Investigating the role organizational culture plays in the relationship between work-related curiosity and workforce agility: antecedent or mediator?

Abstract

Globalization, increased political uncertainty and unforeseen economic instability, have forced corporations to reinvent themselves. They need to develop an agile workforce to handle and adapt to unforeseen changes, and organizational culture is an important element for the success of a company. Yet, organizational culture has not been fully explored with work-related curiosity and workforce agility. The aim is to determine whether organizational culture promotes work-related curiosity and, consequently, workforce agility. This study found that there is no direct relationship between organizational culture and workforce agility, and that organization

culture does not act as a mediator in the relationship between work- related curiosity and workforce agility. It was also found that

organization culture does not have a straight relationship with work- related curiosity, but it is a strong predictor of it. Using mixed methods

design combining a correlational and a between groups designs, with data collected from 62 participants based in Brazil and Ireland, all the hypotheses were tested. The findings add value to the existing literature on the three constructs, helping companies find a way to improve the performance of the workforce.