Learning from leaders: the mediating role of leadership between national culture and organizational learning culture

ABSTRACT

In times of globalization of work and learning, the impact of national culture on learning becomes more important for human resource development. Therefore, this cross-cultural study had two objectives: first, to examine how power distance influences learning culture; and second, to investigate leadership as a missing link between the national culture in terms of power distance and organizational learning culture. Participants from Germany (N = 310) and Russia (N = 348) were surveyed via an online questionnaire. A structural equation model indicates a negative, mostly indirect effect of power distance on all seven DLOQ dimensions, mediated by participative leadership. Therefore, according to the results, leadership is of significant importance for learning culture, at least in global acting companies, and should be in the focus of international human resource development. Theoretical and practical implications of the study are discussed.

KEYWORDS:

• Organizational learning culture
• dimensions of the learning organization questionnaire (DLOQ)
• cross-cultural research
• participative leadership
• national culture
• power distance

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank the anonymous reviewers and the editor, Dr. Rajashi Ghosh, very much for their constructive feedback and great effort, which contributed very significantly to the quality of the manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. The social networks can be accessed at the following URLs: https://www.xing.com, https://de-de.facebook.com/

2. The social networks can be accessed at the following URLs: https://ru-ru.facebook.com/, https://vk.com/