Firm performance: is organizational learning capability the magic wand?

The mediating role of organizational learning culture in the nexus of human resource development practices and employee competencies

Purpose

A learning-focused culture promotes creativity, innovativeness and the acquisition of novel insights and competencies. The study aims to explore the relationship between human resource development (HRD) practice and employee competencies using organizational learning culture as a mediating variable.

Design/methodology/approach

Data were collected from 828 employees of 37 health care institutions comprising 24 (internationally-owned) and 13 (indigenously-owned). Construct reliability and validity was established through a confirmatory factor analysis. The proposed model and hypotheses were evaluated using structural equation modeling.

Findings

Data supported the hypothesized relationships. The results show that training and development and employee competencies were significantly related. Career development and employee competencies were significantly related. Organizational learning culture mediates the relationship between training and development and employee competencies. However, organizational learning culture did not mediate the relationship between career development and employee competencies.

Research limitations/implications

The generalizability of the findings will be constrained due to the research’s health care focus and cross-sectional data.

Practical implications

The study’s findings will serve as valuable pointers to policy makers and stakeholders of health care institutions in developing system-level capacities that promote continuous learning and adaptive learning cultures to ensure sustainability and competitive advantage.

Originality/value

By evidencing empirically that organizational learning culture mediates the relationship between HRD practices and employee competencies the study extends the literature.

Human resource management (HRM) in the performance measurement and management (PMM) domain: a bibliometric review

Purpose

The literature highlights the key role of human resource management in developing effective organizational performance measurement and management. To understand the state of the art of this role, the paper reviews the literature on human resource management in the performance measurement and management domain.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper conducts a bibliometric literature review on 1,252 articles to identify the prevailing research trends and the conceptual structure of human resource management in the performance measurement and management domain.

Findings

The study highlights a growing number of publications and four themes related to human resource management in performance measurement and management. It also underlines the shift from static to the dynamic performance measurement and management systems within organization which is expected to be more suited to current and future contexts.

Practical implications

The paper highlights the need to manage the identified themes as strategic organizational assets and further develop the strategic dimension of human resource management practices leveraging on project management and information systems.

Originality/value

The paper goes beyond the traditional focus on performance appraisal of human resource management studies and assumes the challenge of connecting two research fields: human resource management and performance measurement and management.

Strengthening work engagement through high-performance human resource practices

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between the individual high-performance human resource practices (HPHRPs) and work engagement (WE) among the employees in the service industry in India.

Design/methodology/approach

The data were collected from a sample of 234 employees working in the service sector in India with the help of a survey questionnaire method. Confirmatory factor analysis was used to validate the data. To test the hypothesized relationship, structural equation modelling was used.

Findings

The results revealed that five HPHRPs have a positive impact on the WE of employees in the service sector in India. Internal career opportunities negatively impact WE.

Research limitations/implications

The study sample is limited to the service sector in India. Researchers are encouraged to study employee and organizational performance measures other than WE which could be impacted by high-performance work practices.

Practical implications

Managers seeking to strengthen WE could implement these HPHRPs in their firms operating in Indian service sector.

Originality/value

The paper is an attempt to provide empirical evidence on how the individual HPHRPs impacts WE in an organization. Earlier research has shown the impact of bundled HPHRPs on WE. Thus, this study is first to empirically test the direct relationship of individual HPHRPs with WE.

Can adaptive–academic leadership duo make universities ready for change? Evidence from higher education institutions in Pakistan in the light of COVID-19

Purpose

In rapidly changing global village, individuals, organizations and the society are faced with various unforeseen challenges every day, and these challenges continuously trigger and test the instincts for survival, and higher education is of no exception. In the context of today’s most critical uncertainty, i.e. COVID-19, the purpose of this study is to highlight the significance of two leadership styles, i.e. adaptive and academic leadership, and assessing readiness for change among higher education institutions (HEIs) of Punjab, Pakistan.

Design/methodology/approach

An online survey was conducted to collect data from 404 permanent faculty members in the public sector universities identified using stratified random sampling. The hypotheses developed were tested using co-variance-based structural equation modeling.

Findings

As per the findings, both leadership styles as exogenous constructs and the presence of organizational learning capability as mediators contributed positively in crafting organizational readiness for change (ORC) among HEIs in the course of unpredictable circumstances.

