The Role of Affective Commitment in Mediating the Relationship

between Authentic Leadership and Organizational Learning at

Chicken-based Food Processing Company in Indonesia

Henilia Yulita

, Vincencius Farrel Jonathan

, Yustinus Yuniarto

, Michael Christian

Eko Retno Indriyarti

and Suryo Wibowo

Faculty of Social and Humanities, Universitas Bunda Mulia, Jl. Lodan Raya No. 2 Ancol, Jakarta, Indonesia

Faculty of Economics and Business, Universitas Trisakti, Jl. Kyai Tapa No. 1 Grogol, Jakarta, Indonesia

Psychological Science Doctoral Program, Universitas Persada Indonesia YAI,

Jl. Pangeran Diponegoro No. 74 Senen, Jakarta, Indonesia

ekoretno@trisakti.ac.id, suryowibowojkt@yahoo.com

Keywords: Affective Commitment, Leadership, Organizational Learning.

Abstract: The phenomenon of closing many retail outlets in Indonesia recently has one of the impacts of decreasing the

processed food distribution network. Anticipating this, an organization must adjust its capabilities through the

support of the leaders and continuous organizational learning (OL). Studies explain the importance of

authentic leadership (AL) styles in OL. However, the role of affective commitment (AC) is still slightly

involved. Therefore, this study aims to measure the role of AC in mediating the relationship between AL and

OL. This study is an empirical-quantitative study on company X based in Jakarta, one of the largest chicken-

based food processing companies in Indonesia. Using the probability sampling technique, 78 employees at

the head office were sampled in this study. The questionnaire and the SMART PLS complement the analysis.

This study states that the role of AC successfully mediates the relationship between AL and OL. Furthermore,

this study also explains that AL affects AC and OL. In addition, AC also affects the OL. Surviving, competing,

and even winning are inseparable from the role of the leader, team, and organizational learning. Trust from

stakeholders (strengthen or even weaken) is considered necessary to be involved in the next research.

1 INTRODUCTION

The integration of aspects of human resources,

technology and market tastes in today's times is a

challenge for organizations. The ability of the

organization in carrying out organizational functions

and the aspects of existing resources needs to be

continuously adjusted to the business competition and

economy of a country. Thus, the organization is

expected to have a strong commitment to continue to

adapt to existing conditions and should continue to

learn so that it can survive and develop during

existing competition. To support this, the role of

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organizational management, especially leadership in

an organization, is an important forming factor.

Support from organizational leaders can facilitate and

maintain the direction of organizational learning.

Concerning leadership styles in an organization,

authentic leadership styles are seen to shape learning

for workers (Oh & Han, 2017). In this leadership

style, the behavior of workers is to make the leader of

the organization a role model. This is also

corroborated by the views of Delić, Slåtten, Milić,

Marjanović, & Vulanović (2017) which explain that

authentic leadership is related to workers' mindsets

and perceptions of organizational learning and

Yulita, H., Jonathan, V., Yuniarto, Y., Christian, M., Indriyarti, E. and Wibowo, S.

The Role of Affective Commitment in Mediating the Relationship between Authentic Leadership and Organizational Learning at Chicken-based Food Processing Company in Indonesia.

DOI: 10.5220/0010753700003112

In Proceedings of the 1st International Conference on Emerging Issues in Humanity Studies and Social Sciences (ICE-HUMS 2021), pages 453-457

ISBN: 978-989-758-604-0

453

affective commitment at work. It is further explained

that organizations need continuous learning to

respond to changes in existing conditions, be it a

competition, developments in information

technology, market tastes, or the regulations that

apply in an organization or company. Furthermore, to

be able to survive in the existing business

competition, Christian et al. (2021) explain these

aspects with market orientation and marketing

capabilities factors..

One company that is closely related to the

organizational learning process, affective

commitment, and authentic leadership is a company

that has a complex business process. This can be

indicated by looking at the company's business

process distribution network. In addition, the use of

complex resources can also support the need for the

strength of company learning and the commitment of

all stakeholders to continue to survive and develop in

all existing competitive conditions. To accommodate

this need, this study conducted observations on

companies that met the criteria. In the end, the

researcher decided to use company X which is

engaged in processing chicken-based food in Jakarta.

As part of the largest chicken-based processed food

subsidiary in Indonesia, company X has an extensive

distribution network complexity with international

standards. On the other hand, with the data and

observations made there are still inconsistencies in

the commitment to carry out forms of organizational

learning such as training in the past 3 years (2017-

2019). Even though as is well known, training is one

of the important media to be able to transfer learning

within an organization.

