Measuring the impact of learning organization on proactive work behavior: mediating role of employee resilience

Purpose The paper examines the role of learning organization in enhancing employees’ proactive work behavior. Furthermore, drawing on the conjectures of broaden-and-build and conservation of resources theory, this study tested the mediating role of employee resilience on the relationship between learning organization and proactive work behavior. Design/methodology/approach The data for this study were collected over two measurement periods (six months apart) via a structured questionnaire among Indian IT/ITES (Information Technology Enabled Services) organizational employees. The study utilized confirmatory factor analysis to test the proposed measurement model. Additionally, the study employed Preacher and Hayes PROCESS macro to investigate the mediating effect of employee resilience. Findings The study results demonstrated that employee’s perceptions of learning organization (measured at time 1) positively predict proactive work behavior (measured at time 2), with the relationship being mediated by employee resilience (measured at time 1). Practical implications The study asserts that organizational practitioners who aim to boost their employees’ proactive behavior need to first invest in nurturing learning organization and focus on building their employees’ resilient capability. As a matter of fact, despite focusing on alleviating the adverse events and chiefly emphasizing on stress management, the organizational practitioners should concentrate on building their employees’ resilient capability. Originality/value The present study explores the links between learning organization, employee resilience and proactive work behavior. This study tested a cohesive research model to investigate the role of both the contextual and individual resilient capability in enhancing employee proactivity at work. Furthermore, the study unfolds the underlying mechanism between the study variables by exploring the mediating role of employee resilience.