The Relationship Between Learning Organization and Job Satisfaction: Case Study of Palestinian Municipalities

This study aims to test the relationship between learning organization and job satisfaction from the perspective of the staff of Tulkarem Municipality – Palestine. The study uses seven independent variables: continuous learning, inquiry and dialog, team learning, embedded system, empowerment, system connection, strategic leadership, and their effect on job satisfaction. the study uses a survey in regards to test the hypotheses and answer the study questions, as this kind of data collations are more convenient from others methods. The findings from multiple regression tests show there is a statistically significant impact of strategic leadership and continuous learning on job satisfaction. The recommendations are that managers could build programs and systems to encourage learning at all levels.


Introduction
Given the enormous scale of the advancement of information technology, globalization, and the many challenges facing organizations, it was the responsibility of companies to look for new strategies and effective management methods to tackle these challenges (Daryani et al, 2014). The most significant of these modern concepts is the idea of learning organizations, which in turn promotes new concepts and aspects such as collaborative thinking, shared vision, strategic leadership (Watkins and Marsick's,1997) which in turn reflects on the organization's intellectual capital, which in turn is the most important elements of growth, which plays an important role in the organization's success (Razali et al, 2013;Lim, 2010). The local municipalities, through the services they provide to citizens, which are increasing in quantity and quality because of technological progress and increasing population, need to periodically evaluate performance for development, modernization, and error correction. The organization's success is inevitably related to the quality of the human element, which in effect is influenced by many emotional and organizational variables that impact its performance positively or negatively.
The importance of this study emerges from the importance of the concept of the learning organization as being a determinant of the success of organizations as an important source of the value of the organization as well as one of the most important variables related to the study of behavior, which is among the most important factors that help organizations achieve their goals, accomplish their tasks, enhance creativity, trust between management and the workers, so this study seeks to clarify and understand the nature of the relationship between the learning organization in the institution under study and the job satisfaction of its employees.
Therefore, the aim of this study is to find the relationship between learning organization and job satisfaction in Palestinian municipalities, this study will focus on Tulkarm Municipality -as a case study-in regarding to answer the study question and testify the hypothesis, thus find the relationship between learning organization and job satisfaction.

Job satisfaction
One of the most important outcomes of work centered on individual organizational well-being is job satisfaction, which is a key factor in influencing success, competition, and organizational performance (Dekoulou, & Trivellas,2015). Briefly can know job satisfaction is the degree of employee love for his job, and more deeply is the employee's emotional responses to his job based on the difference between desired and actual results (Razali et al, 2013). Job satisfaction is very important for individuals, groups, and therefore the entire organization because individuals who are satisfied with their work in institutions generally have mental and physical health and a better standard of living that enables them to do their jobs better than others. After all, they have motivations to work European Journal of Business and Management www.iiste.org ISSN 2222-1905(Paper) ISSN 2222-2839(Online) Vol.13, No.20, 2021 that support them to work harder (Erdem, et al, 2014). Research results have typically shown that job satisfaction influences the ability of individuals to support their colleagues and business partners, their actions in their willingness to cooperate and engage in various forms to sustain organized frameworks regulating the work environment (Dirani, 2009).
The main objective of (Ellickson, 2002) study was to test the relative impact of environmental and demographic variables on the variance in job satisfaction for municipal government employees serving the Midwest region in the United States, the findings of the study showed clearly that demographic variables relatively poor in job satisfaction predictors, on the other hand, environmental factors such as promotional opportunities, satisfaction with pay and benefits, satisfaction with performance assessment, resources & equipment, training, workload, supervisory relationships, and most importantly, departmental corps spirit were significantly and positively related to overall job satisfaction. (Castillo & Cano, 2004) these study aimed to describe the amount of variance in overall level of job satisfaction for faculty members at the College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences at The Ohio State University, the study found there is job satisfaction among faculty members in general, noting that the rate of female satisfaction is lower than that of males. However, the results indicate that the most motivating factors for faculty members are "the job itself" and "working conditions" are the least motivating factors. Finally, the study for (Masum, et al, 2015) that aimed to know the factors that contribute to increasing or limiting job satisfaction. The study was conducted on a sample of academics working in private universities in Bangladesh. According to the results of the study, the most important factors affecting job satisfaction for academics were the compensation package, job security, and working conditions. The researchers recommended that university administration should focus on several issues that would enhance job satisfaction for academics such as training, financial benefits, infrastructure, fair evaluation, flexible work rules, and creating a supportive organizational culture.

