THE MEDIATING ROLE OF KNOWLEDGE SHARING BETWEEN TRANSFORMATIVE LEADERSHIP AND INNOVATIVE WORK BEHAVIOR: A CASE OF CHINESE UNDERGRADUATE COLLEGES
Background: China's application-oriented undergraduate universities are undergoing transformation, but there
are still many obstacles to development, and innovation has become an urgent need for transformation. According
to social exchange theory and knowledge base view, knowledge management becomes an important antecedent
of innovation as an organization that produces and disseminates knowledge. Transformational leadership also
plays an important role in promoting innovative work behavior. Objective: To assess the impact of
transformational leadership on knowledge sharing and innovative work behavior, and to assess the mediating role
of knowledge sharing between transformational leadership and innovative work behavior. Method: An online
questionnaire survey was conducted on 400 samples from more than 12 applied universities in Sichuan Province,
and the partial least square structural equation model was used to analyze the research objectives. Findings:
Transformational leadership has a positive effect on innovative work behavior; Transformational leadership has
a positive impact on knowledge sharing; Knowledge sharing has a positive effect on innovation work behavior.
Knowledge sharing has a partial mediating effect between transformational leadership and innovative work
behavior. Contribution: This study expands the theoretical understanding of transformational leadership and
innovative work behavior, and extends the research scope to the field of higher education. In practice, it also has
certain reference value.
Transformative Leadership, Knowledge Sharing, Knowledge Sharing, Mediating Role