The Mediating Effects of Adaptability Culture on the Relationship Between Transformational Leadership and Organizational Innovation (The Case of Selected Firms in Supply Chain of Defense Technologies

Abstract

To meet the ever changing demand of today's environment, firms need to be flexible, adaptive, entrepreneurial and innovative. In addition, there must be an appropriate style of leadership to master these changes. Yet, there is little empirical evidence to simultaneously study the relationship among the key elements of transformational leadership, adaptability culture and organizational innovation. Hence this study attempts to investigate the impact of transformational leadership and adaptability culture upon organizational innovation in the context of selected firms in supply chain of defense technologies. Using the structural equation modeling technique, results from the analysis of data from 217 collected questionnaires indicate that transformational leadership, beyond its direct influence, exerts indirect impact upon organizational innovation through the mediation of adaptability culture and that the extent of indirect effect is significantly higher than that of direct one. There are also some discussions about the results of the study and some suggestions for improving the organizational innovation in target units.

Keywords

• transformational leadership
• adaptability culture
• organizational innovation