The effects of altruism and relationship conflict on organizational learning

Аннотация

Purpose – This paper aims to, prompted by a recent paradigm shift in the organizational sciences, to explore some antecedents of organizational learning capability, focusing on altruism and relationship conflict. Design/methodology/approach – To test the hypotheses, the structural equation technique was applied to data from a survey of Spanish firms with recognized excellence in human resource management. Findings – The results of this research show that, in these firms, altruism facilitates learning capacity both directly and indirectly (through relationship conflict). Relationship conflict is posited as a mediating variable that explains how altruism improves organizational learning. Research limitations/implications – The limitations of this study include excessive heterogeneity of the sample size and industrial sector and the type of firm included in the sample. Due to the potential benefits that altruism seems to have for organizations, future research could continue to investigate the consequences of altruism in organizations.