Managerial perceptions of employees’ affective commitment and product innovation

In this paper we examine how managers perceive employees’ affective commitment and how this perception determines their trust as a managerial attitude toward organizational learning capability (OLC). Likewise, we study how managerial trust affects product innovation and OLC. In other words, we carry out a double mediation: firstly, we examine whether managerial trust is a mechanism through which managerial perceptions of employees’ affective commitment influences on OLC, and secondly, we study if OLC mediates between managerial trust and product innovation. By using structural equation modeling (partial least squares) on a sample of 192 Spanish firms we conclude that: (1) if managers perceive employees to be affectively committed, they will be willing to enhance OLC and to trust them; (2) managerial trust favors OLC and product innovation and (3) OLC appears to exert a full mediation between managerial trust and product innovation.