In addition, the authentic leadership of this

company is considered interesting to be studied in

line with the many human resources owned by the

company which until now have proven that the role

of company leaders can maintain, maintain, and

develop the company to this extent. During this

prolonged pandemic, the company’s vision and

mission must be maintained to survive and develop.

However, it needs to be adjusted according to the

conditions of business competition that occur. The

phenomenon of closing retail outlets in Indonesia

during the pandemic also had an impact on company

X. With the closure of many retail outlets in Indonesia

has hampered the sales of processed chicken food

products made by this company. The distribution

network and sales of the company's products have

been reduced or even stopped. According to the

Indonesian Retail Entrepreneurs Association

(APRINDO), 1,200 retail stores were closed from

April to December 2020 (Kontan, 2021).

Complementing this phenomenon, studies of

previous studies have succeeded in explaining the

relationship between organizational commitment,

leadership style, and organizational learning. Okmen,

Elçi, Murat, & Yılmaz (2018) in their research

explain that the learning capacity of an organization

is affected by authentic leadership styles. Other

studies have even added that affective commitment

from workers can reduce the desire to change jobs

(Lau, McLean, Lien, & Hsu, 2016). At least, this is

also reinforced by research by Javaid, Luqman, Amir,

& Umair, (2015) which explains that authentic

leadership affects workers' affective commitment.

Furthermore, organizational commitment can

mediate between leadership and organizational

learning, as explained by the research results

(Mercurio, 2015).

The importance of the commitment variable as a

mediator between authentic leadership and

organizational learning in companies engaged in the

processing of chicken-based food during the

challenges of the many closures of sales networks

during this pandemic has become the focus as well as

the originality of this research. Therefore, by adopting

the organizational learning research model from

Delić et al. (2017), this study will specifically analyse

whether affective commitment can mediate authentic

leadership styles and organizational learning in types

of processed food production companies with

extensive distribution and sales networks in

Indonesia.

2 METHODS

This research is an empirical quantitative study at

company X which is engaged in the processing of

chicken-based food. This company is in Jakarta. By

using the probability sampling method, 78 employees

at the head office were sampled in this study. This

study used a survey with a questionnaire instrument.

The questionnaire was designed using items and a

Likert scale of 1 (strongly disagree) and 5 (strongly

agree). This study focuses on the formulation of the

problem, namely whether organizational

commitment mediates authentic leadership on

organizational learning. Thus, as shown in Figure 1,

the hypothesis (H) in this study is that Authentic

Leadership affects Organizational Learning mediated

by Affective Commitment. For research

measurement, the variables of authentic leadership,

affective commitment, and organizational learning

each consisted of 8 items. The items are adapted from

Delić et al., (2017). To analyse the research data, this

ICE-HUMS 2021 - International Conference on Emerging Issues in Humanity Studies and Social Sciences

454

study used a Partial Least Square-Structural Equation

Modeling (PLS-SEM) approach with SMART PLS as

an analysis tool. In addition, SEM-PLS is used to

analyse a structural model with causal relationships.

a modeling tool for analyzing structural models (Al

Idrus, Ahmar, & Abdussakir, 2018). Meanwhile,

SMART-PLS was used with a small sample size

(Wong, 2013).

Figure 1: Research model.

3 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Table 1 shows the profile of 78 respondents, which is

divided into three parts, including gender, educational

background, length of work, and age. In this study,

the sex of men was 35 people or 45%, while women

were 43 people or 55%. This research indicates that

most respondents are women. Furthermore, the latest

high school education is 18 people or 23% and S1 as

many as 57 people or 73% and S2 as many as 3 people

or 4%. Thus, this study indicates that most of the

respondents' last education was S1. In this study, it is

known that PT X has employees with 1-3 years of

work by 40% and 32% for 4-6 years and 28% of those

who have worked> 6 years. Furthermore, the age of

respondents <20 years is 1 person or 1%, 20-29 years

is 42 people or 54%, 30-39 years is 21 people or 27%

and 40-49 years 12 people or 15% while age> 50

years amounted to 2 people or 3%. This indicates that

most respondents are 20-29 years old with a

percentage of 54%.

