IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/pal/jintbs/v42y2011i9p1103-1120.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Organizational structure and continuous improvement and learning: Moderating effects of cultural endorsement of participative leadership

Author

Listed:
  • Xiaowen Huang

    (Department of Management, Farmer School of Business, Miami (OH) University, Oxford, USA)

  • Joseph C Rode

    (Department of Management, Farmer School of Business, Miami (OH) University, Oxford, USA)

  • Roger G Schroeder

    (Department of Organization and Strategy, Tilburg University, the Netherlands)

Abstract

Building upon the culturally endorsed implicit theory of leadership, we investigated the moderating effects of national culture on the relationship between organizational structure and continuous improvement and learning. We propose that the relationship between organic organizations (characterized by flat, decentralized structures with a wide use of multifunctional employees) and continuous improvement and learning will be stronger when national cultural endorsement for participative leadership is high. We further propose that organizational group culture will moderate the relationship between organizational structure and continuous improvement and learning, but that these moderation effects will be stronger in national cultures with low endorsement of participative leadership. Empirical analysis of secondary survey data collected from 266 manufacturing plants operating in three industries and located in nine countries representing a diverse set of geographical regions provided support for the hypotheses. Overall, our findings indicate that, to fully realize the relationship between organic structures and continuous improvement and learning, managers must actively assess the extent to which the national culture endorses participative leadership. In cases where this endorsement is weak, managers should consider the extent to which the organizational culture will provide alternative support for the relationship.

Suggested Citation

  • Xiaowen Huang & Joseph C Rode & Roger G Schroeder, 2011. "Organizational structure and continuous improvement and learning: Moderating effects of cultural endorsement of participative leadership," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 42(9), pages 1103-1120, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:pal:jintbs:v:42:y:2011:i:9:p:1103-1120
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.palgrave-journals.com/jibs/journal/v42/n9/pdf/jibs201133a.pdf
    File Function: Link to full text PDF
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: http://www.palgrave-journals.com/jibs/journal/v42/n9/full/jibs201133a.html
    File Function: Link to full text HTML
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Blankenburg Holm, Desirée & Drogendijk, Rian & Haq, Hammad ul, 2020. "An attention-based view on managing information processing channels in organizations," Scandinavian Journal of Management, Elsevier, vol. 36(2).
    2. Srivastava, Saurabh & Singh, Shiwangi & Dhir, Sanjay, 2020. "Culture and International business research: A review and research agenda," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 29(4).
    3. Ambra Galeazzo & Andrea Furlan & Andrea Vinelli, 2017. "The organizational infrastructure of continuous improvement – an empirical analysis," Operations Management Research, Springer, vol. 10(1), pages 33-46, June.
    4. Marcel F. Assen, 2018. "The moderating effect of management behavior for Lean and process improvement," Operations Management Research, Springer, vol. 11(1), pages 1-13, June.
    5. Meier, Andre & Kock, Alexander, 2021. "Characteristics, Antecedents, and Consequences of Agile R&D Units' Organization - A Conceptual Framework," Publications of Darmstadt Technical University, Institute for Business Studies (BWL) 130791, Darmstadt Technical University, Department of Business Administration, Economics and Law, Institute for Business Studies (BWL).
    6. Dejun Tony Kong & Roger Volkema, 2016. "Cultural Endorsement of Broad Leadership Prototypes and Wealth as Predictors of Corruption," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 127(1), pages 139-152, May.
    7. Martin, Xavier, 2013. "Solving theoretical and empirical conundrums in international strategy research by matching foreign entry mode choices and performance," Other publications TiSEM 7645ea46-0b9a-4fc0-ae33-a, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    8. Naor, Michael & Jones, Janine Sanders & Bernardes, Ednilson S. & Goldstein, Susan Meyer & Schroeder, Roger, 2014. "The culture-effectiveness link in a manufacturing context: A resource-based perspective," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 49(3), pages 321-331.
    9. Ali Dastmalchian & Nick Bacon & Nicola McNeil & Claudia Steinke & Paul Blyton & Medha Satish Kumar & Secil Bayraktar & Werner Auer-Rizzi & Ali Ahmad Bodla & Richard Cotton & Tim Craig & Behice Ertenu , 2020. "High-performance work systems and organizational performance across societal cultures," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 51(3), pages 353-388, April.
    10. Osama Khassawneh & Hamzah Elrehail, 2022. "The Effect of Participative Leadership Style on Employees’ Performance: The Contingent Role of Institutional Theory," Administrative Sciences, MDPI, vol. 12(4), pages 1-13, December.
    11. Céline Bérard & Marc Fréchet, 2020. "Organizational antecedents of exploration and exploitation in SMEs: The role of structural and resource attributes," Post-Print halshs-02570775, HAL.
    12. Mulugeta Girma Dibiku, 2023. "Kaizen and Productivity: The Mediating Effect of the Customer-supplier Relationship Using Smart-PLS," Istanbul Management Journal, Istanbul University Business School, vol. 0(94), pages 1-15, June.
    13. Ofer Mintz & Imran S Currim & Jan-Benedict E M Steenkamp & Martijn Jong, 2021. "Managerial metric use in marketing decisions across 16 countries: A cultural perspective," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 52(8), pages 1474-1500, October.
    14. Rode, Joseph C. & Huang, Xiaowen & Schroeder, Roger G., 2022. "Human resources practices and continuous improvement and learning across cultures," Journal of International Management, Elsevier, vol. 28(4).
    15. Sehoon Kim & Dae Seok Chai & Junhee Kim & Sewon Kim & Youngsoo Song, 2022. "Between Work Conditions and Job Outcomes: Testing a Nomological Network of Life Satisfaction," Applied Research in Quality of Life, Springer;International Society for Quality-of-Life Studies, vol. 17(3), pages 1407-1431, June.
    16. Lythreatis, Sophie & Mostafa, Ahmed Mohammed Sayed & Pereira, Vijay & Wang, Xiaojun & Giudice, Manlio Del, 2021. "Servant leadership, CSR perceptions, moral meaningfulness and organizational identification- evidence from the Middle East," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 30(5).
    17. Yuen, Kum Fai & Thai, Vinh V. & Wong, Yiik Diew, 2016. "The effect of continuous improvement capacity on the relationship between of corporate social performance and business performance in maritime transport in Singapore," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 95(C), pages 62-75.
    18. van Assen, Marcel F., 2020. "Empowering leadership and contextual ambidexterity – The mediating role of committed leadership for continuous improvement," European Management Journal, Elsevier, vol. 38(3), pages 435-449.
    19. Fei Ma & Dan Guo & Kum Fai Yuen & Qipeng Sun & Fuxia Ren & Xiaobo Xu & Chengyong Zhao, 2020. "The Influence of Continuous Improvement of Public Car-Sharing Platforms on Passenger Loyalty: A Mediation and Moderation Analysis," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(8), pages 1-21, April.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:pal:jintbs:v:42:y:2011:i:9:p:1103-1120. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.palgrave-journals.com/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.