**4. Organizational learning capability**

Today, organizational learning capability (OLC) emerges as an essential competence for organizations that are capable of evaluating their environment in order to identify opportunities, threats, and pressures for change. It means to develop strategic competences through the learning at all levels of the organization. Studies have shown that organizational learning affects competitive advantage [88]. Also, it affects financial and nonfinancial performance [89–91] and plays a part in the tangible and intangible benefits of strategic alliances [92], the unit cost of production [93], and innovation [94].

that exist between the said individual and his or her teammates, understood in an integral

Impact of the Characteristics of the Leader over the Characteristics of Work Teams

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This concept, initially proposed by Seers [110, 111] as a construct for generating functions complementary to the quality of the leader-member exchange (LMX), specifically refers to "the individual's perception of his or her exchange relationship with peers within the work

Based on LMX theory, [110, 111] suggested that individuals are involved in a process of establishing functions with their work groups. Thus, TMX theory, different to LMX theory, is based on functional theory [112] and social exchange theory [113, 114]. This theory suggests that an individual's responses at work are the product of the interaction between the individual and the set of the issuers of functions with which he or she gener-

Normally, the key members in terms of his/her set of functions are his/her supervisor and colleagues. However, [110, 111] indicates that research on this phenomenon is focused on the supervisor as the issuer of functions, neglecting the effects of work relationships among colleagues in the individual's group. For him, this aspect represents a high importance and is

Empirical studies have shown that the quality of TMX is related to the job satisfaction of its members and their performance [110, 111], as well as the identification, commitment, and turnover rate of the team members [115]. The average level of TMX within a work team is

We designed a model taking alternatively each of the four leader characteristics and combinations of some of them as a variable called psychological leader characteristics (PLC) and test in how they influence IWB, mediated by OLC and TMX. To do so, we studied public secondary education institutions in Colombia, using structural equation models as the statistical methodology to verify those proposed relationships. **Figure 2** shows these proposed relations.

**Figure 2** shows our proposed model according to which the psychological characteristics of the leader (PLC) positively influence the innovative behavior of the collaborator (IWB) and contribute to improve the learning capacity organization (OLC) and the team member

The study, carried out with seven sub-models, each taking one or two variables of the PCL, as shown in the two first columns of **Table 1**, demonstrated a conclusive evidence of the positive influence of the characteristics of the leader of the other variables involved, as shown in the

**Table 1** presents the standardized coefficients of relationship among the variables studied, all with a statistical significance greater than 99%. It is possible to observe how SE and HP have

sense [110, 111].

ally interacts.

of special interest.

group as a whole" ([110, 111] pp. 119).

expected to correspond to the group's effectiveness.

**6. Development of the model and our investigation**

exchange (TMX), which also influence positively the IWB.

following columns of **Table 1**.

The organization learning capability (OLC) establishes the levels of capability an organization has to apply management practices and maintain a precise and appropriate structure and procedures that enable it to improve, facilitate, and promote learning. This permits the organization to facilitate and promote learning [95]. Goh [96] believes that the growth of these practices will promote greater learning capacity throughout the organization.

Conducting an important review of the literature, Jerez et al. [97] proposed a four-dimensional model that determines organizational learning capability. These dimensions are the commitment by management, a system perspective, openness and experimentation, and knowledge integration and transfer. The first dimension, the commitment by management, refers to the fact that management must recognize the importance of learning, developing a culture that promotes the acquisition, creation, and transfer of knowledge as basic organizational values [19, 98–100], and also articulating a strategic vision of learning, making it, in turn, a central element [101–104].

The system perspective involves guiding the organization and its members a common identity [30, 105]. Individuals of all levels in the organization must have a clear vision of the objectives and understand how they can assist in their development [101, 106]. Striving for a climate of openness and experimentation necessitates generative learning and mental openness that welcomes the arrival of new ideas and perspectives, both internal and external. This permits constant actualization of the individual knowledge, its expansion, and its improvement [19, 23, 30, 107].

Knowledge integration and transfer are the fourth dimension, which refers to the two closely related processes that occur simultaneously: the internal transfer and the integration of knowledge. The efficacy of these two processes is based on the prior existence of the capacity for absorption [108], which implies the elimination of internal barriers that prevent the transfer of the best practices inside the company [109]. Jerez-Gomez et al. [97] used these four dimensions to develop and successfully test a scale to measure organizational learning capability.