Based on the results of validity and reliability in

Table 2, Average Variance Extracted (AVE) shows

results of more than 0.5 and Cronbach's Alpha (CA)

shows results of more than 0.7. Thus, the variables in

this study are valid and reliable.

Table 1: Respondent’s profile.

Profile N %

Gender

Male 35 45%

Female 43 55%

Education

SMA 18 23%

S1 57 73%

S2 3 4%

Long Experience

Working

1-3

ears 31 40%

4-6

ears 25 32%

ears 22 28%

Age

<20 years ol

1 1%

20-29 years ol

42 54%

30-39

ears ol

21 27%

40-49

ears ol

12 15%

≥50

ears ol

2 3%

Table 2: Validity and reliability tests.

Variable AVE CA

Authentic leadership 0.604 0.888

Affective Commitment 0.508 0.842

anizational Learnin

0.529 0.851

The output parameter test of significance is seen

from the total effect, not the coefficient table because

the mediation effect is not only tested for the direct

effect of the independent variable on the dependent

variable, but also the interaction between the

independent variable and the mediating variable on

the dependent variable. Therefore, the total effect is

used to see the total effect of the prediction. If the

results of the bootstrapping iteration obtained a T-

Statistical value of ≥ 1,96 then there is an effect, and

if the P-Values value is below ≤ 0,5, it can be said that

the effect is significant.

Table 3: Test of significance.

Profile Original

Sample

Statistics

Values

Authentic leadership 

Affective Commitment

 Organizational

Learnin

0.180 3.385 0.001

It can be seen in Table 3 that there is an affective

commitment that will mediate authentic leadership

and learning organizations with a T-statistic value of

more than 1,96 (3,385>1,96) The hypothesis is

accepted with the original sample 0.180 (positive)

and P values less than 0,05 (0,001<0,05) so it can be

explained that affective commitment mediates the

relationship between authentic leadership and

organizational learning. This research is in line with

several previous research results such as Mercurio

(2015), Walumbwa, Christensen, & Hailey, (2011),

Authentic

leadership

Organizational

Learning

Affective

Commitment

The Role of Affective Commitment in Mediating the Relationship between Authentic Leadership and Organizational Learning at

Chicken-based Food Processing Company in Indonesia

455

Leroy, Palanski, & Simons (2012), which also

explains the role of affective commitment in

mediating authentic leadership with organizational

learning. Complementing these results, this study also

explains that authentic leadership has a positive and

significant relationship with the learning organization

with a T-statistic value of more than 1,96, namely

(3,783>1,96). Furthermore, affective commitment

has a positive and significant relationship with the

learning organization, namely with a T-statistic value

of more than 1,96 (5,339>1,96) and authentic

leadership has a positive and significant effect on

affective commitment, namely with a T-statistic value

of more than 1,96 (4,022>1,96).

In company X, according to the results of this

study, it explains that affective commitment has a

relationship between authentic leadership and

organizational learning. As there is no sense of

commitment then the leader cannot run well. The

desire to learn new things in a learning organization

will be difficult if there is no commitment from all

employees. So affective commitment as a mediator

between authentic leadership and organizational

learning becomes important. Affective commitment

to mediate the relationship between authentic

leadership and learning organizations with existing

learning organization indicators (Even though I have

different opinions, I still accept joint decisions with

them in learning organizations even though joint

decisions are the most important even though there

are different opinions). Every employee can develop

himself with a learning organization within the

company in the form of any activity, employee

knowledge is always updated and not out of date.

Next in Table 4 shows that authentic leadership

affects affective commitment by 15.2%, while 84.8%

is explained by other latent variables outside of this

study. And affective commitment affects the learning

organization by 49.7%, while 50.3% is explained by

other latent variables outside of this study.

Table 4: R-square.

Variable R-s

uare score

Affective Commitment 0,152

anizational Learnin

0.4.97

4 CONCLUSIONS

Based on the results of research that has been carried

out with due regard to various things, it can be

concluded that the affective commitment variable

mediates the relationship between authentic

leadership and learning organizations. A good

leadership style can encourage employees to continue

to upgrade themselves in the learning organization

within the company as well. Furthermore, affective

commitment is important for learning organizations

because employee commitment will shape the

employee's own motivation to develop. Other related

implications are the role of the leader also has an

impact on the employee's sense of commitment, if the

leader is not good, what about the employee's sense

of affective commitment in the company. In the end,

this study states that the role of leader in company X

is closely related to a sense of affective commitment

to shaping organizational learning.

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