Learning through hard times

Organizational learning is an increasingly important aspect for organizations working in a globalised and rapidly changing environment. Several shocks can originate from the outside and organizations should be ready to immediately adapt to the new conditions. Together with the financial crisis, Euroscepticism can be considered as one of the major shocks which has concerned the European Union in the last decades. The implications of the Eurosceptic phenomenon are several. Nevertheless, the external environment is not only a dangerous habitat. It is also a rich source of knowledge and information, hence a very precious contribution to the learning process. So, what happens in terms of learning when the external environment becomes hostile to the organization? This research assesses what influence Euroscepticism has in terms of organizational learning on the European Commission. The theoretical model applied was elaborated by Kools and Stoll (2016) on schools as learning organizations and identifies 7 dimensions of the learning organization. An adaptation of the survey created by the OECD (2018) has been distributed and completed by 45 Directorates General’s staff members with the aim to test the model employed and to assess staff’s perception of the impact of Euroscepticism on their organization’s learning process. Data originating from this source have been analysed through a mixed-method approach; in fact, both quantitative and qualitative data have been gathered and analysed. The purpose of the analysis is descriptive. The findings of the analysis show that, on the one hand, the model used, originally employed for schools as learning organizations, proves to be applicable to the case. On the other hand, Euroscepticism is not perceived to have a great impact on none of the 7 dimensions of the learning organization which constitute the model. However, with two of them, the relationship is “moderate”, contrarily to the rest of the dimensions which are perceived to have a “limited” relationship with Euroscepticism. Consequently, the influence of Euroscepticism on the EC as a learning organization is verified only for two of the 7 dimensions. This research opens new avenues for both theory and research in the direction of a more in-depth study of the organizational learning dynamics of European institutions and for the elaboration of more precise theories and models that explain their interactions with the external environment.