PHWP: Abstract Detail: Learning to perform? A comparison of learning practices and organizational performance in profit- and non-profit-making sectors in the UK

This article compares different employee learning practices that are implemented in for-profit organizations as compared to non-profit organizations, and then demonstrates relationships to multiple organizational performance outcomes. The study relies on data collected in the UK from 368 organizations using telephone interviews of senior training staff. The results suggest that non-profit organizations rely more on individual-learning practices, though the two groups did not differ in terms of the reliance on team learning, strategic needs analysis, or evaluation practices. The results also indicated that individual-learning practices demonstrated a stronger relationship to organizational performance in non-profit organizations, whereas team-learning practices demonstrated a stronger relationship with performance in for-profit organizations. Furthermore, overall, learning practices accounted for more variance in performance in the non-profit organizations than in the for-profit organizations.

Birdi, K. S., Patterson, M. G., Wood, S. J. (2007). Learning to perform? A comparison of learning practices and organizational performance in profit- and non-profit-making sectors in the UK. International Journal of Training and Development, 11, 265-281.