Purpose: The purpose of this study is to assess employees' perceptions of their organizations' orientation towards learning in manufacturing and service firms. Design/methodology/approach: The Dimensions of the Learning Organization Questionnaire (DLOQ) developed by Marsick and Watkins, was administered to 235 executives working in the National Capital Region (NCR) in India. Regression analysis with the help of Eviews 5 was utilized to investigate the difference between the dimensions of DLOQ in both the sectors. Findings: Results suggest a significant impact of structural level dimension on a firm's financial and knowledge performance. Furthermore, no difference was observed between manufacturing and service sectors in context of a learning organization (LO). Research limitations/implications: Data were collected only from organizations operating in India's National Capital Region. Originality/value: This research fulfills the literature gap in the domain of LO. It applies the LO approach and the DLOQ tool to examine the learning orientation of both manufacturing and service organizations in the NCR which has not been done so far in the literature. The results indicated greater impact of the structural level dimension as compared to the people level dimension irrespective of the sector in India. (Contains 2 figures and 5 tables.)