Continuous learning during crises: achieving change-efficacy, meaningful work and adaptive performance

Purpose - The study aims to examine the association between learning culture and adaptive performance of delivery employees during crises situation. The study develops and tests a model that explains how learning culture, through change-efficacy and meaningful work, influences employees' adaptive performance (including how they handle crisis situations and deal with uncertainty). Design/methodology/approach - Data was collected from 298 delivery employees working in e-commerce companies throughout India in a time-lagged manner. Regression analysis and structural equation modeling were performed to assess the influence of learning culture, change-efficacy and meaningful work on adaptive performance using SPSS 24. Further, PROCESS macro was used to test the parallel mediation effects through bootstrapping approach. Findings - The study establishes a significant direct and indirect relationship between learning culture and adaptive performance for employees. Further, underpinning the transformative learning theory (Mezirow, 1997), and job characteristics theory (1976), this study came across two pathways for organizations to transform their learning efforts into improved adaptive performance for employees. Practical implications - Organizations, particularly in crisis situations, can leverage employees' change-efficacy and meaningful work to connect learning efforts with employees' adaptive performance. Originality/value - The study contributes significantly to existing theory on transformative learning and job characteristics theory while strengthening the literature on antecedents of employees' adaptive performance, particularly in crises situation.