Strategic Leadership and Systems Connection as Key Predictors of Learning Organization Outcomes: Evidence from Saudi Arabian Nursing Education

The current research examined how nursing schools in Saudi Arabia operate as learning organizations (LOs). The Dimensions of Learning Organization Questionnaire (DLOQ) was administered to 208 participants to measure and examine the seven LO dimensions and their interrelation. The research aimed to predict overall LO performance and assess the variations across different demographic groups. Strategic leadership (SL; β = 0.694) and systems connection (SC; β = 0.128) are the sole primary predictors of total learning outcome that achieved statistical significance (R2 = 0.429; p < 0.001). The other five dimensions were subordinate outcomes, as their inclusion in the model did not cause a significant variance addition (ΔR2 = 0.022, p = 0.129), which suggests the absence of independent predictive capacity in the presence of the primary predictors. Finally, the analysis confirmed that the organization perceives its learning culture uniformly with no significant differences across demographic groups (all p > 0.05). Among the dimensions examined, SL and SC emerged as the strongest predictors of overall LO performance. The remaining five dimensions stand as low-level outputs, with no potential for working effectively on their own. The limited contribution of these dimensions may largely be attributed to statistical factors, such as multicollinearity or model specification. Thus, to maximize learning potential in Saudi nursing schools, the strategic development of SL and SC is necessary.