Quality success: do organisational learning attributes make a difference?

The purpose of the study is to investigate the learning attributes of organisations following a continuous improvement approach to operations. The focus will be on the examination of organisations with both successful and unsuccessful quality programs to identify organisational learning attributes that discriminate the organisations at either end of the success continuum. Data was collected through a survey sent to Australian organisations certified to quality standard ISO9000. The findings suggest that organisations that have a quality program that has exceeded expectations have been able to develop and encourage the attributes necessary for a learning organisation. It would appear that learning has been an important lever for these organisations to succeed in the quality endeavours. The findings of the study provides further empirical evidence of the role organisational learning has in improving organisational outcomes especially in relation to quality practices.