ARTICLE INFO

Article Type

Original Research

Authors

Rahimi   H. (*)






(*) Education Department, Human Sciences Faculty, Kashan University, Kashan, Iran

Correspondence

Article History

Received:  May  10, 2013
Accepted:  July 29, 2013
ePublished:  July 17, 2014

BRIEF TEXT


… [1-3] In an entrepreneur university, a motive for economic development is formed by scientific entrepreneurship, leading the university to the global marketing competitions [4]. Personal mastery, mental patterns, shared vision, team learning, and systematic thinking have been proposed as five main characteristics of the learning organizations [5]. Through entrepreneurial characteristics including ‘need for achievement’, ‘need for independence’, ‘risk taking’, ‘internal locus of control’, ‘creativity’, and ‘tolerance of ambiguity’, a university can be transformed to a learning organization. Entrepreneurship is considered as the main factor in economic development; and an entrepreneur is characterized as a person with initiative and thought, producing opportunities with her creativity, risk-taking, intelligence, ideas, and insight. ‘Need for achievement’ is willingness to work at the highest standards to success in the competitive situations. Persons with ‘internal locus of control’ believe that uncontrollable external events do not determine their future. ‘Need for independence’ is defined as working for herself. ‘Risk taking’ means to accept the risks, which can be obstructed by personal efforts or is probability to receive reward due to suggested achievements which is considered before exposure to messages from failure. ‘Ambiguity tolerance’ means to accept uncertainty as a part of life. ‘Creativity’ is the ability to form a new phenomenon, defined as psychological processes through which new products have come into existence [6].

Some previous studies on entrepreneurship and universities as learning organizations have evaluated the effects of obstructions against organizational entrepreneurship in the universities [7] and the correlations between entrepreneurial attitudes on the one hand and university and learning organization factors on the other hand [8-11], proposing the need for change and evolution in structural, management, and cultural characteristics of the universities to become entrepreneurial universities [12]. Some researchers, have found direct or positive and significant correlation between capabilities and entrepreneurship ability in persons [15, 21], that is emphasized entrepreneurship as learning procedure [13, 20, 22] with a preferred chart and sequence of items and courses [14] which enhances the students’ skills such as creativity and team working [18], assessing the learning organizations helpful in growth and development of the personnel [16]. … [17] It has been shown that entrepreneurial training is does not coordinate the students’ expectations with skill acquisition and the understanding of entrepreneurship concept level is still low among people.

The aim of this study was to investigate the correlation between entrepreneurial characteristics and the parameters of the learning organization at Kashan University, Iran.

This is a descriptive correlational study.

The faculty members of Kashan University were studied in 2011-12 academic year.

Using stratified random sampling method (proportional to the size), 98 persons were selected as samples through Cochran’s formula. The estimated sample size was 98 persons. 95 questionnaires were returned. As the return rate of the questionnaires was 0.97, statistical analysis was done on 95 subjects, with P Value computed after primary analysis and its adequacy estimated 0.8 through the test power.

Based on the 5-point Likert’s scale, the learning organization closed-ended questionnaire (containing 37 items) and the entrepreneurial characteristics questionnaire (containing 47 items) were used to collect data. To evaluate validity of the questionnaires, content, formal, and structure validities were used. To evaluate formal and content validity, the questionnaires was given to the 10 Management and Psychology professors, then the necessary corrections were done on the questionnaires based on their viewpoints. According to the Bartlett and KMO=0.71 teats, the sample size was sufficient and there were desired factors in the population. The results of factor analysis of the entrepreneurial questionnaire were confirmed, in which 0.77 of variance of the questions were extracted. According to Bartlett and KMO=0.8 teats, the sample size was sufficient and there were desired factors in the population. Cronbach’s Alpha coefficient was used to determine reliability of each questionnaire. Using SPSS 18 software, data were analyzed by descriptive statistics (frequency, percentage, and statistical mean) and deductive statistics (Pearson Correlation Coefficient, linear regression, One-sample T test, and One-way ANOVA). Pearson Correlation Coefficient, One-sample T test, and One-way ANOVA were used to evaluate the correlation between the entrepreneurial characteristics and the learning organization to compare the mean value of every entrepreneurial characteristic, and to evaluate the mean value of every entrepreneurial characteristic based on the demographic characteristics including employment status, field of study, sex, and academic rank, respectively. The linear regression was used to evaluate the effects of entrepreneurial aspects on foundation of a learning organization from faculty members’ viewpoints.

75 persons (78.9%) and 20 persons (21.1%) were male and female, respectively. Engineering and technical disciplines (37 persons; 38.9%) had maximum number and the fine art discipline (6 persons; 6.3%) had minimum number. The faculty members with contract employment status (42 persons; 44.2%) were more than faculty members with certain and experimental official employment status. The highest number of samples (68 persons; 71.6%) were assistant professors. The mean value of entrepreneurial characteristics in Kashan University was more than average level. The greater and the smaller mean values were of ‘need for achievement’ and ‘ambiguity tolerance’ characteristics, respectively. There was positive and significant correlation between all the entrepreneurial characteristics and learning organization. The maximum correlation was observed between ‘ambiguity tolerance’ and the learning organization, while the minimum correlation was seen between ‘internal locus of control’ and the learning organization (Table 1). There was positive and significant difference between the mean values of the entrepreneurial characteristics based on the employment status, field of study, and sex. Nevertheless, there was no such difference based on the academic rank. There was positive and significant difference between the faculty members’ viewpoints to achieve the components of the learning organization based on sex and academic rank. However, the difference was not significant based on employment status and field of study (Table 2). From Kashan faculty members’ viewpoints, all components of entrepreneurship, i.e. ‘need for achievement’ (27%), ‘internal locus of control’ (18%), ‘need for independence’ (35%), ‘ambiguity tolerance’ (44%), ‘creativity’ (21%), and ‘risk taking’ (30%) were capable of predicting the learning organization.

The results showed a positive and significant correlation between entrepreneurship and learning organization which are consistent with the results of some other studies [9, 13, 21, 20]. In addition, the results of the present study are consistent with the results of another study [16] regarding positive and significant correlation between ‘need for independence’ and the learning organization. Considering positive and significant correlation between ‘creativity’ and the learning organization, results of the present study are consistent with the results of some other studies [10, 11, 18]. Results of the present study, showed a positive and significant difference between entrepreneurship mean values of the faculty members based on the academic rank while declaring such difference as insignificant based on sex, field of study, and employment status which are inconsistent with the results of another study [11]. … [23]

It is suggested that managers and administrators of higher education institutions and universities respect faculty members’ opinions to set the goals, planning and educational decision-making.

Using only the self-assessment questionnaires (to evaluate the variables), limiting the sample size to the faculty members of Kashan University, and sectional collection and assessment of data, were of the limitations of the present study.

From the Kashan University faculty members’ viewpoints, there is a direct correlation between entrepreneurial characteristics including ‘need for achievement’, ‘need for independence’, ‘risk taking’, ‘ambiguity tolerance’, ‘creativity’, and ‘internal locus of control’, and learning organization.

The researcher feels grateful to all the managements and faculty members of Kashan University.

Non-declared

All procedures were approved by Kashan University.

Non-declared

TABLES and CHARTS

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