Empowerment as a strategy to achieve the competitive advantage of organizations: A mediating role of organizational learning

Abstract

In this era of industrialization, it is very difficult for firms to develop and sustain the competitive advantage. Industrial competition spread so rapidly worldwide, which neglect the differentiation of products and it is very difficult to sustain the competitive advantage in the market. Large economies capture the maximum world market and give tough time to small economies such as Iraq. Thus, the primary aim of the current study is to present a comprehensive theoretical framework for competitive advantage, which leads to better firm performance. Many studies have highlighted the area of competitive advantage of the firms, however, in a rare instance, literature has reported limited discussion on sustainable competitive advantage, especially in the context of Iraq. This research gap formulated four hypotheses, which are proposed the relationship between empowerment strategy, organizational learning and competitive advantage. The pick and drop method was adopted to distribute the questionnaires among four hundred manufacturing firms of Iraq. The results of the current study found a positive and significant relationship between empowerment, organizational learning and competitive advantage. Furthermore, the current study found a significant relationship between empowerment strategy and organizational learning. Moreover, organizational learning was found the main contributory factor between empowerment strategy and competitive advantage in Iraq industrial context. This work contributes to the consistency of knowledge by developing a comprehensive theoretical account to build and sustain the competitive advantage of Iraq industry. Hence, the current work is helpful for sustainable competitive advantage of companies to achieve the highest firm performance.

Mediating effect of strategy on competitive pressure, stakeholder pressure and strategic performance management (SPM): evidence from HEIs in Indonesia

“…The management needs to choose a different set of activities to deliver a unique value. Therefore, competitive pressure relates to the organizational strategy used in order to achieve a competitive advantage (Slivko and Theilen, 2013;Dupire and M'Zali, 2016;Kadhim et al, 2018).…”

Mediating Role of Ethical Leadership Between Employees Empowerment and Competitive Edge: A Case of Commercial Banks in Pakistan

“…The study proved that the prevailing leadership style and the philosophy pursued by the management in its dealings with its employees have a significant impact on the level of creativity of the workers, and there is no doubt that the creative capabilities of the subordinates are affected by the prevailing leadership style in their institutions. Based on the results of the study, in addition to the opinions of Kadhim et al (2018); Safari et al (2020), and Khan and Anjum (2013), it has been proven that an ethical leader can contribute to developing the creative capabilities of employees by empowering and encouraging them in solving problems and addressing them and presenting their solutions openly to them based on the basics of empowerment enjoyed by the employees in the organization. Consequently, the individual's awareness by the leadership of the importance of the role that he plays in the administrative process and the provision of opportunities for him through empowerment and development is among the motivating factors that push the individual to more effort, giving creativity.…”

“…Empowering employees means directing them towards effective decision-making by linking their interest to the validity of that choice, that is, having an incentive to convince individuals that making the right decision will not only be of benefit to the organization but also benefit them (Ullah, Afghan, Afridi, 2019). Besides, Kadhim et al (2018) have indicated that empowering employees contributes to raising the level of competitive edge by increasing the status of their loyalty to the organization and thus affecting their performance and decisions to reach the right decision is in the interest of the organization.…”

The effect of competitive advantage and commodity strategic supply chain on Indonesia textile industry

“…An increase in competative advntage also increases the performance, as stated by Davis et al (2000). Therefore, both competitive advantage and commodity strategic supply chain activities have the ability to enhance textile industry performance (Samad, 2018;Kadhim et al, 2018).…”