Study of the Relationship between Transformational Leadership, Organizational Culture, Followers’ Creativity, Organizational Learning, and Organizational Innovation: Evidence from the United Arab Emirates

Abstract

In recent years, the government of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) has sought to improve the performance of the public sector by implementing certain changes in its principles and processes. These changes require leadership to focus on organizational innovation, which, in turn, motivates those with leadership ability to emerge as the role models for change. The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of transformational leadership on organizational innovation effected by culture, followers’ creativity, and organizational learning. The majority of researchers in this area have either paid little attention to the private sector or used only the Western countries as case studies. A questionnaire survey was conducted, and the data were collected from the public, semi government, and private sectors. The participants were 497. The present study used a correlational research method with multilevel structural equation modeling. The results indicate that transformational leadership has a significant influence on organizational innovation and that culture, creativity, and organizational learning are significant factors of organizational innovation. In addition, it can be inferred from the results that developing transformational leadership may be instrumental in motivating employees and ensuring individual and organizational innovation. To the best of my knowledge, this research is one of the first to investigate transformational leadership and its effects on organizational innovation in the UAE. By exploring the effects of transformational leadership, the study expands the general understanding of the concept as well as its association with several other variables related to organizational output and performance