Antecedents of Employees’ Goal Orientation and the Effects of Goal Orientation on E-Learning Outcomes: The Roles of Intra-Organizational Environment

Li Der-Chiang and Ching-Yeh Tsai
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Li Der-Chiang: Department of Industrial and Information Management, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan 701, Taiwan
Ching-Yeh Tsai: Institute of Information Management, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan 701, Taiwan

Sustainability, 2020, vol. 12, issue 11, 1-27

Abstract: Organizational learning is beneficial for the maintenance and development of an organization’s long-term competitive advantages. However, organizational learning can be achieved only through the learning carried out by individual members. Therefore, employees’ learning plays a critical role in companies that pursue sustainable management. E-learning allows employees to learn without any time or space constraints, which strengthens and improves organizational learning capacity. The participants of this study were employees in small and medium-sized enterprises. This study explored and identified the ways in which these employees’ perceived intra-organizational environment (including the organization’s commitment to learning and a competitive psychological climate) affects their learning outcomes through their goal orientations and computer anxiety (CA). A questionnaire was administered to the employees who have used an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) e-learning platform. The results indicated that an organization’s commitment to learning and its competitive psychological climate affect e-learning outcomes, with employees’ goal orientations and CA acting as mediator variables. Furthermore, in contrast to past studies, this study found that the organization’s competitive psychological climate could strengthen employees’ learning motivation (i.e., learning goal orientation) and their desire to perform well (i.e., proving goal orientation), thus improving their e-learning outcomes. Finally, the empirical results were used to develop recommendations for high-ranking executives, department managers, and human resource departments.

Keywords: intra-organizational environment; computer self-efficacy; computer anxiety; goal orientations; learning outcomes; e-learning (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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