Higher educational institutes as learning organizations for employer branding

Abstract

Purpose

Contemporary organizations emphasize upon continuous learning to be able to face the environmental dynamism and further build a learning organization. The purpose of this paper is to reflect the conceptual framework of learning organization, integrating variables at individual, team, and organizational levels.

Design/methodology/approach

The framework has been devised through the review of literature from 1950s to 2014 using the databases of EBSCO, Emerald, Proquest, Science Direct, and Scopus to ensure the reliability.

Findings

The variables are resonant leadership style, knowledge management, intrapreneurship, total quality management (TQM), and supportive learning culture. Resonant leaders are emotionally intelligent leaders who evoke positive emotions among their subordinates through setting an example, ensuring mindfulness, hope, and compassion. Knowledge management is basically creating, transferring, maintaining, and organizing knowledge in organizational repositories. Intrapreneurship is the initiative and risk taken by the employees. TQM is a management practice that promotes total involvement, continuous improvement, and reflexive decisions taken by team members. Supportive learning culture pushes individuals toward a common goal, which is further facilitated, by open communication, affective and cognitive trust, and organic structure. These factors pose as enablers to foster continuous learning among employees. A learning organization, therefore, can establish a strong employer brand by enhancing employees’ emotional attachment and further aides’ attraction and retention of talent.

Originality/value

So far, all these important variables have been ignored in the academic literature especially in the context of educational institutes as learning organizations. Also, there is a void in academic literature with respect to integrated model of learning organization. In this way, the paper tries to fill the gap by developing a conceptual framework of learning organization, followed by discussion and managerial implications.

Citation

LENKA, U. and CHAWLA, S. (2015), "Higher educational institutes as learning organizations for employer branding", Industrial and Commercial Training, Vol. 47 No. 5, pp. 265-276. https://doi.org/10.1108/ICT-01-2015-0001