تاثیر حمایت رهبری و انسجام کار گروهی بر روی یادگیری سازمانی، نوآوری و عملکرد: یک بررسی تجربی

This paper examines the effects of organizational learning and teamwork cohesion have on organizations' capacity to use innovation (technical and administrative) to meet the changing needs of their environment. The paper verifies how certain characteristics of the firm (support leadership and teamwork cohesion) significantly affect both learning and innovation, as well as showing the implications of these in organizational performance. Using empirical data gathered from 202 Chief Executive Officers in Spanish firms, the findings support the hypotheses that (1) support leadership encourages teamwork cohesion, organizational learning, and technical and administrative innovation; (2) teamwork cohesion promotes organizational learning and this, in turn, encourages technical and administrative innovation; and (3) organizational performance is improved through teamwork cohesion, organizational learning and technical and administrative innovation.

An overview of innovation literature shows that few topics have enjoyed a greater consensus among researchers than the current importance given to innovation. Innovation is a strategic option for improving the organization and making it more competitive. At the same time, it opens the doors to competitive advantage both in global and international markets (Hitt et al., 1997 and Tidd, 2001) by (1) providing the marketplace with new or unique products/services; (2) creating entry barriers that make learning the necessary resources to develop innovation more difficult; (3) creating new values that re-write the rules of competitive play. For these reasons, the Cotec Foundation (1996: 160) declares that “in a global market, many other factors intervene in the concept of competitiveness, not only macroeconomic, but also social, political or institutional, but when the economic, institutional and political conditions are relatively similar, innovation becomes a determining factor in corporate competitiveness.” Likewise, both in academic and in professional circles, there is a great deal of proof concerning the relevance that learning is taking on. True though it may be that humans are learners by nature and that this learning has always been present, we cannot deny the fact that, today, learning is more of a need than a choice. In organizations, learning is at the heart of company management and has become the essence of productive activity. No organization will admit to ignoring learning, since this would be akin to accepting the start of its demise. The importance of both approaches in the current context calls for an examination of the relationship between learning and innovation. Both variables can be seen as a response to changes in the environment and as the basis for obtaining competitive advantages (Holt, 1999). Most studies consider that learning injects new ideas into the organization, increases the capacity to understand new ideas and strengthens creativity and the ability to spot new opportunities; in other words, it favours the presence of innovation (Damanpour, 1991). In fact, numerous organizational learning models have been successfully applied to specific aspects of the innovative process and firms are increasingly beginning to give new meaning to the term innovation: as a process of organizational learning. However, although the arguments are mainly coincident as regards the positive relation between learning and innovation, this link has not been substantially looked at from an empirical standpoint. Furthermore, the research studies have basically concentrated on analysing the effects learning has on the various types of innovation, without examining how learning affects organizations' capacity to fit to their environment through the use of innovation. Innovation allows organizations to change in line with the change operating in their environment; in other words, innovation is a strategic option for responding to the new challenges of an environment subjected to change and uncertainty. Likewise, there is a need to analyse the principal characteristics organizations should have if they wish to learn, since there is a lack of scientifically sound empirical studies that provide any in-depth knowledge on the matter. For this reason, the objective of this paper is to further examine the relationship between organizational learning and innovation (a reflection of organizations' capacity to fit to their environment), and to verify how support leadership and teamwork cohesion significantly affect both learning and innovation. Finally, the paper analyses the implications of organizational learning and innovation on organizational performance.

The results of the investigation reveal the need for a proactive vision when managing innovation and the creation of learning organizations as alternatives to achieve a sustainable competitive advantage that allows us to, among other things, improve organizational performance and create greater organizational wealth. Thus, the innovation gap, both technical and administrative, and organizational learning are essential conditions for improving performance; in other words, the capacity to learn and innovate is essential for increasing the organization's value. Likewise, when management creates working conditions based on support and teamwork cohesion, the organization's performance can be improved. Therefore, it is necessary to encourage organizations not only to obtain of a greater innovation gap and a stronger learning capability, but also to have work environments characterized by teamwork cohesion, since these are some of the main routes to generating improvements in organizational performance. Thus, organizational learning is one of the prime potential sources for innovation generating, along with support leadership. We should, then, promote the creation of intelligent organizations where people develop personally and professionally and where a climate of learning is created. This type of environment facilitates the search for new knowledge, generating learning that strengthens innovation. Furthermore, a style of leadership is needed that enables all the organization members to contribute, with all their capacity and inventiveness toward the creation of ideas that generate a greater strategic potential. On a similar note, we should highlight the importance still given currently to support leadership and teamwork cohesion in obtaining organizations that are open to learning. Promoting a support leadership that encourages intellectual stimulation, individualized consideration, inspirational motivation and idealized facilitator and grainer of learning capability. Furthermore, this support leadership also affects teamwork cohesion, which, in turn, plays a central role in the development of learning inside firms. In conclusion, the results of the research show that, in order to improve profits and obtain competitive advantages, company CEOs need to direct their strategic planning toward improving organizational learning, creating a work environment based on support leadership and teamwork cohesion and obtaining high levels of innovation, both technical and innovation, in comparison to the other firms in the environment. We should mention that the conclusions established in our study should be interpreted with care when establishing generalizations, since we have concentrated solely on Spain. Further national and international studies should be carried out. Likewise, the cross-sectional nature of the research into a series of dynamic concepts (learning, innovation, teamwork, etc.) only allows us to analyse a specific situation at a given point in time. Longitudinal studies should be made so as to examine the evolution of these variables throughout time. Nonetheless, this problem has been softened, since the wording or the structure of the items generally reflect dynamic characteristics. Another question is that concerning the strategic factors and elements dealt with. Our research has analysed, among others, teamwork cohesion and support leadership as variables that affect the capacity to learn and innovate. However, other different factors should be analysed and discussed, such as organizational climate, the implementing of Total Quality Management, or type of organizational structures.