Learning organization characteristics in deployed military units

In order to be successful, research suggests that organizations must be able to adapt to their environment. One approach for achieving this is for an organization to become what is called a Learning Organization. The approach, and underlying theory, has been adapted to different organizational settings, but while the characteristics of Learning Organizations have been studied in many areas, there have been relatively few studies on these characteristics in the context of the military. More specifically, there has been little effort to investigate whether deployed military units function as Learning Organizations. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the characteristics of a Learning Organization in this context and to consider the impact of these characteristics and leadership style on mission success. To pilot test the approach for the larger study, a series of interviews and three focus groups were conducted with members of the Belgian Armed Forces who had recently participated in one or more deployed missions. In addition, each participant was also asked to complete a questionnaire adapted from the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (MLQ) and Dimensions of the Learning Organization Questionnaire (DLOQ). The results and implications are discussed and a basic framework of these relationships is proposed.