Transformational leadership and absorptive capacity: an analysis of the organizational catalysts for this relationship

Abstract

Research analyzing the antecedents of a firm’s absorptive capacity suggests that transformational leadership 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 organizational context that favors learning processes. We test our research model on a sample of 467 Spanish industrial firms. Findings provide evidence that transformational leadership is positively related to the firm’s absorptive capacity and that this relationship is mediated by some organizational learning facilitators: experimentation, risk taking, interacting with external environment, and dialogue.