Transformational leadership and absorptive capacity: an analysis of the organisational catalysts for this relationship |
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Authors: | José Luis Ferreras Méndez Raquel Sanz Valle Joaquín Alegre |
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Institution: | 1. Department of Management ‘Juan José Renau Piqueras’, University of Valencia, Valencia, Spain;2. Department of Business Management, University of León, León, Spain;3. Department of Business Management and Finance, University of Murcia, Murcia, Spain |
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Abstract: | Research analysing the antecedents of a firm’s absorptive capacity suggests that transformational leadership (TL) is one of its main determinants. However, the few studies focusing on the relationship between these two variables do not explicitly assess why transformational leaders facilitate knowledge acquisition, sharing and retention inside firms. This paper suggests that the reason is that the former contributes to the creation of an organisational context that favours learning processes. We test our research model on a sample of 467 Spanish industrial firms. Findings provide evidence that TL is positively related to the firm’s absorptive capacity and that this relationship is mediated by some organisational learning facilitators: experimentation, risk-taking, interacting with external environment and dialogue. |
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Keywords: | Transformational leadership organisational learning absorptive capacity organisational learning facilitators |
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