Organizational learning, authentic leadership and individual-level resistance to change

Abstract

Purpose This paper aims to focus on academics in three private foreign universities located in Cairo (Egypt) to explore the effect of organizational learning on individual-level resistance to change with and without the mediation of authentic leadership. Design/methodology/approach A total of 960 academics were contacted and all of them received a set of questionnaires. After four follow ups, a total of 576 responses were collected with a response rate of 60.00 per cent. The author used the chi-square test to determine the association between organizational learning and authentic leadership. Multiple regressions were used to show how much variation in individual-level resistance to change can be explained by organizational learning and authentic leadership. Findings The findings highlight a statistical association between organizational learning and authentic leadership. Moreover, another statistical association is explored between authentic leadership and individual-level resistance to change. Furthermore, the statistical analysis proved that having an authentic leadership in the workplace fosters the effect of organizational learning in alleviating individual’s resistance to change. Research limitations/implications Data were collected only from academics and did not include rectors and/or heads of academic departments, the matter that may lead to an inflation of statistical relationships. Future research could use a double source method. Moreover, focusing only on private foreign universities working in Egypt diminishes the author’s potential for generalizing his results. Practical implications The author recommends establishing a unit for knowledge management inside every university. The function of this unit includes but is not limited to examining prospective socio-political, cultural and economic changes/challenges in the surrounding environment and preparing the possible scenarios for dealing with them. This in turn should comprise involvement and learning opportunities for academics work in these universities. The suggested units should also organize monthly meetings between academics and representatives from different Egyptian sectors such as NGOs personnel, CEOs of private and public companies, environmentalists and politicians to address what change those actors seek universities to undertake to guide academics to fulfill their expectations. Originality/value This paper contributes by filling a gap in HR management and organization literature in the higher education sector, in which empirical studies on the relationship between organizational learning, authentic leadership and resistance to change have been limited until now.

Contexts of organizational learning in developing countries: the role of training programmes in Egyptian public banks

“…Even though organizations should use their ability to recognise and acquire new information, assimilate knowledge and then apply it to commercial ends (Cohen & Levinthal, 1990), the mechanism through which banks in this study recruit sources of training, the timing of the training sessions and the methods of selecting the participants (bankers) for those training opportunities come in disagreement with this theory and with what has been highlighted earlier by Mousa and Ayoubi (2019), who consider nepotism as a determinant factor in giving rewards and awards in the Egyptian public sector. This contradicts recommendations by Alas et al (2009), who urge transparent institutional procedures in addition to a kind of cultural equality for the effective functioning of organizational learning.…”

“…Siddiqui et al (2019) found that organizational learning plays a significant role between knowledge sharing and innovation capabilities in the banking sector in Pakistan. Mousa et al (2019) found that strategic leadership in public banking sector is the primary foundation for learning in organizations. Similarly, Thakur et al (2017) studied the presence of learning dimensions in public and private banks in India and found that managerial level does not affect the perception of employees regarding the bank as a learning organization, and that connection with external environment and strategic leadership are considered as the most important dimensions in the banking sector in India.…”

“…Given the importance of the education, training and awareness to the reform of public sector, the fact that organizational learning is still underdeveloped ina range of Egyptian organizational settings and that previous studies on organizational learning are rare in emerging economies' public sectorsparticularly the vital sectors, such as the banking sector (Mousa et al, 2019), the authors choose to study public banks to highlight organizational learning in a new underresearched context. The Egyptian banking sector dominates the financial sector as in most developing countries.…”

“…Some previous studies explored the phenomenon of organizational learning in publicly managed banks in different countries (for example Mohammad, 2019;Siddiqui et al, 2019;Mousa et al, 2019;Thakur et al, 2017;Al-Hawary et al, 2020). Methodologically, most previous research in organizational learning adopted traditional approaches of data collection whether quantitative or qualitative, with little publications on the use of ethnography in organizational learning (Nyame-Asiamah and Patel, 2009).…”

Envolvimento com o trabalho em diferentes situações de trabalho

“…Diante dos estudos apresentados, e com as crescentes demandas por ética e integridade, a necessidade de um estilo de liderança mais adaptável e baseado em valor, foi solicitada como resposta. A liderança autêntica tem recebido considerável atenção tanto por muitos estudiosos da gestão geral, quanto do comportamento organizacional, em que ambos investigaram a sua relação com o envolvimento com o trabalho e exploraram sua associação com o comportamento de cidadania organizacional, elaboraram sobre seu impacto no desempenho organizacional e, finalmente, que demonstraram seu efeito sobre as intenções de rotatividade de funcionários (Chaudhary & Panda, 2018;Mousa, Massoud & Ayoubi, 2020).…”