The purpose of this research is to study how organizations maintain their competitive advantage in today’s turbulent and highly competitive business environment, by striving to become a learning organization. The impact of factors such as leadership (both transformational and transactional leadership) and trust on an organization’s learning capability is empirically examined. This research adds to the existing body of literature in two ways. First, it argues that a transactional leadership style can influence learning, despite research spanning the last decade that has focused on transformational leadership theory as the dominant model of effective leadership. Therefore, the importance of both leadership styles, each having valuable differential effects is emphasized in this study. Second, the previously untested role of trust as mediating the relationship between leadership and organizational learning capability is examined. It is argued that without supervisor trust, the opportunities for a learning organization to reach its full potential and to subsequently develop learning capabilities is reduced. Findings from this study support the influence of both leadership styles on learning. Trust in one’s supervisor was also found to fully mediate the relationship between leadership and learning.

The purpose of this research is to study how organizations maintain their competitive advantage in today’s turbulent and highly competitive business environment, by striving to become a learning organization. The impact of factors such as leadership (both transformational and transactional leadership) and trust on an organization’s learning capability is empirically examined. This research adds to the existing body of literature in two ways. First, it argues that a transactional leadership style can influence learning, despite research spanning the last decade that has focused on transformational leadership theory as the dominant model of effective leadership. Therefore, the importance of both leadership styles, each having valuable differential effects is emphasized in this study. Second, the previously untested role of trust as mediating the relationship between leadership and organizational learning capability is examined. It is argued that without supervisor trust, the opportunities for a learning organization to reach its full potential and to subsequently develop learning capabilities is reduced. Findings from this study support the influence of both leadership styles on learning. Trust in one’s supervisor was also found to fully mediate the relationship between leadership and learning.

The purpose of this research is to study how organizations maintain their competitive advantage in today’s turbulent and highly competitive business environment, by striving to become a learning organization. The impact of factors such as leadership (both transformational and transactional leadership) and trust on an organization’s learning capability is empirically examined. This research adds to the existing body of literature in two ways. First, it argues that a transactional leadership style can influence learning, despite research spanning the last decade that has focused on transformational leadership theory as the dominant model of effective leadership. Therefore, the importance of both leadership styles, each having valuable differential effects is emphasized in this study. Second, the previously untested role of trust as mediating the relationship between leadership and organizational learning capability is examined. It is argued that without supervisor trust, the opportunities for a learning organization to reach its full potential and to subsequently develop learning capabilities is reduced. Findings from this study support the influence of both leadership styles on learning. Trust in one’s supervisor was also found to fully mediate the relationship between leadership and learning.

