Organisational Learning and Real Estate Performance

Dramatic change and new competitive demands pose both threats and challenges for real estate businesses. The role of the real estate professional is becoming increasingly complex. As steward of the transaction, the role of the agent and indirectly that of the salesperson can be at once facilitator, negotiator, image creator, graphic designer, financial and property management consultant ñ all new skills added to the age old selling skills of qualifying and closing. In todayís real estate businesses successful individuals realise the need to keep learning and growing in order to deliver a quality service. Just as important as individual learning however is organisational learning ñ learning at the level of the business unit as a whole. This paper questions whether competitive advantage in a changing environment can best be achieved through facilitating organisational learning. It asks; are learning and success linked? A sample of real estate franchise offices operating in the greater Auckland area was selected and the score of each office on 11 learning company criteria (Pedlar et al 1997) was recorded on a newly developed framework - The Effective Learning Zone. This exploratory research was underpinned by the findings of a questionnaire, which was adapted to suit the New Zealand real estate environment. Data collected was analysed using the SPSS statistical programme. In-depth interview techniques were also used to overlay the quantitative data with quantitative, anecdotal evidence of organisational learning in action.