Learning organization and job satisfaction
When researching famous scientific sites such as Scopus, Google scholar you find many studies dealing with the subject of the learning organization and many studies also deal with the concept of job satisfaction but find few studies linking the concept of a learning organization with the concept of job satisfaction. (Khalib et al, 2015) this study aimed at developing a conceptual framework for organizational learning capabilities or organizational learning based on its review of several previous kinds of literature. Four independent variables were identified (organizational culture, leadership, dialogue, and participative decision-making); while the dependent variable is job satisfaction, the study concluded that practitioners should consider working conditions such as organizational learning capability and its dimensions when seeking to improve employee satisfaction. Studies for (Erdem, et al, 2014 ;Razali et al, 2013) aimed to study a relation between learning organization and job satisfaction, both studies were conducted on a sample of educational institutions , the first study sample was the primary school teachers in the province of Van in Turkey, used Senge's dimensions, but the second study was a sample of lecturers from several public universities in Malaysia used Watkins and Marsick's dimensions, both of which used the questionnaire tool to collect data, the results of both studies showed a positive correlation between learning organization and job satisfaction , to shed more light on the results of the two studies, the study of (Erdem, et al, 2014) clearly showed that the shared vision was first variable and the team learning second variable as significant independent variables predicted teachers' job satisfaction, other independent variables as dimensions of learning organizations; 'personal mastery', 'mental models' and, 'system thinking' were not significant predictors of teachers' job satisfaction, on the other hand the results for study (Razali et al, 2013) showed clearly that the strategic leadership was the most significant predictor of overall job satisfaction, followed by the continuous learning environment connection , encourage collaboration , and team learning, but the promote dialogue & inquiry ,and embedded system was not significantly correlated to overall job satisfaction.
Other quantitative studies focused on the relationship between the job satisfaction variable and the learning organization variable but with the addition of another variable to their study as the organizational commitment variable, (Lim, 2010) study in one Korean private organization and (Dirani, 2009), in the Lebanese banking sector, both studies adopted the seven dimensions of the learning organization((continuous learning opportunities, inquiry &dialog, team learning, empowerment, embedded system, system connection, leadership ). The results of a study (Lim, 2010) showed the culture of learning organizations is related to job satisfaction moderately and positively; also organizational commitment was found to be moderately and positively related to the culture of the learning organization and job satisfaction, except continuing commitment, among the most important implications of this study is that managers could build programs and systems that encourage learning at all levels within the organization (individuals, groups, the organization as a whole); in addition to that, they could motivate, and encourage employees towards learning within the organization to improve job satisfaction and organizational commitment. On the other hand, (Dirani, 2009) study results indicated a strong relationship between the study's three variables, also the study recommended the necessity of enhancing the dimensions of the learning organization inside the bank, which has a positive role in the satisfaction and performance of employees; also the study European Journal of Business and Management www.iiste.org ISSN 2222-1905(Paper) ISSN 2222-2839(Online) Vol.13, No.20, 2021 emphasized the importance of the participation process, which is achieved by responding to the needs of employees and enabling them and working with them together towards learning.
Finally, the study of (Dekoulou, & Trivellas, 2015) aimed to examine the relationship between learning organization, job satisfaction, and individual performance also findings have shown that learning-oriented activity is a primary indicator of both job satisfaction and individual performance for workers, while job satisfaction has proven to be a mediator of the relationship between learning organization and job performance, the study concluded that the Greek advertising companies should encourage employees at all levels for creativity, innovation and allow them to express their opinions and ideas. Also, the study recommended that these companies should also remain in strong contact with their work environment by achieving the welfare of employees taking into consideration Customer opinions and market trends in organizational and administrative processes, and enhance understanding, learning, and thinking with a global vision.

Research methodology 3.1 Data collection and Variables Definition:
The study chose a random sample from 150 responses were selected for Tulkarm Municipality employees as a focusing organization to find the relationship between learning organization and job satisfaction. The first part of the questionnaire consisted of demographic data, about gender, age, education, and experience. The second part of the questionnaire consisted of 47 items, associated with the study variables. Each item was measured on a fivepoint Likert scale beginning from Strongly Agree (1) to Strongly Disagree (5). we were used SPSS to analyze all data in this study. Cronbach Alpha was used to confirm the reliability of Likert scale items. Multiple regressions were used to assess the study hypotheses. Therefore, for confirmation of the study hypotheses, Learning is designed to enable people to learn at work; opportunities for ongoing education and growth are provided (Watkins & Marsick 2003).

Continuous Learning Opportunities (CLO)
People are open enough to express their views and can hear and examine others ' views; culture is changed to encourage interrogation, feedback, and experimentation (Watkins & Marsick 2003).

Inquiry &Dialog (IAD)
Groups are used in designing work to reach different forms of thinking (Watkins & Marsick 2003).
Team Learning & Collaboration (TL) achieving the exchange of learning with work is done by establishing and integrating low and high technology systems and then providing access to them, maintaining them (Watkins & Marsick 2003).

