A Comparison of the Impact of Transformational and Shared Leadership Styles on Team Creativity with a Mediating Role of Knowledge Sharing

The complexity of today's societies and the ability to compete in the business world have led organizations to look for ways that bring them competitive advantage. Organizations that are technology-oriented are dependent on working teams to promote their status. Team creativity is one of the factors that helps teams to better have productivity and performance. Several factors affect team creativity, but the current research also aims to measure the impact of both transformational and Shared leadership style, as well as knowledge sharing between team members, on team creativity.

This study based on quantitative research approach and a sample of 350 members of the teams of an Internet service provider Company. The research is applied and the data are obtained by distributing the questionnaire.

Findings indicate that both the transformational and shared leadership styles have a positive effect on the sharing of knowledge and team creativity. It was also found that the shared leadership, in contrast to the transformational leadership, has a greater impact on team creativity and knowledge sharing. In addition, it was indicated that knowledge sharing does not necessarily have a meaningful relationship with team creativity.

The impossibility of generalizing the results of the research to all societies, using the questionnaire tool to measure the attitude of the people, the degree of sincerity of the participants in answering the questions and the existence of the intervening variables, including the limitations of the current research.

Creating team creativity can be enhanced if managers choose the right leadership style. Additionally, if managers can conduct shared & transformational leadership well, they can help divide knowledge into teams. Team creativity and knowledge sharing are among the factors that can be of great interest to organizations. Also, using two or more leadership styles brings with it more advantages and opportunities, as well as the weaknesses of each style are covered by other styles.

The paper adds to managerial research by examining the relationship between knowledge sharing, team creativity, transformational leadership, and shared leadership