), Skerlavaj (2003), Dimovski and Skerlavaj (2005). It employs three measurement variables (Information acquisition, Information interpretation, and Behavioural and cognitive changes) as well as 38 items (presented in the paper) to measure the Organizational learning construct. In autumn 2005, data from 203 Slovenian, 202 Croatian, and 300 Malaysian companies were gathered. Results indicate that companies in all three countries under scrutiny are closest in terms of behavioural and cognitive changes, meaning that globalization and other challenges of the modern business environment demand all of them to change and adapt quickly. However, the ways they are coping with those challenges are different. Generally speaking, there are more similarities than dissimilarities between Slovenia and Croatia, while this is not the case when comparing both countries to Malaysia. When acquiring information, Slovenian and Croatian companies rely more on internal sources (own employees, past decisions, etc.), while Malaysian companies tend to rely more on external sources and more often have employees dedicated to searching for external information. When trying to interpret the information acquired, Slovenian and Croatian companies rely more on personal contacts, informal team meetings, and believe that information given to subordinates must be simple and concise, while Malaysian companies tend to use more formal collective decision-making and written communication to understand the meaning of information.