How Learning Leadership and Organizational Learning from Failures Enhance Perceived Organizational Capacity to Adapt to the Task Environment

Organizational learning from failures is a key organizational process that can lead to improved outcomes. In this study, the authors address two key questions that have received only limited attention in the literature: (a) how learning leadership enables organizational learning from failures and (b) how these learning behaviors enhance organizational capacities for adaptation to environmental turbulence. Data from a sample of 121 organizations support a mediation model in which learning leadership is linked indirectly, through learning from failures, to perceived organizational capacity to adapt to environmental jolts. The authors discuss the theoretical and practical implications of these findings for the importance of learning leadership, organizational learning from failures, and organizational adaptability.