The interplay among management support and factors influencing organizational learning: an applied study

Abstract

Purpose

This study aims at investigating the impact of some selected organizational and cultural factors on organizational learning (OL). It also attempts to study the moderating role of management support on the influential relationship between these organizational and cultural factors and OL within the context of Jordanian mining sector (JMS).

Design/methodology/approach

A descriptive-analytical approach is applied to collect and analyze the data. A survey questionnaire is used as a primary data collection instrument. The study sample includes 400 participants from the seven selected manufacturing companies within the context of JMS. Smart PLS 3 and IBM SPSS version 25 were applied to answer the study questions and to test the hypotheses.

Findings

Organization strategy has a statistical significant impact on OL. Moreover, cultural factors (innovation; teamwork; knowledge sharing) have a significant impact on OL. The results of the moderating variable revealed that the level of management support is not moderating the relationship between organizational factors and OL. Nonetheless, it is revealed that management support is moderating the relationship between organizational culture and OL.

Practical implications

It seems that a continuous management support is an important facilitating feature to motivate a learning culture. Cultural attributes, including innovation, teamwork and knowledge sharing must be taken into consideration as facilitating factors to encourage OL. Gradual changes must be introduced to create innovative, teamwork and knowledge-sharing culture. Additionally, a specific strategic goal should be part of the organizational corporate strategy and action plans must be developed to achieve this goal in a systematic manner.

Originality/value

The inclusion of management support as a moderating factor could add an original contribution to the current body of knowledge concerning OL. Moreover, this study argues that the core concept of learning might be there but a systematic process of learning and the contextual factors influencing this concept still need more concern.

Citation

Al-Tarawneh, A.I. and Al-Adaileh, R. (2021), "The interplay among management support and factors influencing organizational learning: an applied study", Journal of Workplace Learning, Vol. 33 No. 6, pp. 460-485. https://doi.org/10.1108/JWL-07-2020-0118