Self-assessment application and learning in organizations: A special reference to the ontological dimension

Quality management self-assessment is a powerful tool for management continuous improvement, and it may foster the process of learning in the organization. In this paper, we identify some links between self-assessment and learning. From the analysis of the learning processes at the three ontological levels--individual, group and organizational--and taking the contributions of Crossan et al. (1999) and Kim (1993) as a reference point, we propose a model of organizational learning. This model explicitly recognizes the importance of group level as a link between individual and organizational levels, and it can be employed in order to analyse the effect of self-assessment application at the different ontological levels of learning. By application of this model, we have obtained some outstanding results through the study of three cases of self-assessment implementation. On the one hand, TQM maturity has an important effect on the type of learning. In this way, the more mature in TQM the company is, the higher the single-loop or incremental component of the learning resulting from self-assessment application. Likewise, in the first stage of TQM implementation, the learning resulting from self-assessment application tends to have a higher double-loop component. On the other hand, the level of decentralization in the application of self-assessment has a primary effect on the ontological dimension of learning. In this way, we have found that a high level of centralization may only produce individual or group level learning. However, a decentralized application of self-assessment may facilitate organizational learning, although it is not always so. Thus, decentralization is a necessary, but not sufficient, condition so that organizational learning can take place.