A study on the effect of learning organisation readiness on employees' quality commitment: the moderating effect of leader–member exchange

Abstract

Though learning organisation has been positioned as a driving force of quality management in the manufacturing industry under turbulent circumstances, few studies have examined the relationship between employees’ learning organisation readiness and quality management from the micro perspective or attempted to identify the managerial moderating factors that influence this relationship. Using the micro perspective of Senge's model, this study empirically investigates the impact of employees' learning organisation readiness on their quality commitment and inquires whether leader–member exchange (LMX) strengthens that impact. The results indicate that employees' learning organisation readiness (i.e. their shared vision, mental model, personal mastery, team learning, and system thinking) is positively associated with quality commitment and that LMX also positively influences quality commitment. The study also shows that LMX positively influences the impact of team learning and system thinking among the sub-variables of learning organisation readiness on quality commitment.

Keywords:

• learning organisation readiness
• social exchange theory
• LMX
• quality commitment