This study aims to examine the effectiveness of human resource management (HRM) department as a facilitator of organizational learning by exploring the effect of employee perceptions and attributions of the HRM department as a facilitator of individual learning from failure and knowledge sharing among employees in a professional organizational setting.
Qualitative data was collected through structured interviews with employees from the human resources (HR) and non-HR departments of several Canadian hospitals and observations from a site visit to one of the hospitals. The data was examined using thematic analysis.
The study reveals critical role of employees’ perceptions of the learning facilitator for meaningful engagement with learning from failure and knowledge sharing, and negative attribution of the HR department as a learning facilitator. The study finds that, to be an effective learning facilitator, the HR department must find creative ways to support individual and organizational learning from failures.
The study is based in the North American context and on a small sample of participants.
To organize effective organizational learning processes in professional organizations, the HR department must ensure employees’ positive attributions of the HR department or delegate the leadership of learning initiatives to departments that can build positive rapport with employees.
This study draws attention to challenges with HR department leadership of individual and organizational learning from failure in professional organizations.
