Title: Assessing the links between organisational cultures and unlearning capability: evidence from the Spanish automotive components industry

Authors: Antonio Luis Leal-Rodríguez; José Antonio Ariza-Montes; Emilio J. Morales-Fernández; Stephen Eldridge

Addresses: Universidad Loyola Andalucía, C/ Energía Solar, 1, 41014 Sevilla, Spain ' Universidad Loyola Andalucía, C/ Escritor Castilla Aguayo, 4, 14004 Córdoba, Spain ' Universidad Loyola Andalucía, C/ Escritor Castilla Aguayo, 4, 14004 Córdoba, Spain ' Lancaster University, Bailrigg, Lancaster, LA1 4YW, UK

Abstract: Within the current business environment, knowledge management, organisational learning and unlearning mechanisms are becoming critical factors in the process of reaching lasting competitive advantages. Our research model employs the competing values framework (Cameron and Quinn, 1999) to empirically assess the influence of the firm's own cultural typology on organisational unlearning. Our hypotheses are tested using a sample of 145 firms drawn from the Spanish automotive components manufacturing sector. The relationships between the constructs are assessed through the use of partial least squares (PLS) path-modelling, a variance-based structural equation modelling technique. The outcomes reveal that certain types of culture exert a higher influence on unlearning than others. This suggests in turn that some cultural typologies are better positioned to face the current turbulent situation than others.

Keywords: organisational unlearning; organisational culture; automotive components; automobile industry; cultural typologies; partial least squares; PLS; Spain; competing values framework; component manufacturing; structural equation modelling; SEM.

DOI: 10.1504/IJIL.2016.079858

International Journal of Innovation and Learning, 2016 Vol.20 No.4, pp.422 - 436

Received: 30 Mar 2015
Accepted: 13 Apr 2015
Published online: 19 Oct 2016 *

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