Towards a methodology to assess organizational learning capability

PurposeThe present study aims to revalidate a measurement scale for organizational learning capability in the context of university faculty members. This is a particularly relevant context because it deals with knowledge‐intensive services. Following Chiva et al., organizational learning capability was conceptualized as a second factor construct including five dimensions: experimentation, risk taking, interaction with the external environment, dialogue and participative decision making.Design/methodology/approachData were collected from the Instituto Tecnológico de Costa Rica, a leading university in Costa Rica. The survey was addressed to faculty members. A total of 795 valid questionnaire…

Individual Performance in Turbulent Environments: The Role of Organizational Learning Capability and Employee Flexibility

Organizational learning capability (OLC) and employee flexibility help firms navigate the challenges faced by organizations operating in turbulent environments. OLC includes dimensions such as experimentation, risk taking, openness, dialogue, and participative decision making. Employee flexibility is considered a crucial tool for strategic human resource management in tackling environmental turbulence. Accordingly, we pose the following research question: how, and to what extent, is individual performance enhanced by OLC and employee flexibility in turbulent environments? The major impact that environmental turbulence has on change and flexibility requirements suggests that employee flexibi…

A Matter of Learning: How Human Resources Affect Organizational Performance

Recently, a number of studies have tried to examine the processes that explain the influence of high performance work systems (HPWS) on company performance, in an attempt to understand which variables mediate this relationship and to what extent they do so. The importance of the organizational learning capability (OLC) construct has traditionally been outlined as being essential for a company’s survival and effective performance. Thus, it seems important to establish whether HPWS can be considered an antecedent of OLC, and consequently to confirm whether OLC acts as a mediating variable in the HPWS–company performance linkage. Bearing in mind that HPWS represent a ‘bundle’ of mutually reinf…

A model of high performance work practices and turnover intentions

– This paper aims to clarify the relationship between human resource practices and staff retention by selecting three high performance work practices (precursors) and one outcome variable (turnover intentions), and trying to demonstrate the mediator role of employee commitment and job satisfaction in this relationship., – The proposed model has been analyzed with a sample of 198 employees and a structural equation modeling methodology., – Salary strategies and job enrichment strategies were positively related to job satisfaction. Job enrichment strategies and job stability strategies were positively related to employee commitment. Employee commitment was negatively related to turnover inten…

Springboarding: a new geographical landscape for European foreign investment in Latin America

Transformational leadership, learning, and employability

PurposeNumerous empirical works have found evidence to support a positive relationship between managers' transformational leadership behaviour and employees' individual performance. Studies have also begun to examine the process by which the effects on performance ultimately take place. This research aims to move forward in this direction. The paper aims to analyse the mediating role of a contextual variable (organizational learning capability) and a subordinate characteristic (employability) in the relationship between transformational leadership and individual performance.Design/methodology/approachThe hypothesis was tested through a sample of 795 workers from 75 university departments, u…

Contingent reward leader behaviour: Where does it come from?

As many academics have pointed out, while researchers have learned a great deal about the effects of contingent reward (CR) leader behaviour, relatively little is known about its genesis. CR transactional leadership is traditionally viewed as an independent variable which exerts influence downstream. However, if we are to understand how to influence, improve or modify these downstream effects, we need to shift our focus upstream towards the study of transactional leadership as a dependent variable. In line with this reasoning, we put forward the hypothesis that a contextual variable (organizational learning capability) and a subordinate's characteristic (employability) are antecedents of CR…

High involvement work practices and firm performance

During the past two decades the chain of three links organizational strategy – human resources practices – organizational performance has been deeply analysed. However, the mediator role of organizational structure in the first link of this chain remains relatively uninvestigated. In this article we analyse a model of relationships among organizational strategy, organizational structure, human resources practices, and organizational performance. Through a structural equation methodology applied to a sample of 183 Spanish companies, we will try to confirm that organizations with differentiation strategies are more likely to implement high involvement work practices. As a novelty we will intr…