The impact of self-development on the tendency toward organizational innovation in higher education institutions with the mediating role of human resource agility

Abstract

PurposeConsidering innovation and its improvement as an essential strategy to enable organizations to continue their lives in the new competitive environment leads to a focus on employees' self-development as a factor that affects human resource agility (HRA) and the tendency toward organizational innovation. Consequently, the purpose of the study was to explain the impact of self-development on the tendency toward organizational innovation with the role of the mediator, HRA in higher education institutions as one of the most important and vital organizations in any society.Design/methodology/approachThe study was an applicable one with the quantitative approach using the descriptive–correlative method. The population consisted of 477 nonacademic employees of Kharazmi University among whom 214 ones were selected as the sample group, using a simple random sampling technique. Data were collected through the self-development, HRA and the tendency toward organizational innovation questionnaires and then analyzed using the structural equation modeling approach.FindingsThe study findings revealed a positive impact of self-development on the HRA (γ = 0/79) and HRA on the tendency toward organizational innovation (β = 0/6). Also, self-development with mediating HRA impacts the tendency toward organizational innovation (β = 0/58). Finally, self-development had no direct impact on the tendency toward organizational innovation.Research limitations/implicationsTaking the circumstances of doing this research into consideration, if there were the opportunity to do the research on the staffs of more than one university simultaneously and categorize the university staff into executives, managers and experts, more favorable results could be achieved. Also, considering group and organizational factors with the attention to the self-development approach and its factors would provide more awareness-training information on the higher education system in Iran. For future researches, both the individual and group factors are suggested to be surveyed and compared, to assess the weight and impact of these factors all together and to provide an adequate clarification of the role of the group and the organization. Finally, in future studies, it is also recommended that a qualitative approach be used to reach deeper clarifications on the aspects of these variables in the context of higher education.Practical implicationsThese findings have major practical implications concerning the higher educational settings. The findings of this study must give significant and practical insights for policymakers of universities and other higher education stakeholders, as well as recommendations to the academic community for further research in this area. First, they should recognize that nonacademic staff members are professional employees who contribute to improving organizational innovation. Higher education must focus on designing and implementing successful mechanisms and a well-planned self-development program that can help and promote the self-development approach among all staff. If the above-mentioned programs are designed based on the employees' needs analysis, they will get trained in a way to enhance mental and behavioral flexibility. The programs with such an approach can result in the proactive, adaptive, resilient behavior and agility of HR.Originality/valueThe model for this study has integrated and prioritized the key innovation drivers that would help universities design, adopt and implement policies and practices that facilitate and encourage improvements and adaptation to a fast-paced environment. Furthermore, the convincing reason for the significance of the current research is that although several types of research have been carried out on each of these three variables in different contexts separately, very few studies, like this, have directly examined the correlation between these three variables among the non-academic staff in higher education institutes. So, given the importance of the issue and rare availability of evidence in this regard, the authors were intrigued to discover whether the self-development through the mediation of HRA could reinforce and strengthen the tendency toward organizational innovation and whether HRA could be an appropriate mediator of the relationship between self-development and the tendency toward organizational innovation among the nonacademic staff of Kharazmi University as one of the most prestigious and celebrated universities in Iran.

Developing and validating a training package of self-development and determining its effectiveness on job performance and human capital agility in secondary school principals

“…The results showed that the self-development training package increased the agility of human capital in the experimental group. This finding is supported by the research of Thani et al (2021). When school principals are encouraged to self-develop, their abilities improve and their understanding of their freedom of action and choice in the face of challenges inside and outside the school increases.…”

“…Self-development activities are not only voluntary and responsible in nature, but can also be economically beneficial for an organization running in-service courses to develop and improve its employees. Because of such autonomy, self-investing and complementary activities can be performed outside of daily work by employees and bring growing benefits such as job performance (Lejeune et al ., 2021), organizational commitment (McEnrue, 1989), job satisfaction (Jung et al ., 2015) and human capital agility (Thani et al ., 2021). Self-development can improve the mental readiness and agility of individuals, which are related to their behavioral agility (Madigan, 2016).…”

“…(2016) pointed to the positive and significant correlations between self-development and literature-based and index-based performance in a sample of school principals. In a descriptive correlational study, Thani et al . (2021) found a positive relationship between self-development and job performance using the variable of human capital agility.…”

Technology orientation and export performance: the moderating role of supply chain agility

“…Furthermore, it is necessary to invest in activities that create strong ties among downstream supply chain partners (Pal et al ., 2019). It means that firms need to develop policies and offer programs to enhance employees' behavioral flexibility as it has been found as an important element to achieve agility and technology orientation (Thani et al ., 2021).…”

Professional Faculty Development Formation Through Course Refresher in Assessing and Facilitating Teaching Learning

“…Furthermore, skills productivity among the respondents show to improve the focus of employee programs and benefits toward performance goals of the school organization which means it creates things simple, focus plan, and faculty to stay on set tasks for success and clear outcome. (Thani, et al, 2021). Notwithstanding, productivity skills show unity, respect, and understanding that no one is left behind where camaraderie is observed from time to time where it influences support and improves the performance of every employee to make the school climate focus on strong relationships as one team in the educational system.…”