Empowering leadership in and for learning organisations: a theoretical viewpoint

Abstract

Purpose – the purpose of this article is to reveal mechanisms of empowering leadership that foster and promote organisational learning. Design/methodology/approach – in this article, the role of empowering leadership in promoting organisational learning is analysed, performing systematic and logical analysis of scientific literature. Finding – Empowering leadership is beneficial for organisational learning because it contributes to a psychologically safe organisational culture that fosters employee creativity, knowledge creation and sharing. As a result, empowered employees are likely to be more engaged, committed, self-efficient and capable to lead themselves without external control. These behaviours and skills allow them to continuously adapt and improve which contributes to organisational learning. A learning organisation is one that has the inner capacity to adapt and adjust, innovate and improve itself which necessitates empowered self-efficient and self-leading employees contributing to its evolution. Research limitations/implications – the scope of this article is limited because it is a theoretical review aiming to comprehend the effects of empowering leadership on organisational learning. Empirical investigation examining literature review findings is needed for practical implications. Originality/value – the results of this paper may be useful for managers and leaders who seek to adjust managerial practises to fostering organisational learning and to discover its potential benefits.