ifkad articles

The role of transformational leadership in organizational innovation through knowledge management practices intervention for increasing organizational resilience

Aleena Shuja

The study aims to investigate the role of transformational leadership style in knowledge management related practices particularly knowledge acquisition, creation, sharing and storage that strive for achieving goals of organizational resilience together with organizational innovation. Based on the tentative suppositions derived from knowledge based view (KBV) of an organization, analyses have been performed including partial least square (PLS) for structural equation modeling (SEM) in order to examine these hypotheses. The sample in the intended cross-sectional study contains empirical or primary data collected from managerial employees in IT companies of Pakistan. There is empirical indication of mediating role of knowledge management practices i.e. acquisition, creation, sharing and storage between transformational leadership and organizational innovation in order to sustain resilience of the organization. Conforming to literature based studies and theory, it has been witnessed that leaders with their inspirational guidance help encourage their managers to enhance organizational innovation through emancipating KM practices. Consequently organizational innovation of IT based organizations leads exceptional resilience. Findings hold the substantiation that km practices exercise an ambidextrous capability of exploration and exploitation using knowledge acquisition, creation, sharing and storage respectively by the virtue of transformational leadership, thereby resulting in an increased resilience and vigor of IT based organizations through the entrenchment of organization innovation. The paper takes valuable and evidence based insights based on objectivist approach from previous empirical and exploratory research studies and reveals an empirically proven relationship between transformational leadership and organizational innovation through mediating role of knowledge management practices, which consequently leads to high organizational resilience. Top management and leadership teams at IT companies can gain maximum input from this research in order to maximize the potential for organizational innovation using knowledge management practices and finally make their organizations highly resilient to effectively bounce back any likely disruptions. Knowledge management practices encompassing acquisition, creation, sharing and storage of new knowledge evolve as a result of the efforts made by transformational leaders that play a noteworthy role in managing even the most technical and critical aspects of workplace disposed to external vulnerabilities and turbulence and help support innovation based performance of the organization. Additionally, the outcomes of organizational innovation as a result of executing knowledge management practices owing to the influential motivation of transformational leaders help an organization become highly adaptable, flexible, bouncy or resilient under uncertain environmental conditions.

IN: Proceedings IFKAD 2016 – Towards a New Architecture of Knowledge: Big Data, Culture and Creativity
PP: 285-305