مطالعات مدیریت راهبردی (Jun 2022)
The effect of strategic change with organizational learning and environmental dynamics on organizational performance
Abstract
Aim and Introduction: Today, for competing, all organizations must adapt themselves to the external environment. Since the business environment is highly competitive and the rate of change is on the increase, what should be constantly considered and evaluated by all the organizations is the amount of dynamism in the business environment. Therefore, because of the dynamics of the business environment, changing the organization’s strategy is inevitable, and all organizations must learn to predict and identify changes and respond intelligently to the environmental factors and try to make strategic changes promptly to align with the environment and gain a competitive advantage for better performance. According to the literature on strategic change, organizational performance is inextricably linked with the strategy of an organization, because it is the strategy of an organization that can empower it in terms of competitiveness and ultimately affect the performance. However, based on the results of past studies, changing the strategy of an organization has always faced challenges and can negatively affect performance. Organizational change studies have specifically identified the employees’ resistance to change as one of the major obstacles to the process of strategic change. Therefore, it seems the concept of organizational learning can play a major role in gaining the knowledge and information to improve the capabilities and flexibility of an organization, which can facilitate the process of strategic change and then reduces its negative impact on performance. On the other hand the banking industry in the world has always been of great importance and the impact of strategies and performance of this industry on the economy of countries is unquestionable. For instance, based on past studies, the industry’s significant role in shaping the global financial crisis in 2008 is undeniable. In this regard among the manufacturing and service industries, the banking industry can be one of the most influential service industries in the Iranian economy and the performance of this industry has always played a key role in the other sectors. Also, the business environment in this industry has changed with the advent of digital banking. The concept of digital banking is considered as a technology-based approach to the transformation of the bank and it not only demands digitalization of banking and changes in products and services, but it requires changes in the bank’s organizational structures, processes, decision-making procedures, and resource allocation. Today, we are not only witnessing an increase in competition, but branches are not considered as the only channels to connect with customers and the number of customers using the traditional form of services has reduced significantly. Moreover, in recent years, changes in governmental regulations and monetary policies, as well as the increase in the number of financial service providers, have had a profound effect on the dynamism of the environment in the banking industry. Therefore, what seems to be crucial is that banks and other financial institutions must learn to turn change into an opportunity and adapt to the ever-changing environment by changing their strategies. Finally, by reviewing the strategic change literature, we can find out that most of the research has been done either in industries other than the service industry or in developed countries. In addition, less attention has been paid to the mediating role of organizational learning as an internal organizational element and the moderating effect of environmental dynamics as one of the environmental factors outside the organization in the relationship between strategic changes and organizational performance. As a result, according to the gap in previous research, this study, examines the relationships between the variables within the banking industry.Methodology: This study is survey research that is based on structural equation modeling. In this study, the respondents’ views were collected through standard questionnaires, and the population of the study is 180, which comprises both directors and vice directors of all the branches and management staffs of the central office of Mellat Bank in Mashhad. The minimum sample size is 118, which was determined according to Krejcie and Morgan’s table. In this study, the sampling method was based on a non-probabilistic sampling technique. The variables were measured using twenty-four items on a five-point Likert scale ranging from 1= strongly disagree; to 5= strongly agree. The content validity of the instrument was determined by the faculty of management and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was used to determine the construct validity of the instrument. For measuring the internal consistency of the items, both Cronbach’s alpha and composite reliability were used. Finally, for answering the questions of the research, seven hypotheses were proposed, and to test the hypotheses, path analysis was employed using Smart PLS 3. Finally according to the conceptual framework and based on the results of t-statistics, the hypotheses were tested.Discussion and Conclusion: In this study, based on the results of t-statistics and significant value (p) < 0.05, the findings reveal that in Mellat Bank of Mashhad, the association between strategic change and organizational learning is supported and organizational learning is positively and strongly influenced by the strategic change. Additionally, the results show that organizational performance is positively and strongly influenced by strategic change, and the association between organizational learning and organizational performance is strongly and significantly supported. Moreover, the results show that organizational performance is positively and strongly influenced by environmental dynamism. Also, strategic change is positively and strongly influenced by environmental dynamism. In this study, based on Baron and Kenny’s Method for Mediation, the findings show that organizational learning partially mediates the relationship between strategic change and organizational performance. And then, in the end, the findings reveal that the moderating effect of environmental dynamism on the relationship between strategic change and organizational performance is not supported.
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