Embedded system (ES)
The people are involved in creating, owning, and carrying out a common vision; accountability is spread close to decision making so that people can learn what to do (Watkins & Marsick 2003).

Empowerment (Em)
The learning organization is based on a close relationship between the organization and various social, economic, religious, political, and technical powers (Lim, 2010).

System Connection (SC)
Watkins and Marsick (2003) stated that "Leaders model, champion, and support learning; leadership uses learning strategically for business results."

Strategic leadership (SL)
The degree of employee love for his job, and more deeply is the employee's emotional responses to his job based on the difference between desired and actual results (Razali et al, 2013).

Questionnaire design:
We developed a questionnaire to examine the relationship between organizational learning and job satisfaction from the perspective of the staff of Tulkarem Municipality -Palestine. A questionnaire developed by previous researchers with acceptable reliability and validity indicators was reviewed. In our research was translated the questionnaire from English to Arabic, and the questionnaire was distributed to the staff of Tulkarem Municipality carefully.

The Characteristics Description:
The study sample consisted of (133) employees of Tulkarm municipality, table (2) shows the distribution of the sample depending on the personal variables.  (4), we can note that the experience variable, the highest percentage reached (36.8%) for (15-20years), but the lowest percentage reached (15.8) for (1-5years).

Testing the Reliability and Normality:
This section presents the reliability and normality distribution analysis for the questionnaire, as an appendix (A) shows that the Cronbach's Alpha is 0.953, which indicates the reliability results, is accepted. Furthermore, appendix (B) presents the normality distributions analysis by using the Kolmogorov -Smirnov Z, which applied to dependent and independent variables to revealed normality, curve normality are display. (p) Value for each variable more than sig. level (0.05), this indicates to normality distribution for variables data, the following table shows that.

Scale Correction:
Formed questionnaire final form of (47) paragraph, where the study used Likert scale to include fivesome to gauge the views of the study sample members, was given strongly agree (5), Agree (4), Neutral (3), Disagree (2), Strongly Disagree (1). Further, used signal (√) in front of the answer, which reflect the degree of consent, it has also been relying on the following classification of the rule on the averages as follows: -Less than the 2.33 Low.  3.1368) for Embedded System by medium agreement degree, but the lowest for Continues Learning, by medium agreement degree (means 2.5263). The total means for all learning organization dimensions was (2.91) to medium agreement level. Furthermore, appendix (C) presents descriptive statistics for job satisfaction total means for the job satisfaction variable was (2.92) to medium agreement level.

The Hypotheses Testing
To test these Hypotheses, and to detect the relationship between organizational learning and job satisfaction from the perspective of the staff of Tulkarem Municipality -Palestine, the (Liner Regressions) analysis was used, the following tables clear that: European Journal of Business and Management www.iiste.org ISSN 2222-1905(Paper) ISSN 2222-2839(Online) Vol.13, No.20, 2021 69 The regression equation was significant with the independent variables accounting for about 64.6% of the total variance (R2 = .466, p=.000). It meant 64% in variation in the job satisfaction has been explained by the dimension of a learning organization. Of all seven variables, strategic leadership with value (p = .000) was the most significant predictor of overall job satisfaction, followed by continuous learning (p= .046). Therefore, the hypothesis number 1 and 7 were accepted. On the other hand inquiry & dialogue (p=.522), team learning (p=0.493), empowerment (p=.443), system connection (p=.405), establishing system (p=.263), were not significantly correlated to overall job satisfaction. Therefore, the hypothesis number 2, 3, 4,5and 6 were rejected. At this end, for leadership dimension was the most predictor of overall job satisfaction, inquiry, dialogue, and establishing the system, were not significantly correlated to overall job satisfaction are matching with the findings for studies (Razali et al, 2013).

Conclusions and policy implications
The most important goals of corporate management are to increase job satisfaction for employees and to improve the efficiency of employees, which will inevitably reflect on their performance, so our study suggests several methods for that: The managers could build programs and systems that encourage learning at all levels; in addition to that, they could motivate, and encourage employees towards learning within the organization to improve job satisfaction (Lim, 2010). Further, they could focus on several issues that would enhance job satisfaction for employees such as training, financial benefits, infrastructure, fair evaluation, flexible work rules, and creating a supportive organizational culture (Masum, et al, 2015). Moreover, they could consider working conditions such as organizational learning capability and its dimensions when seeking to improve employee satisfaction (Khalib et al, 2015). From here, the future research will be on the same topic, but the study sample will be on all municipalities in the northern West Bank in Palestine and compare the results with each other.