Organizational Learning at Purpose-Driven Enterprise: Action–Research Model for Leadership Improvement

Abstract

Knowledge Economy companies need to be aligned with social improvement challenges not only in order to promote sustainable innovation but also because knowledge workers need to feel their work is meaningful in both organizational and social terms. This is the reason why organizational purpose might play a strategic role and becomes a top management duty. Furthermore, organizational purpose, as part of the social enterprise identity, needs to be built as a result of a new kind of leadership performance, focused on learning processes and driven by individual and organizational communication capabilities. Such a challenge points out, on one hand, that a more socially concerned enterprise is needed and, on the other, that top management capabilities must be improved in order to play the new role they are compelled to in order to promote social economy and stakeholders capitalism. What is at stake applies to both theoretically sound foundations and transformational managerial practices such as those this paper intends to apply by presenting outcomes from a research project focused on the transformational role of leadership as drivers for organizational learning capabilities improvement in search of innovation and social impact.