Fostering learning organisation in transitional economy – the role of authentic leadership and employee affective commitment

Abstract

Purpose The aim of this study is to examine how and in what way authentic leadership and affective employee commitment foster the learning organisation in the context of transitional market conditions. Acting as role factors, their relationships with the learning organisation were examined simultaneously, at leadership and employee level. Design/methodology/approach The study was conducted on a sample of 500 employees from various industries of Serbian transitional economy. For the research purposes, structural equation modeling (SEM) methodology was used. Findings The findings reveal that authentic leadership and employee commitment both play an important role. Specifically, authentic leadership directly and indirectly affects the learning organisation. The indirect effect is partially mediated by the employee affective commitment. Research limitations/implications The focus of this study is limited to the role of authentic leadership in fostering the learning organisation. Apart from leadership and employee commitment, it might be assumed that other variables have the potential to play a role in fostering the learning organisation as well. Originality value To the best of the authors’ knowledge, no previous study has focused on authentic leadership and employee commitment as an “enabling-mechanism” in fostering learning organisations in the context of transitional economies. Consequently, this paper provides theoretical and practical implications on how and in what way they impact a learning organisation by empirically studying them in the context of transitional market conditions.

Authentic Leadership and Improved Individual Performance: Affective Commitment and Individual Creativity’s Sequential Mediation

“…As previously mentioned as part of the research background, the above results may be due to how employees' identification with and attachment to leaders increase these workers' emotional connection to their organization (Gatling et al, 2016;Delić et al, 2017). This strong link, in turn, stimulates their ability to come up with creative ideas and solutions (Semedo et al, 2018).…”

“…Authentic leadership has been shown to be an important antecedent of affective commitment (Avolio et al, 2004;Leroy et al, 2012;Rego et al, 2013;Gatling et al, 2016;Semedo et al, 2016Semedo et al, , 2019Delić et al, 2017;Ribeiro et al, 2020). According to Braun et al (2013), employees' identification with and emotional attachment to their leaders increase these followers' affective commitment to their organization.…”

How Authentic Leadership Promotes Individual Creativity: The Mediating Role of Affective Commitment

“…In general, employees are much more emotionally committed to performing their tasks well and focus more closely on achieving organizational objectives if they perceive their leaders as authentic (Darvish & Rezaei, 2011; Leroy et al, 2012). In other words, AL is positively related to employees’ emotional attachment to their organization (Avolio et al, 2004; Delić et al, 2017; Javaid, Luqman, Amir, & Umair, 2015; Leroy et al, 2012; Rego et al, 2013; Semedo et al, 2016). This theoretical and empirical evidence supported the formulation of the following hypothesis for the present study:…”

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