Practical implications

The COVID-19 episode globally has reiterated the importance of change, and the role of leadership in this regard cannot be undermined. This study, for that matter, stresses on the importance and benefits of academic and adaptive leadership dealing with uncertainties or change and the readiness of HEIs for change. Several institutions faced challenges in doing so, and the transition was not smooth, except for institutions where leaders were the differentiating factor. On top of it, institutions that had timely invested in digital systems and had enhanced organizations learning capacity survived in these turbulent times.

Originality/value

COVID-19 has placed tremendous challenges on HEIs to adapt with the rapidly changing conditions. Hence, this study is unique in understanding the academic and adaptive leadership styles in context of ORC. This study further helps in understanding that how public sector universities that are already influenced by stringent bureaucratic structures react to change.

Organizational learning and firm performance: a systematic review

Purpose

This study aims to systematically review empirical research on the relationship between organizational learning (OL) and firm performance (FP) to evaluate how far the field has come.

Design/methodology/approach

This study follows a systematic, transparent and replicable approach suggested by Vom Brocke et al. (2009) to conduct a systematic review. A total of 52 empirical studies published over the years 1999–2019 was retrieved and analyzed.

Findings

Three key themes related to the OL–FP relationship have emerged from the review. First, research on OL and FP has been quantitatively conducted in a variety of countries and sectors. Second, dimensions of OL foster both financial and non-financial performance of firms through their combinations and interactions. Third, the relationship between OL and FP is mediated by organizational innovation.

Research limitations/implications

The literature search returned only quantitative studies on OL and FP, which was accepted within the scope of this review. Future studies are encouraged to systematically examine case studies and qualitative research on OL and FP.

Practical implications

This review demonstrates that FP can be improved through different dimensions of OL. Based on our findings, managers wanting to enhance the performance of their firms can analyze the demand for OL and develop those OL dimensions.

Originality/value

This is among the first systematic literature reviews on OL and FP. The findings of this study also contribute to the previously scattered understanding of OL and FP.

Performance measurement and management in the public sector: state of the art and research opportunities

Purpose

Since the 1980s, performance measurement and management (PMM) has been described as an essential element of new public management (NPM) reforms. The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of the current state of the art and future research opportunities for PMM in public sector management.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper carried out a bibliometric literature review using two main techniques named (1) performance analysis and (2) science mapping techniques. It investigated the academic research area describing the main publications' trend, the conceptual structure and its evolution from 1996 to 2019.

Findings

The results highlighted the growing relevance of PMM research in public organisations and confirmed a great interest of the business, management and accounting literature on PMM in public sector management. Furthermore, the results also described a conceptual structure of the public PMM literature analysed and its evolution being too generic to answer public organisations' needs. The results identified five main research gaps and research opportunities.

Originality/value

Although the adoption of rigorous bibliometric techniques was recognised as being useful for assessing the academic research study, the paper describes the business, management and accounting literature contributing to new theoretical and practical future opportunities.

Linkage between business sustainability and tacit knowledge management in MSMEs

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to report the apparent linkage between knowledge management (KM) practices in a semi-structured sector and business sustainability. Micro, small and medium scale enterprises in developing economies are constrained by accessibility to resources and have not been able to reap the benefits of structured KM practices to fine-tune their business processes. Insights derived from business operations of such enterprises can be formalized into relevant knowledge creation. An effective KM can help in revival strategies for many traditional organizations like handloom that operate as a co-operative. Such business has come under immense challenges from new-age organizations in that particular sector. This study reports the brand revival and business sustainability journey of a handloom co-operative through effective knowledge assimilation and dissemination.

Design/methodology/approach

In this paper, the authors have assessed the governance of small co-operative units in handloom and their supervision, which pose serious challenges for business sustainability. Their business data pertaining to productivity, sales and income for the period from 1997-1998 to 2015-2016 have been analyzed for business sustainability. A time-series analysis has been done on the above data set to track business sustainability of the handloom co-operative. The findings have been analyzed through a case-based study approach.

Findings

Over a period of one and half-decade, the handloom co-operative has been able to improve its product offering, which, in turn, led to the revival of the brand. Such transformation has resulted in revival of decades old brand through effective knowledge sharing, which is mainly tacit in nature. This case study based paper showcases that despite their inherent constraints, micro, small and medium enterprise organizations (many of which are semi-structured or unstructured in nature) can reap huge benefits by making efforts to put in place an effective KM mechanism.

Originality/value

There are very few reported studies, which have explored the linkage between tacit KM practices and business sustainability. Studies in context to a semi-structured small- and medium-scale enterprises are not available in published literature.