This study has been carried out to evaluate the influence of environmental and organizational values upon organizational learning in companies of the food industry in the State of Paraná, Brazil. As such this research incorporates cognitive, cultural and institutional aspects into the investigation of the nature of this phenomenon as an articulated process in the social context embracing all organizations. Aiming to differentiate among groups of companies with distinctive institutional contexts of reference, regarding the attributes and values of a constructed learning organization archetype, primary and secondary data were collected and processed by means of cluster and variance analyses. The results indicate that companies who possess institutional reference context at an international level showed higher presence of archetype characteristics, revealing the dynamic of the relationship between the plan of action and institutions, in which organizational learning can be understood as recursively constructed means and results.
organizational change; organizational learning; institutional context; environmental values; organizational values