Fast pace of change in the business of technology is the reality of many organizations today. The software development industry is one example where this nature is prominent. Companies need to adapt in ways that eases the persistence against change from external forces. Companies need to turn into Learning Organizations as these help people and organizations embrace change. Two key components of the Learning Organization are the teams, as they are considered to be the fundamental units of organizations, and managers, as they have the biggest impact on facilitating learning in the organization. Therefore, this study has investigated how managers could act to create conditions for encouraging team learning of a software development company to become a Learning Organization.   This has been done by conducting a case study at the company Ericsson in Kista, Sweden, who is market leaders within the software development industry. The case design consisted of a two phase method that included both a quantitative and qualitative data collection method.   The results indicate that Ericsson could be classified as a Learning Organization and in addition display promising characteristics when it comes to having team learning capabilities. Furthermore, the findings suggest that in order for managers to encourage team learning they should take on a coaching and supporting role to understand the need of the teams; challenge the status quo; empower teams through giving them mandate; allocate time for learning as an integral part of the daily work; and reward learning in teams.   The findings of this study have implications both in a theoretical aspect and a sustainability aspect. From the theoretical aspect, the findings provide with further empirical data in a field that is currently dominated by theoretical literature. Furthermore, the findings display a practical example of how managers of a market leading company with promising characteristics of team learning capabilities have acted to create such conditions. From a sustainability aspect, the results of this study give firms a sustainable competitive advantage through increased business performance, healthy labor conditions that are a result of healthy team dynamics and possible encouragement to future attention towards emphasis on environmental aspects.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-12-23T14:00:35Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Karine Daiane Zingler.pdf: 1827664 bytes, checksum: e0d64d10b0ea53b077f1966b0b83a73f (MD5) Previous issue date: 2013-05-18 / This thesis aims to analyse how Brazil has placed on its agenda the politics of science, technology and innovation in a systemic and interactive approach. Here it is used the theoretical approach of national innovation systems, in Aalborg tradition, which emphasizes: systemic policies conducted by the Nation-State, learning processes arising from interactions between agents, and is guided in idiosyncratic capacity learning to the different nations. This approach has found space to develop theoretically and empirically in the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), from 1980/90 decades, which is currently research reference on the subject. In this thesis, it is demonstrated how Brazil, over its process of economic development based on industrialization, from 1930 to 2000, has excluded policies that emphasize the interaction among agents in a national system of science, technology, innovation and learning, what is beyond the guidelines provided by the OECD. It is also evaluated the current plans, which attempt to engage with the guidelines of this international organization / Esta dissertação tem o objetivo de analisar como o Brasil tem colocado em sua agenda as políticas de ciência, tecnologia e inovação em uma abordagem sistêmica e interativa. Utiliza-se da abordagem teórica de sistemas nacionais de inovação, na tradição de Aalborg, a qual ressalta: políticas sistêmicas conduzidas pelo Estado-Nação, processos de aprendizagem advindos de interações entre agentes, e é pautado em capacidades de aprendizagem idiossincráticas às diferentes nações. Esta abordagem encontrou espaço para se desenvolver teórica e empiricamente na Organização de Cooperação e Desenvolvimento Econômico (OCDE), a partir das décadas de 1980/90, que atualmente é referência de pesquisa no tema. Nesta dissertação, demonstra-se como o Brasil, ao longo de seu processo de desenvolvimento econômico baseado na industrialização, 1930 a 2000, tem deixado de lado políticas que priorizam a interação entre agentes em um sistema nacional de ciência, tecnologia, inovação e aprendizagem, o que foge das orientações fornecidas pela OCDE. Também se avalia os atuais planos, os quais tentam se engajar com as orientações de tal organismo internacional

Made available in DSpace on 2016-12-23T14:00:35Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Karine Daiane Zingler.pdf: 1827664 bytes, checksum: e0d64d10b0ea53b077f1966b0b83a73f (MD5) Previous issue date: 2013-05-18 / CAPES / This thesis aims to analyse how Brazil has placed on its agenda the politics of science, technology and innovation in a systemic and interactive approach. Here it is used the theoretical approach of national innovation systems, in Aalborg tradition, which emphasizes: systemic policies conducted by the Nation-State, learning processes arising from interactions between agents, and is guided in idiosyncratic capacity learning to the different nations. This approach has found space to develop theoretically and empirically in the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), from 1980/90 decades, which is currently research reference on the subject. In this thesis, it is demonstrated how Brazil, over its process of economic development based on industrialization, from 1930 to 2000, has excluded policies that emphasize the interaction among agents in a national system of science, technology, innovation and learning, what is beyond the guidelines provided by the OECD. It is also evaluated the current plans, which attempt to engage with the guidelines of this international organization / Esta dissertação tem o objetivo de analisar como o Brasil tem colocado em sua agenda as políticas de ciência, tecnologia e inovação em uma abordagem sistêmica e interativa. Utiliza-se da abordagem teórica de sistemas nacionais de inovação, na tradição de Aalborg, a qual ressalta: políticas sistêmicas conduzidas pelo Estado-Nação, processos de aprendizagem advindos de interações entre agentes, e é pautado em capacidades de aprendizagem idiossincráticas às diferentes nações. Esta abordagem encontrou espaço para se desenvolver teórica e empiricamente na Organização de Cooperação e Desenvolvimento Econômico (OCDE), a partir das décadas de 1980/90, que atualmente é referência de pesquisa no tema. Nesta dissertação, demonstra-se como o Brasil, ao longo de seu processo de desenvolvimento econômico baseado na industrialização, 1930 a 2000, tem deixado de lado políticas que priorizam a interação entre agentes em um sistema nacional de ciência, tecnologia, inovação e aprendizagem, o que foge das orientações fornecidas pela OCDE. Também se avalia os atuais planos, os quais tentam se engajar com as orientações de tal organismo internacional